DAYIRMAN

Azerbaijan's Own Ancient Version of Rap Reappears

RAP MUSIC FOR A NEW GENERATION

Listen to us, new Azeri generation,

The Mill [Dayirman] is moving, it's always with you.

We lead the new generation forward.

Ahead, Azeri youth!

Listen to our words,

To our thoughts, useful for the nation.

The world is spinning in anxiety,

People do not value their land, their water.

We were created out of land, and we are going back there

We get happy, we live, we cry.

It's impossible to change our lives.

Maybe if we change ourselves,

If we unite, live and not be separated.

If we forget our past once and for all,

We will cross out our future.

Happiness is waiting for us.

Work and fight for the future!

The old system has already been destroyed;

We are free in our actions now.

Come on, let's prove ourselves by our deeds. We are the children of one nation,

We are the keys to utter darkness.

Let's take out our burning hearts

And light the way to the followers.

New words, new songs, new thoughts,

Look to tomorrow, look to tomorrow!

Additional lyrics from "Leyla va Dayirman" and Dayirman's Album may be found at AZERI org. Click on AZERI LATIN then MUSIC LYRICS.

The hiatus

Run all the time, I do
Into women, aspiring artists, struggling artists
Who tell me
I am just coming back to my art
Had a couple of kids
Couldn’t sculpt,
Couldn’t paint,
Couldn’t sing
Couldn’t write
For two, ten, twelve years
Now I am free,
I can go back to my creative life

I feel like screaming at them
Fool!

You never stopped being an artist
At this very moment
Every single being is creating
Whether they are making art or junk or even dangerous junk
Is up to them!

Yesserie!
With their spreadsheet, their clownface
And their tool belt

Raising a child is like throwing a pot
Gentle guidance
Not too much pressure, not too much freedom

And what a medium
Talk about truth to material
Don’t try to make a lawyer of your actor!

Ultimately the clay will decide
What it will do and how it will act
But with a little help from you.

Is it so different, when you use your words
Your clay, your watercolors?
And lo!
The most exquisite experience
After thirty years or so,
You might be able to pinpoint the exact mood
Of that moment of conception so long ago

You got to be the unrecognized artist
The collaborator on a project
That now creates independently

No, you never were a frustrated artist
How you live your life is your masterpiece.

Meykhana

"Meykhana" is a Persian word meaning "a place where people get together to drink and talk or recite poems."

The roots in Azerbaijan can be traced back at least a milennium to the Sufi tradition. Today it is one of the most wide-spread folklore genres on the Absheron Peninsula2. Traditionally, it is an oral form of poetry which is recited spontaneously without any preparation, effort, or premeditation. At least two people are needed to perform it. It's likely that meykhana would remind Westerners of rap with the exception that in its traditional form, it was performed in total spontaneity.

Performers can choose any topic. One person creates a four or five line stanza and then the other person picks it up without missing a beat. Gifted performers can develop any subject-cars, money, women, work, contemporary events-anything. But more important than the topic itself is the ability to maintain the performance-its rhyme and rhythm. Sometimes it can go on for hours.

The language of meykhana is the language of the street. Often Russian words are mixed in with Azerbaijani. Some people think that the ability to recite meykhanas is a gift from God since it's so difficult to respond spontaneously and sustain the pattern for any length of time unless you are uniquely gifted.

There's a new trend developing these days of writing them down and performing them from memory. Such a trend is likely to make the content richer and more poignant.

It will mean that more and more, meykhana will take on much of the appearance of Western performances of rap-those highly polished critiques on society rendered by the highly developed skill of a single individual.

Da Man's favourite sites:

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