Comments on: Pogledaj me Anadolko

By: Ahmed Karim

Ahmed Karim — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:09:06 +0000

I have enjoyed sevdalinke since I was a kid. We used to have a beautiful record “Bosno moja divna mila” with a picture of the Begova Dzamija on the front. I have listtened to it all the time, for over 30 years. But only in the 1990s I could buy more, and among others I have almost the complete repertory of Himzo Polovina.

I am very interested in music from the Muslim culture. Last time I counted them, about 1994 I had almost 900 CDs of music from Muslim countries; I haven’t counted them since but I think now it’s much, much more. I heard the Judeo-Spanish version of “Grana od bora” during a concert by a singer from Spain named Rosa Zaragoza and it is on the first or second CD she brought out.

From my last trip to Bosnia I brought an armful of CDs, all sevdalinke. And it’s good to know that saz playing is not dying out either. I had a lengthy stay at Sevdah Kuca in Sarajevo and I heard a very young sazlija named Zanin Berbic. He’s really very, very good. I am not so enthusiastic about the most recent way of interpretation of sevdalinke, like you canhear in Mostar Sevdah Reunion’s last CD (it’s beautiful nevertheless) , but then their “Secret Gate” album and Amira Mdunjanin’s are real chestnuts. Still, nothing can surpass the early recordings of Himzo Polovina, Safet Isovic or Zehra Deovic, to name a few; Emina Zecaj’ s last two albums are great too.

Some songs from Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Serbia sound similar too; these are from regions which have or had a significant Bosniak population. It could not be otherwise.

By: World of Sevdah

World of Sevdah — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:21:00 +0000

A very interesting link which describes possible origins of this very song.

http://www.everybodys-song.net/inspiratio_story.php

By: World of Sevdah

World of Sevdah — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:45:03 +0000

Thanks very much for this Ahmed. We will see if we can chase up this research you are pointing to. How do you know all this?

By: Ahmed Karim

Ahmed Karim — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:40:53 +0000

Beautiful. There is a recording by Himzo Polovina who I think was the most accomplished of sevdalinke singers, but the lyrics are a little bit different. He sings “Haj oj djevojko Anadolko, budi moja ti…”; the last verse is omitted. It is on the album “Kradem ti se u veceri”. A Turkish version, sung by Safiye Ayla and recorded in 1949 also exists. There is an unconfirmed story that the melody was inspired by a military march played by a Scottish regiment’s band when they were stationed in Istanbul during the Crimean war.
I can tell you more: “Grana od bora”, also sung by Himzo Polovina, also exists in Istanbul as a Sefardi song sung in Ladino or Judeo-Spanish with an almost identical text. Would be interesting to investigate this further, and to see how possibly some influence of Arab-Andalusi music entered into sevdalinka through sefardi Jewish singers who came from Spain to Bosnia and who brought along more influences of Muslim than of Christian Spain. Certainly I have listened to both Bosnian songs and Moroccan Andalusi and Gharnati songs (which is like the classical music from there) from the time I was 5, and in some I do notice certain similarities. Even though I know of course that most Muslim refugees from Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries went to North Africa, with which they were more culturally related, and I don’t think many found their way to Bosnia.
Anyway, greetings and keep up the good work.

Ahmed