Forgotten Armenian cities in Turkey.

[aurguplu]

thorny,

 

it was perhaps only a "muslim" shepherd, but the version i had read said turkish, if i remember correctly.

 

there was a very old turkish population in van, as there were some kurds outside.

 

by the way, one should not forget (or at least try to learn) that a good part of the modern-day kurds of the region are not native to the place at all: there were large-scale voluntary or forced migrations during ottoman rule and before, and also, many turkish tribes became kurdish, peserving in some cases the language (some tribes have always been bilingual), some cases the original name in a corrupted form (like the "badýllý" of eastern anatolia - avery large tribe - were originally the "beg-dili", and part of the grey arrows (bozoklar) who were the avshar, the kýzýk, the beg dili, and the karkýn (or yarkýn). i don't have their ancestor's name in my mind, but this should be enough info.

 

regards,

[bellthecat]

"Akhtamar" By Hovhaness Toumanian, a rendition from the oral tradition, 1891. Translated by Diane Der Hovanessian

 

 

Every night, in secret

a boy walks from his village

on the shore of Lake Van

into its sea.

 

Without a boat or a sail

with virile arms parting

the water, he swims toward

the island floating in front,

 

where a single, bright light

like a beacon from a lighthouse

on the dark island

guides him on his way.

 

Beautiful Tamar builds the fire

on the beach nightly,

and waits impatiently

in the shrubbery nearby.

 

The heavy sea curls and roars

but the boy’s heart is buoyant.

He fights the pounding water

that shouts in his ears.

 

Tamar’s heart heaves with the water

as she hears the waves breaking

as she burns with the taper

burning in the dark

 

Silence now. On the dark shore

one black shadow

finds the other

and there is one shadow again.

 

Only the waves of Lake Van

touch the shore and move now.

They go back to sea grumbling

with muffled news.

 

As if they were whispering

to the stars arched above them

about the virginal Tamar

calling her shameless names.

 

While the waters murmur and gossip

time runs out for the two.

One enters the rough sea

the other prays, left behind.

 

"Who is he anyway

so brave and so brash

so drunk with his love

that he dares the sea by night?

 

He crosses from foreign shores

to kiss our Tamar?

What does he think we are

to give her up?"

 

The sullen boys of the island

defy the stranger

and one night stamp down the fire

that Tamar has lit.

 

And Tamar's lover

swimming, is lost in the dark.

The wind lifts his sighs.

"Akh! Tamar", he calls.

 

Under the steep rocks

in the frightening darkness

where the wild sea shouts

"Akh! Tamar", he cries.

 

ln the morning the waters,

rippled only now, and calm,

wash him ashore.

On his cold lips two words

are frozen forever,

"Akh! Tamar"

the island's new name.