Şah De - Turkish Song

Vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is another Turkish song from the Alevi repertoire, a religious folk repertoire centred on Sufism, the mystical aspect of Islam that often uses music as a way of connecting with the divine. The instrumentation uses the bağlama, kemenche and kopuz. The latter is an especially important instrument in Turkish Sufism, and has always held a spiritual role in Alevi music much like the tanbour does for Kurdish Sufis in Iran; indeed the kopuz was lauded by Yunus Emre, a Sufi Turkish poet of the medieval era.

Like much of Turkish Sufism, the lyrics of this song are centred on the remembrance of Ali as a main figure of respect, and he is given the title Shah; originally an Iranian title denoting monarch, but having gained a spiritual meaning within Turkish Sufism as the title of a spiritual figure.

Lyrics in Turkish:
Var mı canım Şah demenin edâsı
Şah de canım Şah de gönlün şen olsun
Yoktur şu fâni dünyanın ötesi
Şah de canım Şah de gönlün şen olsun

Şah Şah Şah gözel Ali'm Şah

Bu sırrı bilmeyen kemnas ne sanır
Biliri goydu da bilmezi tanır
Bir kere Şah desen bin günah yunur
Şah de canım Şah de gönlün şen olsun

Şah Şah Şah gözel Ali'm Şah

Şahım Hatâyi'nin ahı gözel ahtır
Münkirin çektiği ah ile vahtır
Ol gözel Allah'ın bir adı Şah'tır
Şah de canım Şah de gönlün şen olsun,
Şah Şah Şah gözel Ali'm Şah

English translation (very approximate):
Is there a way to say laud your name, my dear Shah?
May your heart be happy, Shah,
This world is but ephemeral,

Shah, my beautiful Shah Ali,

What would the kemnas think, who do not know this secret?
The sinner suffers with sighs,
Of beautiful God, one name is the Shah's,