Kara Koyun Dağ Başından İnmiyor (The Black Sheep Won't Come Down from the Mountain)
Story
The song opens with a black sheep that will not come down from the mountaintop and a “mor koyun” (literally a purple sheep) that will not accept her lamb; the narrator, whose lonely head “never laughs in this world,” says in the refrain “meleme de koyunum” (don’t bleat, my sheep) that the longing of love never leaves him. In the second verse, lines about hanging bells on the sheep, gazing at a “white throat” and being ready to lie in prison for the beloved weave love and the image of the flock together. No traditional story behind the song was found in the sources.
About
It is a “kırık hava” (metered folk tune) from the Osmancık district of Çorum, registered as TRT Repertoire No. 4397. It was collected by the Ankara State Conservatory and set to notation by Altan Demirel (turkuler.com, Repertükül). The source singer’s surname is written differently in the sources: turkuler.com and Türkü Dostları give “Rıza Kalkan,” while Repertükül gives “Rıza Kızılkan.” According to Repertükül, it uses the gülizar scale (makamsal dizi) in a 5/4+4/4 meter.
For more on the district, see Osmancık.
Lyrics
In short, a lonely shepherd-narrator speaks to his sheep about a love that will not leave him and declares he would even go to prison for the beloved. (The Turkish opening lines are quoted on the Turkish page; line variants differ between sources.)