Tugan yak - Туган як

Before I hit the road to Petropolis again - By the way, my grandfather is doing much better, thanks :) - I'll add here the lyrics for the Tatar song Tugan yak (Туган як) sang by Fättaxova (Фэттахова) and mentioned in my last post. I'll write it in Cyrillic and in the Latin alphabet, however, the Latin transliteration was done by me following the rules in Wikipedia*. Hope they are not horribly inaccurate, if they are, please let me know. :)

Here is the video so you can try singing along like I do. Enjoy, I love this song:




Туган як
(Вәсилә Фәттахова)

Туган якка юл тотамын, туган як, туган як
Иң гузял газиз якка, туган як, туган як;
Җир җилякляре пешкян чак, туган як, туган як
Ашыгам каенлыка, туган як, туган як.

Chorus:
Талпына күнел, талпына, ашкына,
Ярсуына түз, түз генә;
Каенлыкта җиләк пешкән
Тиз үрелеп өз генә.

Чәчәкләрнең ниндие юк, туган як, туган як
Хуш исле аллы гөлле, туган як, туган як;
Бу якларга беркайдада, туган як, туган як
Хич тиңнәр булмас төсле, туган як, туган як

Chorus.

Каенлыкта сайрый кошлар, сайрый, сайрый кошлар,
Бер туктамый өздереп, өздереп, өздерп;
Озакламам кайтырмын мин кайтырмын, кайтырмын
Тороп булмас көттереп көтереп, көттереп.

Chorus.
---

Tugan yak
(Väsilä Fättaxoba)

Tugan yakka yul totamın, tugan yak, tugan yak
Iñ guzyal gaziz yakka, tugan yak, tugan yak
Cir cilyaklyare peşkyan yak, tugan yak, tugan yak
Aşıgam kaenlıka, tugan yak, tugan yak.

Chorus:
Talpına kunel, talpına, aşkına,
Yarsuına tuz, tuz genä;
Kaenlıkta ciläk peşkän
Tiz urelep öz genä.

Çäçäklärneñ inidne yuk, tugan yak, tugan yak
Xuş isle allı gölle, tugan yak, tugan yak
Bu yaklarga berkaydada, tugan yak, tugan yak
Xiç tinnär bulmas tösle, tugan yak, tugan yak

Chorus.

Kaenlıkta sayrıy koşlar, sayrıy, sayrıy koşlar,
Ber tuktamıy özderep, özderep, özderp;
Ozaklamam kaytırmın min kaytırmın, kaytırmın
Torop bulmas kötterep köterep, köterep.

Chorus.


*~*

I know translations are tricky, but if anyone could provide one, it would be highly appreciated. Thanks :)


A nice week to all of you ^^




*apparently ә should be transliterated now as really ә instead of ä. The letter ә is also present in the spelling of the Azeri language in the Latin alphabet, which, like Tatar, belongs to the Turkic language family. However, it's much easier for me to type ä than ә, if you find this too bad, also let me know. We also have "ç" in Portuguese, by the way :)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Tatar fever

Last events prevented from making a less “oh, the world is annoying me” post. I still have to post and re-write some of the events that took place before the New Year. Some conversations I had with people which really made me think.

But I'm not going to talk about that. I am going to talk about my recent obsession with Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, and Tatar culture and language in general.

It all started when I was doing some research about patriotic songs. I went to Youtube and found a patriotic song from Tatarstan. I was touched by it and found it very beautiful. I have a problem with patriotic things in general as well as with nationalism etc. But this one was really nice. I did mention it in my post about songs.

Well, after adding it to my favorites, Youtube put in my "recommendations" box, a song by Landysh Nigmetzhanova (Ландыш Нигметжанова) called “Siu” (Cию.)*. It's extremly "pop-dancing-in-the-nightclub" kinda thing. But I couldn't stop listening to it O_o. Now I'm even trying to sing along. Of course it is pathetic, since I don't speak Tatar and don't even have the lyrics. Well, my shower doesn't know that.



After that, there was another link to another Tatar song. At first I wasn't thrilled by the song itself, but by the video. It is very well done, looks like a short movie which tells the stories of various characters only through images. Really nice and as a wannabe filmmaker I thought “I wish I had made that”. The singers are Färidä (Фәридә) and Alsu (Алсу), the song is called Èz oem (Єз оем)*. I won't spoil it for you. You can check here:



Afterwards, I started liking the song a lot too. That's how it happens with me sometimes, I need some time. I really like this music video a lot. I think it's great.

Anyways, soon I saw the link to another song, this time by Fättaxova (Фэттахова)* called Tugan yak (Туган як). Now, that one was really surprising to me because I heard it before. Yep, I heard it, I don't remember where was it, but I think it was quite a while ago. So it was a very pleasant reunion. The video posted in Youtube is of bad quality, but there is another one which has the same song as background which the quality is better.

The singer's video:



And the song, although I really had some restrictions to this movie. Well, whatever, the sound is good:



(Note: there is a girl by the end of the video who looks so Brazilian, it is almost weird to me. She even has hair like mine... maybe she's my lost cousin O_o)

So, that is how the Tatar fever started. After that I started reading about Tatarstan and Tatar culture. I also discovered that Tartar sauce, while delicious, is not Tatar. And Brazilian waxing is not popular in Brazil at all. I don't even know why people give things names which suggest a false origin like French kiss, Russian dressing, French fries, Persian pastry etc. Actually, I do have a clue, but I don't really want to talk about it.

Back to Tatarstan. I really got into it. So much that if you asked right now “Would you like to go to Chennai or Kazan?”. I would have to stop to think. I would probably pick Chennai, because Tamilnadu is an old love. But I would pause. Well, that's why God invented “Google Earth” where I can fake a trip to Kazan. It was very nice. :)

Because I said that I won't be writing about annoying things (although I did almost start with the Tartar sauce thing...), I won't talk about how irritating some of those silly youtube comments can be. If it is not an Western European / North American pop song or something in English people already start with some sort of ridiculous pseudo-ethnic / anthropological / sociological political superficial discussion. It's pathetic! But, as I said, I won't talk about it now. Hehehe...


Enjoy my Tatar fever and if you are Tatar or know a lot about Tatar culture, please help me with some lyrics, songs, culture, you name it. Pretty please




Well, best regards to all.

*My transliteration following Wikipedia. Hope it's an ok transliteration. :)

P.S.: I REALLY want to change this blog's template... I just don't know how to do that right, since I like blogger's gadget system. Can any of you help me? :)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

What a start...

Remember when I said that 2009 was not starting that great? Well, I was more right than I wanted to be. It's not only in a global level now, but also in a personal.

My grandfather had a stroke last Sunday while he was in their home near Petropolis, which is about an hour and a half from where I live. He just turned 80, but he is beloved by family and friends and it came as a shock to all of us. My aunt, my mom and I came to stay in Petropolis with my grandma and give her support, since the three of us are on vacation now. He is much better now, although he still is in the ICU and a little confused and disoriented. We believe he is out of danger, but he won't be the same again. My grandma is suffering the most. They have been in love ever since they met at a carnival party 54 years ago.

~**~








Now, for the global level. Well, folks... let's start with something I wrote on December 29th and never had the chance to finish. Yes, ironically, I was also in Petropolis the weekend when it all started:

“I came back yesterday from a very nice weekend in a historical town, called Petropolis, with my friends. We had a wonderful time there and had a lot of fun. We didn't watch TV or accessed the internet. So, I come back and start going online tra la la reading my favorites blogs tra la la... what?!? Then I go to the living room, get the newspaper and my jaw dropped. Israel what?!? Are you serious?

What in the world are you doing? I mean... really!

I don't even know why I was in shock, Should I be? Nevertheless I started reading any thing I came accross, of course, always with that classic suspicion. I just can't believe this is happening.”

Everyday I read the papers and think “oh, God...”. I have to say that I'm surprised that Brazilian mainstream media has been, generally and superficially speaking, against the attacks and showing a lot of the atrocities Israel has been committing. Our Foreign minister said that Israel is committing “State terrorism”. Very impressed. Not that anyone cares, well, I do, and I'm happy. We also send a big donation to Gaza and made some demonstrations. We should have done more... oh, well.



People who know me know that I'm actually against Zionism and I'm pro-Judaism, as well as pro religion in general. I have many Jewish friends who oppose the way Israel have been “handling the situation”, for the lack of a better expression. I read a very nice article called “Judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity”, which I lost the link, sorry :( when I find it I'll put it here. Well, I've been reading a lot about Jews against the State of Israel, some even pose with Palestinian flags. People say they are a minority. Maybe they are. But some of these groups are organized and need our support. I'm putting here some links for you guys to check out their arguments and think about them. I know you “I'm so secular, I'm modern”* people will not take some of those arguments, however they are good to think about. Remember, being a Zionist is not being a Jew. Let's differentiate these things and not blame the Jews for what is going on in the Middle East. Let's blame Zionism, Imperialism – I'm talking about that old one, although you can blame the new one as well, if you don't forget the old one – and the 19th century, always blame the 19th century**. You hate something? It probably started in the 19th century. Works for me.




Here are some links and articles:

Jewish opposition to Zionism

Jews not Zionists

“Jews against Zionism” a book by Thomas A. Kolsky

Jews against Zionism

Jews against Israel

IJAN – International Anti-Zionist Network

Neturei Karta – Jews against Zionism

“Today I end my support of Israel”



Let's support the Palestinians, let's support Peace, let's support Humanity.

Will 2009 get better? I hope so.

Best regards to all of you.






*, **: talk about it better later... maybe.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Happy 2009!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!


I know that, generally speaking, 2008 didn´t end well and 2009 didn´t start that great either. However, since I believe that anything can happen, I still have hopes for this new year. I´m looking forward to read and listen to what we will think about it in a year time.

So, let´s all think positively and do our part!

HAPPY 2009!!


Saturday, January 3, 2009