Farewell to Baris Akarsu
This past Saturday, I was playing around with the widgets for this blog. I found one for Vodpod and thought why not? So, I set one up and while surfing other pods, I came across a pod of Turkish music.
In the summer of 1974 (I was 15 years old), I got to go to Germany to visit my stepmother’s family. Upstairs from Oma’s apartment lived a Turkish family. They had a daughter, Elmas (the same age as myself) and one, Nigar (a couple of years older). We became friends. I did not speak Turkish of course, nor did they speak English. Their 5 year old brother, Hakan, was learning German from the local children and taught us what he was learning. But, language did not seem to matter, we communicated quite well without it. They were Islamic, I was Christian. That did not matter either. The entire family treated me as if I were one of their own.
Nigar got married that summer, and I was invited. In fact, I accompanied Nigar, Elmas, and their Mom to another woman’s house for a weekend of dressmaking for the wedding. Our dresses were literally handmade – no sewing machine. We all helped with child care and meal preparations while the seamstress made our dresses. It was a wonderful “weekend of women”.
At the wedding, they had a band that played some Turkish Rock style music. It was beautiful and had such a vibrant and haunting quality. I fell in love with it.
So when I saw a pod of Turkish music, I had to check it out. The author of the pod had a category for Turkish Rock and I clicked on it. There I found some videos of Baris Akarsu. I fell in love. He was beautiful – so very vibrant and passionate. I did not care that I could not understand the words. His music spoke to me. I added him to my pod. I showed it to my partner. I found more Baris Akarsu at You Tube.
This morning, I googled him, hoping to find something in English about him. I did. Then I cried. I found a Wikipedia entry “Baris Akarsu“. I found out that he was killed in a terrible automobile accident this summer.
Farewell Baris, though I did not know you. You touched my heart…
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About Me
My most treasured value is my freedom. It is one I have been willing to die for. Without freedom, my life is not my own. Why should I live a life not my own?
I served 6 years active duty in the U.S. Army. I served between two wars – Vietnam and Desert Storm.
I have spent most of my life seeking truth. I am still looking and suspect I always will be…
I have a vision of this blog being a place where I can explore the “Devil’s Advocate” position on various topics and share my opinions (and where I get them). My hope is to help myself and others to develop skill in critical thinking.
I am not a scholar. If you are looking for scholarly debates and dissertations, please look elsewhere. I am merely a middle-aged woman on a quest. If you are interested in following my thinking, welcome.
Sometimes I make mistakes. I even make dumb ones at times. So, if you catch me in one, please do point it out. That is how I learn. If you find yourself with an opinion different from mine, by all means, tell me about it and explain why you think the way you do. That way, we can all learn.
In the interest of making fewer mistakes, Logic and Fallacies – Constructing a Logical Argument is a great resource.
It may take me awhile to find my voice, but this is a journey, right?
I just discovered this singer today on YouTube, then read his story on Wikipedia…sad. RIP…
Yeah, I agree with both yr comments even though I cannot understand Turkish the feeling in his music really touched me as well as his genuine love for his craft.
I knew Baris. We met while I was teaching in Turkey. While I am an ‘older woman’ (oh, god is that true?) I fell ‘in love’, too. His music was and is wonderful. His voice was incredibly powerful and his eyes.. oh those eyes… they saw through to the soul of EVERYONE he met. What a treasure this world has lost. I am glad you came across his music. If you would like to know more about the music, in English, let me know. I’ll gladly help.
Peace, Love and Happiness
I would love to know what the song “Islak, Islak” is about…
I feel exactly the same way about Baris Akarsu…..
I actually am not that fond of rock and I am from London, so there is a language barrier but there is something about his voice and presence which is totally mesmerising.
Please see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v09j91S7-zA
Anyway here is an English translation to Islak Islak…..
ISLAK ISLAK..
Did the dew of the night fall upon your eyes?
Just please dont look at me with wet eyes.
Pour your hair on my chest and tell me what bothers you,
Just please dont look at me with wet eyes.
I plough the fields made of clouds
I plant the rains into the sky
I brew your tea on the sun,
Filter it thru my heart, then serve it to you..
I interfere with the turning wheels of the fate,
I interfere with the turning wheels of the fate,
Please just don’t look at me with wet eyes.
I hope this is ok.
Oh, thank you so very much for the translation.
Yet again, I discovered that the video I had embedded was no longer available. So, I found another one. I will try to keep an active video posted, but please forgive me if I miss doing so from time to time. In this You Tube presentation, the submitter, “peaceandsadness” wrote a moving “about this video”. To quote some of it:
“He also gave many charity concerts for the children of leukemia for whom BARIS cared so much and tried to provide them the best he could.
He has a lot of fans whom called themselves BAG ( = The Ones Who Understand BARIS). They have supported him since he joined the Akademi Turkiye. Baris called them : ”my big loving family”.
It is still hard to believe that we have lost him… We have lost a wonderful musician, performer and we lost the future number-one rock star… but above all, we lost a great man, a wonderful person, a benevolent, breadth human-being !
We lost the person with a personality that is very rare to find and impossible to be replaced and his absence will always be felt.”
Find “peaceandsadness” playlist of Baris Akarsu here.
I did not even understand the words Baris sang, but I got the feeling that he was special…seems that he was indeed special.
Thanks for this entry Fireshadow48.
Here is the the klip from Baris’s last albume (Ayrilik Zamansiz Gelir) published after his death in January 2008
Song name is “Ruzgar” (Wind)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aRriTA-r0do
Also you can find his photographs in his official site’s forums,
http://www.baris-akarsu.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=45
Thank YOU for the links!
Today is the first anniversary of your death and once again I am very sad. I have been listening to your cd’s for the past couple of days nonstop. I don’t know why you had to die. I don’t understand why God keeps taking the good guys from the world. I am very sad and asking why?
Rest in peace my love.
Baris touched my heart so deep, believe me I wasn’t even know him until he died, I was thinking he must be the one spoiled singer who has couple good song and that will be it.
But I started searching about him, every time i found something i attached to him, I even want it to die so i can see him, oh good lord what a loss.
His life wasn’t so easy on him, he grew up with grandparents until he was 14 and he went to big city to work, even he is underage, I suppose part time work and school same time, when he was old enough he worked at bar he sing at the bar, he was bartender, we was waiter, he did everything in the bar.
It was so fun to listen from him what he did. He says I sing and i ran down to kitchen to make burger, run upstairs to serve drink to people.
he was hard working person, now we are looking at celebrities they are so snobbish, he wasn’t, I LOVE YOU BARIS, wait for us till we meet again, watch us from heaven and see how much we love you.
الله يرحموا ويجعل مثواه الجنة انا زينب من سوريا وانا كتير زعلت عليه
His page in GoneToSoon:
http://baris-akarsu.gonetoosoon.org/memorial/