My Cry of Rebellion (Folk Song)

Feryad-ı İsyanım is a contemporary folk song with lyrics by Ozan Emekçi and music by Mazlum Çimen, shaped around themes of individual and collective suffering, the pursuit of justice, and testimony. The song first emerged as a poem and later gained widespread popularity within the oral music tradition after being set to music.

Feryad-ı İsyanım is derived from the epic poem of the same name, a long-term literary work by Ozan Emekçi. The poem was written based on the poet’s personal life experiences, eyewitness accounts, and observations of political and social events. ^【1】 The text adopts a structure that speaks from an individual narrative to collective memory. The language employed in the poem unites elements of lament, rebellion, and call to action, and is thus regarded as a modern continuation of oral folk literature.

The poem’s transformation into a musical form was achieved through Mazlum Çimen’s composition. The melody was designed to preserve the poem’s lengthy and narrative-driven structure; during performance, the narrative is maintained alongside the melody as the central focus. This approach has led the work to be perceived not merely as a musical piece but as an oral narrative.

What haven’t hearts sacrificed for the fire of love?

Didn’t Mount Ferhat break open for Shirin’s dream?

The fault is in remembering you every second, everywhere

Didn’t Majnun swear enough for Leyla’s sake?

Every place your eyes touch is my homeland

Let me rest, so my exile and servitude may not stretch on

Ahmet Arif’s longing has worn out the shackles

If your shackled longing could wear me out like this

I burned again for you, Nesimi too, last night

Let me be lost in your gaze, let me be consumed

Thus have the gods decreed in their divine council

Either I was sent for you, or Muhammad’s mace

I am the hammer on every beautiful face in the world

Your gaze has become the hammer within me

The storms in my soul have tired the sun

Tell Noah to bring forth the flood

Mazlum Çimen was born on 18 June 1958 in the village of Sevdilli, Elbistan. He grew up in an environment rich with writers and artists. He received extensive violin training and completed his studies in ballet, later serving as a ballet artist at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet. He is currently a composer, performer, and musician active in the field of contemporary Turkish folk music and original music. Throughout his artistic career, he has drawn inspiration from the folk music tradition while renewing it through contemporary interpretations.

Alevi-Bektashi culture, devotional poems, and socially engaged texts hold a significant place in Çimen’s musical repertoire. Çimen is known for setting poems by various poets to music, establishing a narrative-driven relationship between text and melody. In Feryad-ı İsyanım, as a composer, he has paid particular attention to preserving the integrity and dramatic structure of the poem.^【2】 

Ozan Emekçi, whose real name is Ali Haydar Levendiz, is a poet, writer, and musician trained in the tradition of Turkish folk minstrelsy. His poetry prominently addresses themes of social justice, labor, exile, oppression, and testimony. Emekçi has composed music for a significant portion of his poems, though some of his works have also been set to music by other musicians, reaching broader audiences.^【3】 

The poetry collection titled Feryad-ı İsyan is among Emekçi’s most well-known works and serves as the textual source for the song Feryad-ı İsyanım. The poet describes this work as one in which he “spent everything he had.”^【4】 

Feryad-ı İsyanım occupies a prominent place in the repertoire of contemporary Turkish folk music as a narrative-driven composition. With its extended poetic structure, direct mode of expression, and dramatic storytelling, it diverges from the classical folk song form, integrating elements of epic, lament, and protest narrative.