Âşık Veysel

Âşık Veysel (Turkish: [aːˈʃɯk vejˈsæl]; born Veysel Şatıroğlu (Turkish: [ʃaːˈtɯɾ.oːɫu]); 25 October 1894 – 21 March 1973) was a Turkish Alevi ashik, bağlama virtuoso, and folk poet. He was born and died in the village of Sivrialan, Sivas Province, in the Ottoman Empire (later Turkey). Blind since the age of 7, Veysel's songs were typically melancholic, and dealt with a range of themes revolving around morality, love, faith, life and death, patriotism, nature, and his own perception of the world as a blind man.

Veysel is considered one of the most prominent icons of Turkish folk music and literature. Among his most popular folk songs are Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım (Turkish: I'm on a Long and Narrow Road); "Black Earth" (Kara Toprak); "Let My Friends Remember Me" (Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın) and "Your Beauty is Worth Nothing" (Güzelliğin On Para Etmez). In 2022, Veysel was posthumously awarded a Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the "loyalty" category. In 2023, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Veysel was recommended to UNESCO for a year of commemoration, backed by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. His 123rd birthday was commemorated in a Google Doodle on October 25, 2017.

Family Veysel Şatıroğlu was born in Sivrialan, an Anatolian village in Sivas Province, in late 1894, the son of Gülizar Keçecigillerden and "Karaca" Ahmet Şatıroğlu, a farmer. These included two elder sisters, both of whom died in infancy of smallpox; In 1896, Veysel's birth was followed by that of a younger sister, Elif.

His family were Alevis, whose ancestors migrated to Anatolia from Turkestan sometime during the 17-18th centuries. The surname was legally changed in 1934 to Şatıroğlu, after the passage of the Turkish Surname Law in that same year.

Birth and naming

According to Veysel's mother, Gülizar, she gave birth to Veysel on the way home from milking sheep, in a nearby pasture known as Ayipınarı. Unable to return home in time, she delivered Veysel by the roadside and cut the umbilical cord herself, using a rock, then wrapped up the infant and walked back to Sivrialan (known as Söbüalan at the time). according to local folklore, Mount Beserek was the site where the 6th century Islamic martyr Owais al-Qarani (Turkish: Veysel Karanî), found some camels he had previously lost in Syria.

Of his father, Karaca Ahmet, Veysel recalled: It had recently rained in Sivrialan, and the road was saturated with mud and snow. On the way home, Veysel's foot slipped. He fell and bloodied his hand, and, after lying there for some time, got up and ran home in tears. When asked by an interviewer whether he remembered the days before he had gone blind, Veysel replied, "I don't remember. No. I was too young." The Emlek region, by which the area around Sivrialan was known, was at the time a popular place for itinerant bards and ashiks to come and perform their compositions. Asking what the instrument was, Veysel was told that the saz was a gift to keep him entertained.

Veysel first took saz lessons from a neighbour, Molla Hüseyin, who also tuned and replaced any broken strings. though very poorly attested, the reason for Veysel's expulsion was that he had, in his intrigue and his blindness, gotten too close to the speaker at the gathering, and his unkempt and smallpox-ravaged appearance had offended one of the villagers, who allegedly slapped him. Regardless of the true reason, Âşık Ali took pity on Veysel. Ali made a saz and gave it to Veysel, then spent the year by Veysel's side, teaching him the basics. Veysel was left behind yet again when the Turkish War of Independence broke out on 19 May 1919

Of this time in his life, Veysel reflected:

First marriage

By the end of the War, Veysel's parents were very old. Veysel was by now 25 years old. Continuing to worry about their younger son's future, Veysel's parents arranged a marriage for him with Esma, the daughter of a relative living in the village. Esma, feeling harassed by her own husband, would allegedly wait until Veysel had left the house, before going to spend time with Hüseyin.

Veysel began to become suspicious that Esma was having an affair. He apparently warned Esma about Hüseyin several times, though Esma always reassured her husband that nothing had happened between them, and asked Veysel "how could he think of such a thing?"

Esma soon fell in love with Hüseyin. it is probably apocryphal.

The death of Veysel's parents, the end of his marriage, and the deaths of his children, led Veysel to consider leaving Sivrialan for the first time. with the hopes of personally presenting the epic to Atatürk. However, Veysel could not pick up a stone without exposing his head to the dogs. They were only rescued later by the arrival of the cowherd. A second attempt to enter the bazaar was countered with threats. The policeman only ceded to the pair's defiance on the condition that Veysel, being blind, would let Ibrahim buy the strings in his stead, and they went to the printing press the next day. After hearing Veysel's poem, the reception of the press was much more encouraging, and despite Veysel's own doubts, his photograph and an article about his poem were duly published on April 3, 1934.

As Veysel spent more time at the institutes, however, he began to grow bored. At Ladik, he wrote a new poem, "Letter" (Turkish: Mektup), framing it as a letter from his wife Gülizar, asking him to come home to Sivrialan. In a later conversation with TRT correspondent and friend Erdogan Alkan, Veysel explained that whilst he championed the institutes' initiative, he had always disliked towns and unfamiliar places, because his blindness made them restricting; Veysel found the environment too loud, and did not like that he was unable to go outside on his own (Veysel spent much of this period being guided by his eldest son, Ahmet). In contrast, Veysel knew Sivrialan well enough that he could walk around independently and enter any house he wanted. Whilst at the Village Institute at Ladik in 1946, Veysel was given 15 days leave to return to his village. He did not return to the institutes again.

Publication and censorship Veysel was also heavily involved in Community Centers (Halkevleri) during this period. From 1932, these centers, which aimed to consolidate and reexamine the full corpus of Turkish culture, history, language, and economy, dealt extensively with research into Turkish folk music and literature. Many prominent folk poets, including Veysel, were featured in their publications. Veysel's first book, a poetry anthology entitled Sayings (Turkish: Deyişler), was prepared by Tecer and published by the Community Center Headquarters in 1944, Veysel began to recite "Kara Toprak", but was unable to complete the song. He exited the stage early and fell ill the next morning. In late 1971, Veysel began to receive treatment at the Sivas Numune hospital. Reportedly, when a doctor asked for permission to examine Veysel's heart, Veysel had replied, "Examine me from head to toe, but leave my heart to me. There are secret things there that belong to me. [I said] you will see them."

By 1972, Veysel's health had begun to rapidly worsen. He spent time in various hospitals, where he was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer. he then lost another when it was broken in a bus accident. Upon his death, Veysel was buried with a saz. One surviving saz came into the possession of Veysel's nephew, who, who later gifted it to a saz maker, Şentürk İyidoğan, in nearby Zara, where Veysel had purchased his first saz in 1928.

All of Veysel's songs are Türküler, namely folk songs of Turkish origin, with most of them being deyiş type songs. Veysel's works generally consist of uzun havalar and kırık havalar (consistently rhythmic and irregularly rhythmic/non-rhythmic songs). His melodies featured a restricted range composed in a variety of Turkish makams, including Hüseyni, Uşşak, Hijaz, Rast, Muhayyer, and Karçığar, and used 2/4, 4/4, 5/8, and 7/8 time signatures. Most of his works prominently feature the descending melodic progression found in Turkish makam music. Refrains were ubiquitous in Veysel's poetry, musically characterized by repeating leitmotifs. He played in the Alevi style and used the aşık düzeni ('aşık pattern', sometimes known as 'Veysel pattern'), characterized by less extensive movement across the saz's fingerboard.

Poetry Veysel's poetic style typified the traditional structures and techniques found in Anatolian folk poetry. Lyrics in his poems are defined by simple, but powerful Turkish, with stanzas typically arranged into quatrains featuring simple rhyme schemes (typically ABAB, mâni AABA, or monorhymes); to achieve this, Veysel heavily utilized the agglutinative structure of Turkish, for instance by pairing the same verb conjugations to form couplets. He also relied on broadly repeated refrains interspersed throughout most of his poems. Also typical of Turkish folk poetry, Veysel's poems used syllabic verse over prosodic metre, with each line sharing the same number of syllables, typically 11 per line, though the number could go up to 13 (e.g. Kara Toprak). As with most folk poems, Veysel tended to finished his poems by adding his name, or a close pseudonym, into his final stanzas.

In terms of subject matter, most of Veysel's poems were about nature, love, solidarity, national pride, or life and death, and were informed by Veysel's perception of the world as a blind man. Few of his poems were explicitly political. Despite being a practicing Alevi Muslim, only some of Veysel's poems were explicitly religious in nature, though he frequently alluded to religion in many of his works; once asked why he did not mention Alevism or Bektashism (it was impossible to tell which Veysel was from his poems alone), Veysel replied, "If you listen to my songs with your heart's eye, you will understand what I am talking about. If you don't have eyes to see, what shall I do?" In the aşık tradition, a large number of Veysel's poems were taken from popular folk legends, with the stories used as a vehicle for Veysel to discuss his own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions (e.g. 'Mecnunum Leylamı Gördüm'; I'm Mecnun, I Saw My Layla').

Views

Environmentalism Veysel was a lifelong environmentalist and agrarian. These aspects form one of the most notable themes in his work and interviews, and one of Veysel's most famous poems, Black Earth (Kara Toprak), is exemplary for its reflection of Veysel's love of the natural environment. Most of his other poems had the beauty of nature as a central theme, with many of them dedicated to the landscape around Veysel's native Sivas and Sivrialan. Another expression of this is found in the apple orchard Veysel established in Sivrialan in 1949. He spent most of his childhood and almost all of his adult life entrusted with the care of the family garden, being unable to carry out farming activities due to his blindness, and found solace there when he was left behind at the outbreak of the First World War and War of Independence. One of the most financially well-off in his home village of Sivrialan, it was Veysel who paid to bring electricity to Sivrialan, making it the first village in the local area to have access to electricity.

Humanism In the highly religiously charged environment of 20th century Turkey, Veysel remained a strong humanist throughout his life. He continually championed cooperation and unity across all nationalities, social classes, and sects. He was, however, not a strict pacifist. He openly and frequently expressed his desire to fight for Turkey in the First World War and War of Independence, sentiments which were reflected in his poems.

Politics Veysel was a staunch nationalist throughout his life, as well as an ardent supporter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Veysel had grown up in a largely underdeveloped region, in abject poverty, blind and uneducated, reaching his majority with the end of the Ottoman Empire. A firm patriot, Veysel's greatest wish as a young man was to fight for his nation in the First World War and the War of Independence. He welcomed most of Atatürk's reforms with open arms. Mindful of his own illiteracy, of which he expressed some bitterness, Veysel was particularly approving of the increased education opportunities which Atatürk brought to Turkey's most impoverished regions. Veysel kept a large portrait of Atatürk in his home in Sivrialan.

Despite his strongly nationalistic views, most of Veysel's poetry continued to focus on nature and pastoralism as core themes, a decision for which he was occasionally criticized; his poems for Atatürk, despite constituting some of his best known work, were exceptional in their focus, rather than the norm. Following the 1961 constitution, when many minstrels transitioned to performing leftist political poems, Veysel continued in his non-political poetry.

Music The saz and folk music naturally formed a central part of Veysel's life. Born into an Alevi village, Veysel grew up in a community who expressed spiritual connection through music, particularly through the saz, and Veysel also nursed a love for his art and his instrument throughout his life. When his saz was broken in a bus accident on the way to a concert, Veysel famously wrote a poem for his instrument with the lines: If I go, my instrument, you stay in this world/ Don't divulge my hidden secrets/ As I remember my father, you remember your master. Even when a new saz was immediately made for him, when asked how he was finding the new saz after a year with it, Veysel still mourned his old instrument, stating "I have got used to it, but it hasn't gotten used to me." His friend, Erdoğan Alkan, once asked him where he wanted to be buried, to which Veysel replied, "I'm not dead yet. I'll think about it when I die!" His wife Esma stated that Veysel could pull a snake out of a hole using nothing but sound. He once teased a friend whose car had broken down with a scathing poem, in which Veysel pointed out that the friend was tall. The latter was surprised and asked how Veysel could have known this, to which the poet replied simply: "When you talk, your voice comes from above."

He had an extraordinary working memory and memorized all his poems, including the voices of all his students at the Village Institutes (he knew which students were absent, where each was sitting, and whose technique required correction, even if the student had not spoken). Veysel's senses were so accurate that his friends and family were sometimes shocked. He once commissioned new clothes from a tailor, and, testing the stitching on the collar, wanted to know why the tailor's stitching was crooked. The tailor was confused until Veysel had him lay hands on the imperfection, which was so subtle that it was invisible to the eye. Commissioning a new house from a mason, he was able to find a loose brick by touch alone. He was also able to tell, by sound, whether or not someone was in his garden; not simply who the individual was, but also what had been taken, in what quantity, and even whether the produce was ripe or not. In this way, he was able to avoid people taking advantage of his blindness; a boy in the village, deciding to test Veysel, once laid down in front of his donkey just as Veysel was coming down the road. Veysel not only asked him to get out of the way thrice, but was able to reprimand the boy by name. His own children were unable to sneak past him without being identified.

Relationships

With Esma The nature of the relationship between Veysel and his first wife is controversial. However, most accounts agree that there was definite animosity between Veysel and Esma, even while they were still married. The final straw was the relationship between Esma and her second husband. Schoolteacher Veysel Kaymak, who lived in Sivrialan from 1967 to 1977, was acquainted with both parties, and heard an account of Esma's marriage with Veysel from her perspective. Kaymak reports that Veysel was allegedly jealous, mostly because he was physically unable to see his wife. Veysel would reportedly test Esma's loyalty by hiding an apple under her pillow, then when the time came, ask Esma who had put it there. He would secretly throw stones into the chimney in order to judge what Esma's reaction would be. In an interview with Veysel's friend Erdoğan Alkan, Esma alleged that Veysel used to beat her. Researcher Gülağ Öz, who also lived in Sivrialan, recorded similar sentiments in an interview with Esma, who stated: "Veysel was very grumpy. He wouldn't give me a living and was always jealous. I didn't marry with my heart anyway." According to Esma, Veysel's mood alienated her from him, and she would seek out their neighbour, Hüseyin, for consolation. Veysel sensed what was happening, even suspecting that Esma would run away, and apparently warned her against Hüseyin on multiple occasions, though Esma admitted that "I told him [Veysel] how could he think of such a thing." Bekki (2021) notes that Veysel never spoke much about his marriages in general. The only exception was in an interview with folklorist Ahmet Günbulut. In this interview, Veysel admitted to sensing the affair. Veysel recounted that at the time, the housework was Esma and Hüseyin's job, whilst Veysel himself was in charge of the garden and hay threshing; Esma and Hüseyin's relationship meant that all the housework fell apart. In Veysel's words, "I had an old pistol from my father. I got it ready. I though I should finish them off. Now the winter preparations are over, the cold has started. But I couldn't manage to settle the matter." Veysel referred to his first marriage again, more implicitly, in one poem, writing "the cruel infidel made my lamb an orphan." Whilst the "infidel" is not named, Bekki (2021) interpreted this to refer to Esma. However, Veysel also wrote other poems in which he described his marriage to Esma in positive terms. Veysel wrote that whilst he loved Esma, Esma did not love him back, and she conversely thought he was "crazy". Incidentally, this is where Esma and Veysel's accounts both agree; Esma characterized Veysel in exactly this way in a later interview.

Following their separation, tension between Esma and Veysel cooled, though their remained some mixed feelings. On one hand, Veysel reportedly would pass by Esma's house on multiple occasions, in the hope of meeting her. According to Veysel's daughter Hayrire Özer, Veysel's only question, when Esma returned to Sivrialan with her new husband, was if Esma needed anything, and he allegedly would continue to ask.

Veysel often made jokes about his blindness. A friend of his, Veysel Kaymak, recorded him as saying, "stand away from the blind man, when he waves his cane, he will hit you!" When the neighbour had left, Veysel remarked, "I knew I was blind, but I just learned I was deaf." He was otherwise happy to poke fun at himself. In an anecdote recalled by his friend Erdoğan Alkan, Alkan had been lighting a cigarette for Veysel. Out of habit, Alkan asked Veysel if the cigarette was lit. Veysel laughed, replying, "why are you asking me? Check the tip of my nose. If there is smoke, it's lit." Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert (English: Your Beauty is Worth Nothing) (2012), by German director Hüseyin Tabak, a film about a 12-year old Turkish immigrant named Veysel, migrating with his family to Austria. Âşık Veysel's eponymous song Güzelliğin On Para Etmez is also featured in the film.

Television

Gece Gündüz (2008) featured Veysel's song "Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım" in its title sequence. The show's name (English: Day and Night) is also a reference to the song.

Theater

Âşık Veysel (2020), stage play biopic of Veysels life, written by Osman Nuri Ercan

Music

Âşık Veysel (2008), song by American guitarist Joe Satriani, featured in his 2008 album Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock. The track Andalusia, featured in the same album, was also inspired by Veysel

Family tree Veysel's family tree is given as follows:

Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım (lyrics) "Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım" (English: "I'm on a Long and Narrow Road") is one of Veysel's best known works and is still popular among fans of Turkish folk music.

Turkish LyricsUzun ince bir yoldayım,Gidiyorum gündüz gece,Bilmiyorum ne haldeyim,Gidiyorum gündüz gece.

Dünyaya geldiğim anda,Yürüdüm aynı zamanda,İki kapılı bir handaGidiyorum gündüz gece.

Uykuda dahi yürüyom,Kalmaya sebep arıyom,Gidenleri hep görüyom,Gidiyorum gündüz gece

Kırk dokuz yıl bu yollardaOvada dağda çöllerde,Düşmüşüm gurbet ellerdeGidiyorum gündüz gece.

Düşünülürse derince,Uzak görünür görünce,Yol bir dakka miktarıncaGidiyorum gündüz gece.

Şaşar Veysel iş bu haleGah ağlaya gahi güle,Yetişmek için menzileGidiyorum gündüz geceTransliterated (Bekki, 2021)Uzun ince bir yoldayımGediyorum gundüz geceBilmiyorum ne haldeyimGediyorum gundüz gece

Dünyaya geldiğim andaYörüdüm aynı zemandaİki gapılı bir handaGediyorum gundüz gece

Uyhuda dahi yörüyomKalmaya sebep arıyomGedenleri ben görüyomGediyorum gundüz gece

Kırk dokuz yıl bu yollardaOvada dağda çöllerde,Düşmüşüm gurbet ellerdeGediyorum gundüz gece

Düşünülürse derinceUzak görünür görünceYol bir dakka mihdarıncaGediyorum gundüz gece

Şaşar Veysel iş bu hâleGâh ağlaya gâhi guleYetişmek için menzileGediyorum gundüz geceEnglish LyricsI'm on a long and narrow roadI'm going day and nightWhat state I'm in, I do not knowI'm going day and night

When first I came into this worldI started on that narrow roadAnd at the two-doored inn I strodeI'm going day and night

Even sleeping, I walk onEven waking, I search onMany seeing, all are goneI'm going day and night

Forty-nine years on this roadOn plain, on peak, in desert roam,Through stranger lands I do not knowI'm going day and night

If I stand and deeply thinkAs if to nothingness it shrinksThough the road goes in a blinkI'm going day and night

Veysel wonders at this plightThrough times of sorrow, or delightThe distant end of this to sightI'm going day and night

Selected works

Anlatamam derdimi (5:24) Arasam seni gül ilen (4:18) Atatürk'e ağıt (5:21) Beni hor görme (2:46) Beş günlük Dünya (3:58) Bir kökte uzamış (4:55) Birlik destani (1:42) Çiçekler (3:05) Cümle âlem senindir (6:44) Derdimi dökersem derin dereye (4:51) Dost çevirmiş yüzünü benden (3:12) Dost yolunda (4:43) Dostlar beni hatırlasın (6:02) Dün gece yar eşiğinde (4:28) Dünya'ya gelmemde maksat (2:43) Esti bahar yeli (2:41) Gel ey âşık (5:35) Gonca gülün kokusuna (5:24) Gönül sana nasihatim (6:40) Gözyaşı armağan (3:32) Güzelliğin on para etmez (4:31) Kahpe felek (2:58) Kara toprak (9:25) Kızılırmak seni seni (4:58) Küçük dünyam (5:17) Murat (5:13) Ne ötersin dertli dertli (3:05) Necip (3:16) Sazım (6:02) Seherin vaktinde (5:01) Sekizinci ayın yirmi ikisi (4:43) Sen varsın (4:01) Şu geniş Dünya'ya (7:27) Uzun ince bir yoldayım (2:23) Yaz gelsin (3:02) Yıldız (Sivas ellerinde) (3:16)