Bahar Geldi Gül Açtı (Spring Has Come, Flowers Are In Bloom)

Описание: Take the geographical and climatic diversity of the entire United States and squeeze it all into a country the size of Texas and Louisiana. You’ll have something very close to the country of Turkey: a land of sun-drenched Southern California seacoasts, sweeping Nebraska prairies, Colorado-size mountains (Mount Ararat is 16,945′ overall and stands 3000′ above the surrounding plains), and a rugged Washington state coastline dotted with fishing villages and smaller cities along the Black Sea). In for something more urban? Istanbul’s 18,000,000 people and a cultural mosaic drawing from two continents and more than 2000 years of history should do you.

The mostly rural landscape of Turkish folk music (türkü) is filled with thousands of songs that extol the beauty of Turkey’s seasons, and flora and fauna. Which is where Bahar Geldi Gül Açtı (Spring Has Come, Flowers Are In Bloom) begins. But like so many other türkü, the scent on the warming air is only a metaphor for love still full of promise.

Things eventually go downhill, as promising relationships often do.

This türkü (Turkish folksong) is attributed to the city of Mardin, a centuries-old center of Suriani (Syriac Catholic) and Roman Catholic life in southwest Turkey. Summers there are long and hot, the springtime shorter than more temperate latitudes farther north. Today, it’s also a region of growing conflict between Kurds and Turks that has boiled over time and again.