It feels weird when I try to sing along.
June 11, 2013 9:44 PM   Subscribe

I've become obsessed with the wild 1976 funk-folk song Аман яр (Aman Yar) by the Azerbaijan group Гая (Qaya). You can hear it here, but I can't find lyrics anywhere. Can anyone translate, or let me know what the song is about?
posted by eschatfische to Media & Arts (1 answer total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Ok, I heard back from my friend who I asked about this.

Here's the response:

Okay! Actually got you an answer, sorry it took me a bit, but I actually had to get him to sit down and listen to the song a couple times. Just a note, when he was growing up, they were under Soviet rule so schools taught Russian, and also he is not Azeri, he was Juhuro living in Azerbaijan, so Azeri would have been a third language for him. The band does sing in Azeri, not Russian so he said he caught about 80% of it.

Basically, it's a very upbeat love song. Talks about a "lovely lady who I saw by chance" and there is a particular word used (I know there's a similar one in Juhuro) that there is no direct translation for, but it means "my heart or my soul or my life." The lady is referred to by this word several times.


Hope this helps and singing along doesn't feel so weird anymore :)

my friend added a few minutes later:
Another note: Keep in mind, some of the songs you find for this band will be in Russian, not Azeri (thus easier to find a translator for) because musicians would have had to be careful under Soviet rule to not appear separatist or "from the village", while still being able to sing in their own language some of the time.
posted by bilabial at 7:02 PM on June 12, 2013


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