Story Behind the Song
Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, and before that the imperial city of Byzantium, is the jewel of Turkey. Beyond it lies the huge landscape of dry, eroded plains, the hard country of the remote villages.
This huge city, rich with relics of the past and glittering with monumental structures of the present, sprawls on the edge of the sea and serves as the mythological gateway to East and West accross the Bosphorus.
By day it is one of the noisiest cities known, combining all the clatter of the modern world with all the traditional sounds of street merchants and open-air markets.
By night it is almost silent, except for the occasional sound of spontaneous song-wailing, gutteral songs with few words.
This lullaby shares that verbal simplicity, depending upon repetitive sounds as words. For all the excitement that Istanbul offers, most of the people have their hearts in the rough, and simple life of the far-away villages with their families.
Lyrics
Dandini dandini dastana
Danalar girmis bostana
Kov bostanci danayl
Yemisin lahanyl
Eh-e nini, eh-e nini,
Eh-e nini, nini,
Nini nini nini.
Eh-e, eh-e nini eh!
Eh-e, eh-e nini eh!
Into the garden the calves did stray.
Gardener quickly turn them away.
They'll eat the cabbages without delay,
Eh-e, ninni, ninni, ninni,
Eh-e, ninni, ninni, eh!
Eh-e, ninni.
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