Sevdiğim [English translation]

Separations are hard, longing exhausts me [1].

Everything comes to an end [2], my beloved.

Time no longer goes. My one who is [so often]

on the tip of my tongue, oh God [3],

Is taking me away from myself, my beloved.

It’s like I blazed myself [4] during a forest fire.

It’s like I’m a gulf at a sharp cliff edge [5].

No end to roads, suffering [6] has no color.

And for me there’s no remedy [7], my beloved.

I abandoned myself – perhaps, I’ve exhausted myself

a long time ago [8] –

In a place where we can’t return to, my beloved.

1. Zormuş (troubled), yormuş (tired), sonmuş (ended), almış (caught, received, sensed, overwhelmed) are, actually, verbs denoting actions that took place in the past (similar to past simple) but those that the person didn’t experience himself and so he talks about them from hearsay.

2. Every beginning/departure/morning/infancy/prelude/prologue has its end/termination/sunset..).

3. Aman – a word for vocal improvisation after a line of lyrics by female singers in Turkish music and and rebetiko, in a style known as amanes. The word is derived from Arabic أمان amān meaning security, safety; peace; shelter, protection and is used in singing to express deep longing.

4. also -- wounded/traumatized/burned/cut/blazed (by fire/desire) like by a flash of bright blinding light

5. Gulf and cliff (“kenarlarda uçurumlar”) actually stand in the plural to intensify the meaning/show that it’s experienced over and over again. Other examples here: Ayrılıklar (separations), dillerimde (on my tongues – i.e. often talked about), yolların sonu (roads’ end).

6. Also -- hunger, pain

7. Also -- release

8. I’ve worn myself out/have been madly in love for a long time

• Artist:Mahsun Kırmızıgül
• Album:Dinle (2006)