Yonuk Olur Merdivanın Taşları (The Stones of the Stairway)
Story
The song portrays the beloved through a series of images — the stones of a stairway, hair falling from one shoulder to the other, eyebrows curved like a bow — and then calls the “coal-eyed” beloved to come closer. A playful refrain built on “sarı kız” (fair-haired girl) and “çili kız” carries the verses, in which a young man grows tired climbing the slope to her house, is set alight by her glance and reproaches her for running away. The closing verse, which asks where her house is and speaks of sending matchmakers, also appears in “Öte Dönder Ben Görmeyim Yüzünü” (TRT Repertoire No. 2329), another song collected from Rıfat Özsaraç and listed under Sungurlu by turkuler.com and Türkü Dostları. No traditional story behind the song was found in the sources.
About
It is a “kırık hava” (metered folk tune) from the Sungurlu district of Çorum, registered as TRT Repertoire No. 2367. The source singer is Rıfat Özsaraç; it was collected and set to notation by Ali Canlı (turkuler.com, Repertükül, Türkü Dostları). The TRT Music Department’s score sheet gives the region as “Çorum-Sungurlu” and the source singer as Rıfat Özsaraç, leaving the collector, notator and collection-date fields blank. According to Repertükül, it uses the nişabur scale (makamsal dizi) in 2/4 time. Türkü Dostları notes that the song also appears in Levent Sezgin’s Çorum Halk Türküleri ve Oyun Havaları (Folk Songs and Dance Tunes of Çorum, 2004).
Other songs Ali Canlı collected from Rıfat Özsaraç include Fistan Giymiş Kırmalı, Kaşların Karasına and Pencereden El Eder, all featured on this site. For more on the district, see Sungurlu.
Lyrics
In short, the words describe a fair-haired girl’s beauty and a young man’s playful pursuit of her, ending with his plan to ask for her hand. (The Turkish opening lines are quoted on the Turkish page; line variants differ between sources.)
Sources
- Türkü Dostları — Yonuk Olur Merdivanın Taşları (lyrics and record)
- turkuler.com — Folk songs by region: Çorum (page 2, TRT repertoire records)
- Repertükül — Yonuk Olur Merdivanın Taşları (Rep. No. 2367)
- Repertükül — Öte Dönder Ben Görmeyim Yüzünü (Rep. No. 2329)
- TRT Music Department score sheet — Yonuk Olur Merdivanın Taşları (notaarsivleri.com, PDF)