Isn't This Enough Already?

Fener, Istanbul (Source: Daniel Pontillo)

Lesson 22 | -dik Participle Noun

So we've gone through 21 lesson and 21 songs, and in those songs, you've picked up numerous grammar points and fundamental aspects of the Turkish language. If you've been learning and memorizing these songs and their lyrics, you probably already know much of what you need to get the gist of any kind of song lyrics. If not, here's a good song to do some review on.

The singer is Sezen Aksu. We've already introduced her in Lesson 7. This song is another of her earlier works, and it's one she wrote herself. It is a reflection upon the emotional mistakes we repeatedly make, and in it, she describes encountering and scolding her future/past selves about the error of their ways.

There's one grammatical feature in the song that I'd like to point out in particular. In the last lesson, we saw how the -dik particle can be used to derive words from verbs that resemble adjectives in form and perform the task of relative clauses that start with "which" or "that" in English. Here, we find that same ending used to make nouns that stand on their own and refer to a completed action. I've put the examples from the song in bold below so you can see what I mean.

Also, as this is a song we're dealing with mainly for review, all of the grammar points we've covered are highlighted with blue link buttons that will take you to the relevant lesson to review if you're not sure.

Vocabulary



(-e) rastlamak - to meet, encounter, run into
ders almak - to learn a lesson
başına gelmek - to happen (to someone), literally to come to one's head
bitmek - to finish, to end, to conclude
yetmek - to be enough
yetmez mi - isn't it enough?
(-e) inanmak - to believe
inanamadım - I could not believe

tenha - empty, desolate, secluded place
pek çok - quite a few
eski - old
perişan - miserable, wretched, in a bad condition
keşke - if only

Sezen Aksu - Kendi Kendime

Ben bana bir gün rastlasam bir tenhada
If someday I run into myself in a void/secluded place
Çok ama pek çok sözüm var benim bana
I have many things, really quite a few things, to say to myself

Bak dostum / ders almazsın hiç başına gelenlerden
Look friend, you don't learn your lesson at all from the things that happen to you
Yeni bir sevda başlar daha eskisi bitmeden
A new love begins before the old one has ended
Yetmez mi yıllardır aşktan aşka koşup durduğun
Isn't it enough of this running from love to love for years?
Artık yetmez mi perişan olduğun
Aren't you miserable enough already?

Notice that we could translate this line as "isn't it enough already, your being (olduğun) miserable".

Ben bana güldüm, geçtim gittim yoluma
I smiled at me, I passed, and went on my way

Yıllar sonra bir gün rastladım ben kendime
Years later one day, I ran into myself
Ah keşke görmez olaydım (olmasaydım) inanamadım gözlerime
If only I hadn't seen (myself). I couldn't believe my eyes

Ah dostum ders almadın hiç başına gelenlerden
Oh friend, you didn't learn your lesson at all from the things that happen to you
Yeni bir sevda başladı bak eskisi bitmeden
Look a new love has begun before the old one has ended
Yetmez mi yıllardır aşktan aşka koşup durduğun
Isn't it enough of this running from love to love for years?
Artık yetmez mi perişan olduğun
Aren't you miserable enough already?

Ben beni bir daha görmedim o günden sonra
I haven't seen myself again since that day

I think it's time to a review of some of the vocabulary we've covered so far in Unit 2 before moving to the final lessons of our unit and Lesson 23: You Must Return.