Ozgur Baba's Mountain Meditation

Thank you Youtube for bringing me to this small Paradise.
The video is the most mesmerizing I've seen in awhile... the orange grove, the seeming serenity of the sleepy farm, nestled in Turkish mountains, when suddenly the sharp sound of gunshots in the distance adds a certain gravity to the scene.
And then there's Baba himself (Özgür Baba)-- one of the comments called him Yoda and I see why.
The lyrics he sings comes from a poem from a 13th century Sufi mystic, Yunus Emre.
Hope you enjoy.

DOLAP NİÇİN İNİLERSİN
Water-wheel, why do you moan?
For I've troubles, I moan.
I fell in love with the lord,
That is why I moan.

My name is troubled water-wheel,
My water flows pure,
Thus, as the Lord wishes,
For I've troubles, I moan.

They found me on a mountain,
They broke my arms and wings,
They found me fit for a water-wheel,
For I've troubles, I moan.

I'm a tree of a mountain,
Neither sweet, nor bitter,
I'm thankful to the Lord,
For I've troubles, I moan.

They cut off my branches,
Destroyed all my order,
Yet, I'm an unwearied poet,
For I've troubles, I moan.

I take my water from below,
I turn and pour it high,
See what i suffer from,
For I've troubles, I moan.

Yunus, comes and finds no joy here,
The tree will never grow,
No one remains in this mortal world,
For I've troubles. I moan.

a reply to: zosimov

I waited,
and waited some more,
for someone else to comment;
but alas!*

Romans 9:18-23
So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?”

But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?

But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory

Putting that verse there was actually an afterthought. Saul of Tarsus was Anatolian. Some scholars figure he was highly influenced by Stoic teaching. Yunus Emre was also Anatolian, and Sufi.

It is easy to assume that trees are Sufi.

What would it look like if trees lost their Sufism?


footnote*
Almost every time I respond first, I just end up embarassing myself.

I like the sounds this instrument makes; sad tune though. I am guessing the instrument is the Baglama.

Baglama is the most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey. It takes different names according to the regions and according to its size such as Baglama, Divan Sazi, Bozuk, Çögür, Kopuz Irizva, Cura, Tambura, etc. Cura is the smallest member of the baglama family with the highest pitched sound. The member one size bigger than cura which gives a sound that is one octave lower than cura is the tambura. And the one with the deepest sound is the Divan sazi whose sound is one octave lower compared to tambura.

Baglama has three main parts called Tekne, Gögüs and Sap. Tekne part is generally made from mulberry trees as well as from woods of juniper, beech, spruce or walnut. The gögüs part is made from spruce and the sap section from homespun or juniper. There are pieces called burgu (screw) at the end of the sap which is opposite to tekne part to which the strings are tied. These screws are used for tuning. There are pitches on the sap tied with fish line. Baglama is played with a Mizrap or Tezene made from cherry wood bark or plastic and fingers are used in some regions. The later technique is called Selpe. There are three string groups on Baglama in groups of two or three. These string groups can be tuned in a variety of ways. For example in the tuning style called baglama Düzeni, the strings in the lower group give 'la', middle group strings and upper group strings give 'mi' notes. Besides this type of tuning there are Kara Düzen, Misket Düzeni Müstezat, Abdal Düzeni, Rast Düzeni etc. styles.

a reply to: pthena

You always have the most creative responses and meaningful references.

Interesting Anatolian connection!

a reply to: InTheLight

You're right, this is a very sad song-- both lyrically, and in Özgür Baba's emotional delivery.

Thanks for the added info!

a reply to: zosimov

Interesting Anatolian connection!

In this instance, I can show my work:

1) I am ignorant of who Yunus Emre was, so I went to Wikipedia.

2) I saw this line: "Following the Mongolian invasion of Anatolia facilitated by the Sultanate of Rûm's defeat at the 1243 Battle of Köse Dağ, Islamic mystic literature thrived in Anatolia, and Yunus Emre became one of its most distinguished poets." Hmm! Yunus was 5 years old.

3) Wait! How would the restoration of Turkic Tengrism (common with Mongolian Tengrism) result in the flourishing of Turkic language literature, folklore, and poetry as opposed to Arabic or Persian language literature?

4) Yunus is greatly remembered for being a main contributor to common language Turkish for poetry. He doesn't make the short list for great Sufi personages.

5) I remembered a webpage I read 8 years ago by Turkish people asking, "Why can't we have our God back? We Turks had Tengri before Islam. Can we have Him (Sky Father) back?"

6) If this poem was the only work of his that I knew of (which is true for now), then I might actually doubt the sincerity of his satisfaction with Sufism.

7) Consider: "The tree will never grow" as the cause of "Yunus, comes and finds no joy here, "

8) The turn to "The Last March of the Ents" is quite natural and automatic.
--------------------------------------------------
Most of my ignorance remains. Opinions based upon speculation are speculative opinions; no more than that.

The Eternel Blue Sky, the heavenly Tengri we love you! This same feeling is shared by all Turko-Mongol nomadic peoples of the Eurasian plains. (from the vid's comment section)

I find it interesting how some people's spiritual/religious roots are based in nature.

a reply to: InTheLight


That was indeed beautiful. Thank You.

There is difference in perspective.
Human:
1) are you home on Earth, embraced, enlivened, and protected by Sky;

or

2) are you an alien here, waiting for your exile to end, so that you can be transported to some home elsewhere?