Bedros Alahaidoyan coll. | Kharpert/Harput

This page presents songs and dance music collected and recorded by musicologist Bedros Alahaidoyan. Beginning in the 1980s, Mr. Alahaidoyan traveled to cities and towns populated by Armenians throughout the Diaspora, in search for Genocide survivors from whom he collected rare songs and anecdotes of their native cities and villages.

Editing of this page, as well as music engraving and digitization, provided by Dzovig Markarian, DMA. Translation: Simon Beugekian.

A nature hike organized for Hussenig (located in the plain of Harput) Armenians, on September 22, 1935, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Detail from the original picture (Source: Avdoyan collection, Washington).

Vocalist: Aram Zipper

Aram Zipper and Bedros Alahaidoyan met in the Armenian nursing home of Fresno, California, on October 30, 1986.
 
Mr. Zipper states that he himself was born in Harput/Kharpert, and had heard his uncle sing some of these songs. He also remembers that his uncle would make his own saz (iki telli saz) using a piece of wood from a tree stump. He would scoop out the wood and stretch two strings across it to make the instrument. Then, he would sit outside of the family’s ancestral home and play and sing old folk songs.
 
Aram’s uncle was the oldest of five brothers and sisters. Aram’s own father was the youngest child of the family.
 
Aram recalls that his father was not a craftsman, but was rather engaged in various types of labor. He was killed during the Genocide.

An Armenian family in the town of Harput/Kharpert (Source: Amherst College, Archives and Special Collections, William Earl Dodge Ward Papers).

1. Katsek Esek im Yaris [Go ask my love] (Armenian/Turkish)

Armenian -

Lousengan gal polorets
Sev ambe metchn olelrets
Katsek esek im yaris
Ir khelke ov olerets
 
Vari bakhchan vayr e
Chors polore chayr e
Katsek esek in yaris
Garkvelou dari e.

 
Translation

The moon completed a phase
And swept away the black clouds
Go ask my love
Who swept away her mind

Below is a garden
On all four sides are plains
Go ask my love
That it’s the year to marry.

Turkish
 
Hayde hade hu canım
Kalmadı yarı canım
Yar canım kalmadi
Bu sevdaya düşeli
Yar canım kalmadi
Bu sevdaya düşeli

 
Translation
 
Come, come, my love,
I’ve barely half my soul left
My dear, my spirit’s been torn out
By this blow of love,
My dear, my spirit’s been torn out
By this blow of love.

A festive atmosphere with accompanying musicians, most probably in one of the streets of the city of Harput (Source: Amherst College, Archives and Special Collections, William Earl Dodge Ward Papers).

2. Bizim Pisig (Turkish)

Turkish
 
Bizim pisig evlenecek
Parası yok borç edecek
Komşunun kızını alacak
Sivrisinek saz çalacak
Tahtabiti oynayacak

 
Translation
 
Our kitty’s about to marry
It’s got no money, so it’s got to borrow,
It’s gonna marry the neighbor’s daughter
The fly will play the saz,
And the bedbug will dance.

Kurds, most probably in the region of Dersim, in the north Harput (Source: Amherst College, Archives and Special Collections, William Earl Dodge Ward Papers).

Vocalist: Mayrig Ghazandjian

Mayrig Ghazandjian and Bedros Alahaidoyan met in the Armenian nursing home in Fresno on November 3, 1986. Mrs. Ghazandjian was born in Harput, to the Diranian family. She was deported when she was only 10 years old, and eventually made her way to Aleppo. Many years later, in Aleppo, she learned conversational western Armenian; hitherto, she spoke only Turkish and Kurdish. When she met Alahaidoyan, Mrs. Ghazandjian suffered from asthma, as she herself states after singing this song.

1. Hespî Degdî (Kurdish)

Kurdish -

Hespî Degdî min kumêt e
Degdî sîyar bû, çû welêt e
Degdî were, Degdî cano
Xerîw dosto, ber malano
Xerîw dijmin e, here çîyano
Degdî were, Degdî cano.

Hespî Degdî min xilçik (?) e
Nal bizmaran, çike-çik e
Hespî Degdî mi keçik e
Degdî were, Degdî cano
Xerîw dosto, ber malano
Xerîw dijmin e, here çîyano
Degdî were, Degdî cano.


Translation (translated from Kurdish by Ergin Opengin)

The horse of my Dagdi is bay horse
Dagdi mounted, rode to the country
Come back Dagdi, dear Dagdi!
The foreigner’s a friend, outside the houses
The foreigner’s an enemy, go to the mountains
Come back Dagdi, dear Dagdi!

The horse of my Dagdi is [?]
Its shoes and nails clink
The horse of my Dagdi is young
Come back Dagdi, dear Dagdi!
The foreigner’s a friend, outside the houses
The foreigner’s an enemy, go to the mountains
Come back Dagdi, dear Dagdi!

A young Kurdish shepherd in the region of Dersim, somewhere between Pertag and Perri (Source: Harvard University, Houghton Library)