Opening Poem | Başlayan Şiir : İbiş ve Memiş

From Epic Lions to Wombatistan: A Journey Through Language & Irreverent Humour

click on the picture to watch it on youtube

SONGLINE: İbiş ve Memiş Tekerleme c/o Zeki Müren

YER: Wombatistan

australian vowel harmony, cultural heritage, oral tradition

0001 opening poem | 0:53 | 25 Nov 2020

>>> chain-linked item | cultural heritage :  familial

Inspired by the first line of a song;

«Bir Şiirle Başlayan Destanın Aslanıdır»

Which sounded something like;

«That which starts it off with a poem, will become the lion(leader) of an epic destiny(dynasty)!»

I never pictured myself as a lion. I just liked the expression which referred to a lion, that inferred it was some type of a conqueror, who grasped solid mastery or victory over something - just because it started an epic by writing a poem. Although the song was used as a form of political commentary online, all I cared for was how the first sentence of the song spoke to me, in isolation. What on earth is a destan? Some kind of an epic, a legend, a compilation of stories, tales & songs to pass onto the next generation? That's why I was inspired to make a start, to begin my epic journey into linguistic exploration at Wombatistan, with the following poem;

Roses are red. Orchids are rare. Nothing to say, but «bokumu ye!»

...the underlined section of the last sentence was deliberately vulgar, to set the tone of my narrative with irreverent humour. It may be read as;

1. Nothing to say, but «shit`of-mine, eat it!»

2. Nothing to say, but «eat my poop!».

I do prefer the first expression because the structure is grammatically closer to the Yoda`nesian style of my Turkic expression. The second version, was an attempt to make it sound a bit more palatably English.
Following my opening poem, the video captured a traditional Turkish tongue twister about İbiş and Memiş, which was a cherished piece of oral heritage passed down from my mother. I have infused the ending of it with a personal twist, to reflect the unique linguistic attitudes that were passed down to me by my parents. The vocalisation of this tongue twister, is an example of expression which carries the structure of Turkic-Australian vowel harmony & prosody.

It is the first opening poem for Wombatistan, but it's not the first recorded poem in my family. The oldest one on record, came from >>> my maternal great-grandmother, who wrote her poem for a 40+yo female spinster at her village, in the Georgian language. I don't have the Georgian copy of her poem on hand at the moment, but the English version of what she wrote is as follows;

Why haven't you found a husband yet? Your public hairs have grown white!

The poetry & humour didn't end with her. The stories continue.

~ My Name Is Ayça, get used to it

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