Ayriliq and Sari Gelin are my two Azeri songs on this site. But while Sari Gelin is about a thousand years old, Ayriliq was composed in 1957 by Azeri composer Ali Salimi, to lyrics by Rajab (Farhad) Ibrahimi.

When I first learned this song, a Turkish friend (from the Black Sea region) told me that ayriliq was a word that evoked all the negative aspects of love — that, just as the English word “love’ is generally all about the good things, “ayriliq” is all about “you don’t even know I exist!” and “you don’t love me anymore” and of course “my baby done left me….”

Since that time, I have read in a couple of different places that ayriliq means “separation”,  and it was composed to depict the pain of separation of families when the border closed between Soviet Azerbaijan and the Azeri section of northwestern Iran. It shows how deeply the song has suffused the culture that it can carry such different meanings for different people.

Fikrinden geceler yatabilmirem Bu fikri başımdan atabilmirem Neyleyim ki sene çatabilmirem Ayrılık ayrılık aman ayrılık Her bir dertten olar yaman ayrılık... Uzundur hicrinden kara geceler Bilmirem men gedem hara geceler Vuruptur qelbime yara geceler Ayrılık ayrılık aman ayrılık Her bir dertten olar yaman ayrılık....

Your memory keeps me up in sleepless nights. I can't release this thought from my head, For whatever I do, I can't reach you. Separation, separation, oh separation! It's the most painful injury of all, bitter separation. In your absence, these dark nights stretch to eternity, I don't know where I'd go in these nights. Nights which struck wounds into my heart! Separation, separation, oh separation! Most painful injury of all, bitter separation.