My Diary

Lesson 4 | Listening Practice

As we learned in Lesson 4, the -dir ending, while not necessary to convey the meaning of "is", can be used to make a declarative statement of fact. Using this song by Nilüfer, pay attention to the use of -dir and practice listening.

The sentences in the chorus are out of normal word order. See if you can put the subjects, objects, and verbs in their proper place!

Vocabulary



hatıra - memory, memento
hatıra defteri - diary

Note that here the word for diary is a place to keep memories or memoirs if you will. This can be contrasted with another meaning for diary, günlük, which is the book you write in "daily".

güzel - nice, beautiful
yer - place
senin - yours
söz - word
resim - picture
derin - deep

önce - before
yıllar önce - years before
yeniden - once again, again
birkaç - a few


Nilüfer - Hatıra Defteri



Çorak gönlüm dökülen gözyaşımla sulanır
My parched heart is watered by my falling tears
Yıllar önce gömdüğüm aşk yeniden canlanır
The love that I buried years ago once again comes to life

Hayalimde sevgilim salıncakta sallanır
In my dream, my beloved swings on a swing
Onu buldum sanarak dertli gönlüm aldanır
My aching heart is deceived, thinking that I found him

Yine beni benden aldı hatıralarım
My memories have overcome me again
Yine beni derde saldı hatıralarım
My memories have led me to sorrow again

Kalbim aşkla dopdolu hatıra defterimdir
My heart is my diary filled to the brim with love
Onun en güzel yeri inan yine senindir
The nicest place in it, believe me, is still yours

Şimdi bana hatıra birkaç söz bir resimdir
Now, to me, the memory is a few words and a picture
Bunun bende yarası umduğundan derindir
Its wound in me is deeper than you would expect

Yine beni benden aldı hatıralarım
Yine beni derde saldı hatıralarım

You'll See

Nilüfer album cover, 1974

Lesson 9 | -en/an

In Lesson 7, we learned how to modify adjectives using adverbs such as "gibi" and "ne kadar". Now that we have added the future tense to our repertoire, we will learn another way to modify nouns using the wildly productive -en/an verbal ending.

The performer of this song is Nilüfer. She was born in the Cihangir neighorhood of Beyoğlu and like Sezen Aksu, began her recording career during the latter half of the 1970s. That career has continued for decades since, and over the course of many makeovers and comebacks, including a recent battle with breast cancer, she has become one of the mainstays of Turkish pop music. This is one of her earlier recordings entitled "Göreceksin Kendini (You Will See Yourself)", which predicts how her the lover who has betrayed her will someday regret that decision.

Over the course of the song, Nilüfer utilizes many words containing the -en/an ending to modify nouns. This ending is a very important grammatical feature of Turkish and can be used to form nouns and adjectives as well as in the grammatical function of English words like "who", "which", and "that". That grammatical function will be dealt with later, and for now, we will merely introduce the structure and show how it is used in a form similar to an adjective.

-en/an attached to the end of verb stems. For example, "korkmak (to fear)" becomes "korkan" and "başlamak (to begin)" becomes "başlayan". It has the basic meaning of "the one who does X verb". When used by itself without a larger modifying sentence or direct object to modify a noun, we may treat it as an adjective. To use some examples from the song:

Verb	-en form	Approximate meaning
başlamak (to begin)	aniden başlayan	that begins suddenly
kırılmak (to break)	kırılan	broken
aldatmak (to deceive)	aldatan	deceptive

We also have an example of an -en form word not modifying a noun. In this case, we understand it itself as a noun in the sentence. For example, "korkanlar" from the verb "korkmak (to fear)" means here "the ones who fear".

Vocabulary

Practice this vocabulary list on Quizlet



inanmak - to believe
başlamak - to begin
başlayan - that begins, which begins
kırılmak - to break
kırılan - that breaks, that is broken
aldatmak - to betray, deceive
aldatan - that betrays, deceitful
aramak - to search for
arayan - looking for, that/who looks for
korkmak - to fear
korkan - who fears, fearing
inkar etmek - to deny
inkar eden - that denies

çocukluk - childhood
okul - school
gözyaşı - tear
ayna - mirror
ölümsüz - immortal
bencil - selfish
nankör - ungrateful
dünya - word

elele - hand in hand
aniden - suddenly
kendi - self
kendin - your self
elveda - farewell, goodbye (for good or at least a long time)

Nilüfer - Göreceksin Kendini


Click the play button above to hear the song

Çocukluk rüyanda
In your childhood dream
Elele okul yolunda
Hand in hand on the way to school
Aniden başlayan / İlk gönül macerasında
In a suddenly beginning first love (literally heart) adventure

Aşkıma inanmayıp / akan gözyaşımda
While you don't believe in my love / In my flowing tears...

Notice the -ip ending on the verb "inanmamak (to not believe)" that joins it to "akan". This will be covered in Unit 2.

Görecek göreceksin kendini / o aldatan aynada / beni ve ölümsüz sevgimi
You will see yourself / in that deceiving mirror / and me and my immortal love
Görecek göreceksin kendini / o aldatan aynada / beni ve ölümsüz sevgimi
You will see yourself / in that deceiving mirror / and me and my immortal love

Mutluluk arayan / her genç kızın hülyasında
In the daydreams of every young girl looking for happiness
Sevgiyi inkar eden / bu bencil ve nankör dünyada
In this selfish and ungrateful world that rejects love
Köşesine büzülmüş / hayattan korkanlarda
In those who fear life crouched in a corner

Görecek göreceksin kendini / o kırılan aynada / elveda derken ben sana
You will see yourself / in that broken mirror / as I say farewell to youGörecek göreceksin kendini / o kırılan aynada / elveda derken ben sana
You will see yourself / in that broken mirror / as I say farewell to you

Give the song another listen and use the quiz below to test your knowledge of this lesson's vocabulary before moving on to Lesson 10: I Have Nothing.