Popular Turkish Love Lyrics and Folk Legends

The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep 21 The Black Sheep Alonesome shepherd sat near the fountain and played his flute as his herd grazed. The lovely daughter of the region’s biggest landowner came to the fountain for a drink of water. She was more beautiful and more graceful than any young woman he had ever laid eyes on. It was love at first sight. The young shepherd played his flute all day long, clamoring for her, and spent many sleepless nights yearning for her. One day he put his flute down and talked to his black sheep: “I tell you, I’ve fallen desperately in love with our lord’s daughter. She has no inkling that I’m in love with her. Actually, she doesn’t even know who I am. Besides, she is the daughter of an important rich man, and I am a nobody.” At that moment, the girl happened to be walking on the other side of the bushes and heard everything the shepherd said to the black sheep. He was saying: “Hope against hope, I wish she would sense my love and give me a single strand of her hair. Even that would make me rejoice.” Next morning, the girl wrapped a single strand of her hair around a red rose and left it on the shepherd’s path. The shepherd was beside himself with joy. Thus began their secret love affair. The lovely girl and the lonesome shepherd met by the fountain . . . by the bushes . . . in the meadows. He recited poems and told stories. And he The Black Sheep  23 played his flute: joyous melodies, sad strains, lilting tunes. The girl fell in love with him and with his exquisite music. One day the shepherd summoned up enough courage and went before the feudal lord to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The father was incensed, but his daughter pleaded: “The heart is a strange bird,” she said. “It sometimes perches on the bald mountain, sometimes on a rose shrub. My heart has perched on this man who plays heavenly melodies on his flute.” The lord relented, but set an arduous condition for the marriage. He said to the humble shepherd: “They tell me you are the best flute player anyone has ever heard anywhere. That’s your only asset. You must first prove your worth as a musician.” A test was set up. For three days and three nights, the sheep were given no water—only salt. Then, one morning, as the people lined up, the flock was released and started its thirsty stampede to the stream. The shepherd was expected to play his flute so enchantingly that he would lure the sheep away from the water. As he played desperately, the sheep one by one turned away—except for his one black sheep, which paid no attention and ran headlong. When it was two or three short steps away from the stream, the flute uttered such poignant, sorrowful sounds that the black sheep, too, stopped and ran back to the shepherd. Triumphant, the shepherd could now marry the lovely girl. Having witnessed what the shepherd was able to accomplish with his flute, the people cheered the young couple, wishing them lifelong happiness. 26  Popular Turkish Love Lyrics & Folk Legends But the prospective bride’s father announced that the wedding would take place the following spring. The shepherd was taken aback; out of respect, however, he raised no objection. Heartbroken, he went up to the mountains with his flock. Meanwhile, the mean lord decided to marry his daughter to the son of another wealthy landowner. She was shattered, but in those days it was impossible for a daughter to rebel. So she bowed her head and obeyed. Word reached the shepherd up in the mountains on the day of the wedding. (Legend has it that the black sheep got wind of the marriage and gave him the news.) With a bleeding heart and tearful eyes, the shepherd ran down to the valley where the wedding festivity was to take place and caught up with the procession. “Listen, everybody,” he implored. All the riders stopped. “I am too poor to present a gift to the bride. But would you kindly allow the shepherd to play a tune as his gift...