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Asik Veysel Satiroglu (October 25, 1894 – March 21, 1973), also known as just Asik Veysel, was a Turkish minstrel and highly regarded poet of the Turkish folk literature. He was born in the Sivrialan village of the Sarkısla district, Sivas, on October 25, 1894 and died on March 21, 1973. He was an ashik, a poet, songwriter, and a bağlama and saz virtuoso, the prominent representative of the Anatolian ashik tradition in the 20th century. He was blind for the most of his lifetime. His songs have usually sad tunes, often talking about inevitability of death.
Biography
Early life
Smallpox was prevailing all over Ottoman Sivas in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. His mother Gülizar and his father Ahmet had
already lost two daughters to smallpox before Veysel was born. When
Veysel turned seven in 1901, another smallpox outbreak occurred in
Sivas, Veysel got the disease as well. He got blind in the left eye and
cataract developed in his right eye. After an accident, his right eye
got blind, too. His father gave his blind son a saz and recited many
poems of the folk poets. Moreover, the poets of the region also started
to drop in Ahmet Şatıroğlu’s house with their friends. They played
instruments and sang songs. Veysel used to listen to them carefully.
Veysel, the child saz player
Veysel devoted himself whole-heartedly to playing saz and singing. He
first had courses from his father's friend Çamışıhlı Ali Aga who taught
him about the works of Pir Sultan Abdal, Karacaoglan, Dertli, Rühsati
and other great ashiks of Anatolia.
World War I and after
Veysel was 20, when the First World War started. All his friends and
his brother rushed to the frontiers, yet he did not because of
blindness, and was left alone with his saz.
After the war, he got married to Esma, who bore him a daughter and a
son. The son died 10 days after birth, soon after that Veysel's mother
died on February 24, 1921. 18 months later, his father died. His wife
had already left him and their then 6 month old daughter and ran away
with a houseworker in his brother's house. His daughter did not live
long either.
1930s
He met Ahmet Kutsi Tecer, a literature teacher in Sivas High School,
who along with his colleagues founded the Association For Preservation
of Folk Poets in 1931. On December 5, 1931, they organized the Fest of
Folk Poets that lasted for three days. Thereupon, a new turning point
started in Veysel’s life. We can say that having met Ahmet Kutsi Tecer
pointed out a new starting for Veysel.
Until 1933, Veysel played and sang the poems of master ozans. In the
tenth anniversary of the Republic, upon the directives of Ahmet Kutsi
Tecer, all folk poets wrote poems on the Republic and Mustafa Kemal.
Veysel was one of those poets. The first poem of Veysel that came into
the daylight was the poem starting with the line "Atatürk is the
revival of Turkey. ..". This poem came into daylight only after Veysel
left his village.
Ali Rıza Bey, the mayor of Ağcakışla to which Sivrialan was then
affiliated, liked this tale of Veysel very much, and wanted to send the
poem to Ankara. Veysel said he himself would like to go and visit the
nation's leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and set out for Ankara on foot
with his faithful friend İbrahim. These two pure hearts who started
their travel on bare foot under tough winter conditions, arrived in
Ankara after having trampled down the roads for three months. Veysel
was hosted by his hospitable friends for forty five days in Ankara.
Although his aim in traveling to Ankara was to present the letter to
Atatürk, it was not possible for him to do so. His mother Gülizar says
"He felt bitter regret for two things in life: first not having been
able to visit the Great Leader, second not having recruited the army.
..". However, his tale was printed in a printing house named Hakimiyeti
Milliye in Ulus, and was published in the Newspaper for three days.
Then, he started to travel around the country and to play and sing
everywhere he went to. He was loved, he was respected.
Veysel himself tells us about those days as follows:
“ We left the village. We could arrive in Ankara only in three
months after having passed through the villages of Yozgat, Çorum and
Çankırı. We did not have enough money to stay at a hotel. We thought a
lot about "What to do? Where to go". People told us, "Here lives a
Pasha from Erzurum. He is a very hospitable man". The Pasha had a house
built in the then called Dağardı (which is now known as the Quarter of
Atıf Bey). We went there. This man really put us as a guest in his
house. We stayed there a couple of days. At that date, there were no
trucks or anything in Ankara, like today. Everything was run by horse
carriages. We met a man named Hasan Efendi who had horse carriages. He
took us to his house. We stayed at his house for forty-five days.
During our stay there, we used to go out, rambled around and returned
house, and we used to see that he prepared our dinner, our bed and
everything. Then I told him:
―Hasan Efendi, we are not here to ramble around! We have a tale. We
would like to give this to Mustafa Kemal. How can we do that? What can
we do?
He said:
―To tell you the truth, I don’t know about such things. There is a
deputy here. His name is Mustafa but I cannot remember his surname. We
have to tell this to him. May be, he can help you.
Then we went by Mustafa Bey and told him the issue. We said that we
have a tale that we want give to Mustafa Kemal. We asked for help!
He said:
―My God! This is not the right time so loose time with poetry. Go and sing it somewhere else!
We said:
―No, this is not possible! We will sing our tale to Mustafa Kemal!
The deputy Mustafa Bey said "Okay, sing it to me first!". We sang him
and he listened. He said he would talk to the Newspaper named
Hakimiyet-i Milliye that was being published in Ankara at that date. He
said "Come and visit me tomorrow!". We went by him the other day. He
said, "I can not do anything!". We thought a lot about what to do. At
last, we decided to go to the printing house ourselves. We had to renew
the strings of the instrument. The bazaar in Ulus Square was then named
Karaoğlan Bazaar. We walked to that bazaar to buy strings.
We had sandals on our feet. We were wearing woolen baggy trousers and
woolen jackets. We braced a big cummerbund on our waists. Then came the
police. He said:
―Do not enter! It is forbidden!
And he did not let us get in the bazaar to buy strings. He insisted:
―I say it’s forbidden! Don’t you understand what I say? It is crowded there. Do not get into the crowd!
We said "Okay, let’s not get in there". We went on walking pretending
as if we got rid of him. He came by, and rebuked my friend İbrahim:
―Are you nutty? I say do not get in! I’ll just break your neck!
We said:
―Gentleman, we do not obey you! We are going to buy strings from the bazaar!
Then the police said to İbrahim:
―If you are going to buy strings, then have this man seated somewhere first. And then go and buy your string!
Then, İbrahim went and bought the strings. But in the morning we could
not pass through the bazaar. Finally, we found the printing house.
―What do you want? Said the Director.
We said:
―We have a tale; we want to have it published in the paper.
He said:
―Play it to me first, I want to hear it!
We played the tale and he listened.
―Woo! Very well done! I liked it a lot. He said.
They inscribed the tale, and said "It will be published tomorrow. Come
and take a paper tomorrow". There, they gave us some money for the
copyrights. The other morning, we went there and took 5-6 copies. We
went to the bazaar. The policemen came by and said:
―Oh! Are you Âşık Veysel? Relax sir! Get in the coffeehouses! Take a seat!
And they started making compliments. We rambled around in the bazaar
for a while. But still we could not take any news about our visit to
Mustafa Kemal. We said to ourselves: "This is not going to come true".
But they published my tale in the paper for three subsequent days.
Again nothing about my visit to Mustafa Kemal. .. We decided to go back
to our village. Bu we did not have any money for the traveling
expenses. We met a lawyer in Ankara. He said:
―Let me write a letter to the mayor. The municipality can meet your traveling expenses.
Then he gave us a letter. We went to the municipality with the letter. There they told us:
―You are artisans. You can go back the way you came!
We came back to the lawyer. He asked us what we did. We told him. He
said "Let me write another letter to the governor this time". He wrote
a letter to the governor. The governor undersigned the letter and told
us to apply to the municipality. we went to the municipality. But they
said:
―No! We don’t have any money. We won’t help you.
The lawyer got offended and yelled out:
―Go! Go away! The municipality of Ankara does not have any money to spend for you!
I felt sorry for the lawyer.
We thought about what to do, how to solve the problem. And then we
decided to stop by the Community Center. May be something useful would
happen there! "If we can not visit Mustafa Kemal, let’s go to the
Community Center", we thought. This time the doormen did not allow us
get in there. As we were standing by the door, a man came by and said:
―What are you doing here? What are you looking for?
―We are going to get in the Community Center but they don’t let us, we replied.
―Let them get in! These are well known men! This is Aşik Veysel! He said.
That man who came by us sent us to the director of the literature department. There people said:
―Oh, please come in!
There were some deputies in the Community Center. The director called them:
―Come here! There are folk poets here, come and listen to them!
Necib Ali Bey, one of the ex-deputies said:
―Well, these are poor men. Let’s take care of them. We have to have
good clothes sewed for them. They can give a concert at the Community
Center on Sunday!
They really bought us a pair of suits. That Sunday, we gave a concert
at the Community Center of Ankara. After the concert, they gave us some
money. We returned from Ankara to our village with that money.
”
Teacher of the Village Institutes
Upon the establishment of Village Institutes, with the initiatives of
Ahmet Kutsi Tecer he worked as saz teacher in the Village Institutes of
Arifiye, Hasanoğlan, Çifteler, Kastamonu, Yıldızeli and Akpınar,
respectively. In these schools, many intellectuals who later
stigmatized the cultural life of Turkey found the opportunity to meet
the artist and improved their poetic capacity.
Later life
In 1965, the Turkish Grand National Assembly resolved upon allocating a
monthly salary in 500 TL to Âşık Veysel in return for “his contribution
to our native language and national solidarity.”
On March 21, 1973 at 3.30 a.m., Veysel closed his eyes to this world in
Sivrialan, the village he was born in, in a house which now serves as a
museum.
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