Hi,

Could someone kindly tell me what does "kara toprak" mean in Baris Manco´s song:

CAN BEDENDEN ÇIKMAYINCA

Böyle yazmışsa yaradan,
Kara toprak yeter bana

Also I want to know if "boyle yazmissa" means that "if you´ve written so"

Thank you

kara toprak= black soil, chernozem

Böyle yazmışsa= IF its written so        -my try

Thank you for your reply, but I wanted to know does this mean that "My body which is made by soil is enough for me" or kara toprak yeter bana means mezar bana yeter, which means I just want to die or something else.

thanks

 

Böyle yazmışsa yaradan,
Kara toprak yeter bana

My try:

If God have written so,

The soil is enough for me

 

 Thank you for your reply, what is the meaning of "yaradan" here? as far as I know it means "wound" ve "acı".

If God have written this for me, beacuse of pain soil is enough for me, is that right?

yaradan 
the Creator, the Maker, God.

Thank you

Now I understood

Yaradan

http://www.seslisozluk.com/?word=yaradan&sbT=Search&ssQBy=0

yara = wound, injury , ...

http://www.seslisozluk.com/?word=yara&ssQBy=0

yar = friend, God

http://www.seslisozluk.com/?word=yar&sbT=Search&ssQBy=0

Uhm actually "yaradan" derives from "yaratan" which means "He who creates". You can also say "yaratıcı" (Creator).It´s kinda confusing since t -> d occured but it is kinda an exception here.

The "yar" you mentioned means "lover" most of the time and you can hear it a lot in songs but not much in daily speech. It also is Arabic or something and is pronounced with a long / thin a. Eg. "My lover" not "yarım" but "yarim".

I think there is something missing here.  Kara toprak in the literal sense does mean black soil, but this is poetry, not common language.  There is a special significance to Black Earth.  It is also called black gold as it is considered black earth/soil is particularly fertile.

I´ll come to the "toprak" part which requires more explaination. But first let me explain "kara" first. Literally it means black but we have another word for black which is "siyah" from Arabic. There is some difference between "siyah" and "kara" in usage. "Siyah" is used usually for concrete things while "kara" for abstract ones.

Siyah ceket = black jacket
Siyah gömlek = black shirt
Siyah saç = dark hair
Siyah ayakkabı = black shoes
etc.

Kara yazı = black writing (bad destiny)
Kara gün = black day (bad day or the day when bad things happened)
Kara para = black money (money earned doing bad things)
Kara toprak = black soil (?)
Usually "kara" is used to point out bad sides of something as you can figure out from the examples above.

Similarly we have 2 words for white also: "ak" and "beyaz" from Arabic.

So "ak" and "kara" are used usually for abstract things and "beyaz" and "siyah" for concret things. Yet another similar difference can be seen with "gönül" and "kalp" which both mean heart when you check the dictionary but again "gönül" is used for abstract things.


OK now let´s come the "toprak" part. It also used abstractly to mean many things: "Toprak" is what feeds us when we live and "toprak" is where we are buried when we die.
And when you put "kara" before "toprak" you assumedly make it bad but actually you only meaning that it´s still something good even when you put "kara" before it.

All these aspects are described in the "Kara Toprak" poem of our great "ozan" (means poet) Aşık Veysel. Unfortunately I couldn´t find it among the translated poems in this site. And it would require a good effort to do it here, so I only quote it below

Kara Toprak by Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu
Dost dost diye nicesine sarıldım
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır
Beyhude dolandım boşa yoruldum
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Nice güzellere bağlandım kaldım
Ne bir vefa gördüm ne fayda buldum
Her türlü isteğim topraklan aldım
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Koyun verdi kuzu verdi süt verdi
Yemek verdi ekmek verdi et verdi
Kazma ile döğmeyince kıt verdi
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Adem´den bu deme neslim getirdi
Bana türlü türlü meyve getirdi
Her gün beni tepesinde götürdü
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Karnın yardım kazmayınan bel inen
Yüzün yırttım tırnağınan elinen
Gene beni karşıladı gülünen
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

İşkence yaptıkça bana gülerdi
Bunda yalan yoktur herkes de gördü
Bir çekirdek verdim dört bostan verdi
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Havaya bakarsam hava alırım
Toprağa bakarsam dua alırım
Topraktan ayrılsam nerde kalırım
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Dileğin var ise iste Allah´tan
Almak için uzak gitme topraktan
Cömertlik toprağa verilmiş haktan
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Hakikat ararsan açık bir nokta
Allah kula yakın kul da Allah´ta
Hakkın gizli hazinesi toprakta
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Bütün kus´rumuzu toprak gizliyor
Merhem çalıp yaralarım düzlüyor
Kclun açmış yollarımı gözlüyor
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır

Her kim ki olursa bu sırra mazhar
Dünyaya bırakır ölmez bir eser
Gün gelir Veysel´i bağrına basar
Benim sadık yarim kara topraktır


Similarly Orhan Gencebay´s lyrics means the death and the burial under it:
Kara toprak beni de bas bagrina -- "Kara toprak" take me in your arms meaning "let me die"
Ümidim yok çikmak için yarina -- No hope for me to live in tomorrows


If we come to the Barış Manço´s lyrics:
Böyle yazmışsa yaradan
Kara toprak yeter bana

They also point out to the death:
If The God has written my destiny like this
"Kara toprak" is enough for me -- meaning I don´t expect anything in this life for me until I die

Sometimes in literature;

"Kara Toprak" is "death" as a lover, as home, as a friend etc.

Wonderful explanation si++....I found this of Aşık Veysel singing Kara Toprak

Here is a spoken word version that is easier to hear each word spoken.

Going with the Kara theme....how about Karagöz as in the shadow puppets?  Is there a deeper meaning to the name?

Böyle yazmışsa yaradan: If Creator wrote so

Kara toprak yeter bana: The black soil is enough for me

If my destiny (what was written by God) is to die (to be buried in the soil), I accept it (it´s enough for me).

God writes destiny, so in Turkis destiny is yazgı or kader (arabic origin - more common).

Kara toprak (black soil) symbolizes death as most people in this culture are buried in the soil when they die.

Creator can literally be translated as yaratıcı, but yaradan (one who creates) is more common than yaratıcı.