Leylalım - Cappadocian Karamanlides Song

Video by Christophe Chapleau, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a song from the traditional repertoire of the Karamanlides, a fascinating ethnic group of Anatolia who mainly resided in Cappadocia, where this video was shot. They were Orthodox Christians of Greek origin who identified as Greeks, but who were Turkish speaking, speaking a specific dialect of Turkish called Karamanlides Turkish, and writing the Turkish language using the Greek script.

After the population exchange at the end of the 20th century, their traditional songs were collected by Greek ethnomusicologists such as Domnia Samiou, and they're still performed to this day by the Greek descendants of the Karamanlides and other Greek communities of central Anatolia. My arrangement utilises the traditional instruments of the area: oud, saz, qanun, bendhir, as well as musical spoons which are found in the region to provide rhythm.

Lyrics in Karamanlides Turkish:
Βάι, καλενίν μπασιντά ιμ, Λέιλαλιμ γιαρ γιαρ, Λέιλαλιμ, Λέιλαλιμ
Ον ικί γιασιντά ιμ, Εφέντιμ αμάν, αμάν.
Ον ικί γιαστάν μπερί, κιζλαρίν πεσιντέ ιμ.
Βάι, καλεντέ καβούν γιρλέρ, μπίζ ντε βάρσακ νε ντιρλέρ.
Οτουρσάκ μπίζ ντε γισέκ, σου σουνού σεβμίς ντιρλέρ.
Βάι, καλενίν αρντί μποστάν, γικιλσίν Αραμπιστάν.
Αραμπιστάν κιζλαρί, νε ντον γκιέρ νε φιστάν.

Using the Latin alphabet:
Vay, kalenin başındayım, Leylalım, yar yar, Leylalım, Leylalım
on iki yaşındayım, Efendim aman, aman
On iki yaştan beri, kızların peşindeyim.
Vay, kalede kavun yirler, biz de varsak ne dirler.
Otursak biz de yisek, şu şunu sevmiş dirler.
Vay, kalenin ardı bostan - yıkılsın Arabistan.
Arabistan kızları, ne don giyer, ne fistan.

As always, Turkish folk songs are difficult to translate properly without a good grasp of the language, so I'll leave it to one of our Turkish viewers to translate.