"Drama Köprüsü" (English "The Bridge of Drama") is a popular Turkish ''

türkü Turkish folk music (''Türk Halk Müziği'') is the traditional music of Turkish people living in Turkey influenced by the cultures of Anatolia and former territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under ...

'' (folk song) and a legend on which the song is based.

Geography

The song refers to the Drama Bridge. The town of

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

, which was then a part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, is now in the

East Macedonia and Thrace Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ( el, Ανατολική Μακεδονία και Θράκη, translit=Anatolikí Makedonía ke Thráki, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the cou ...

region of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. What is called a bridge in the song is actually an aqueduct between the villages of

Nikiforos Nikiforos ( el, Νικηφόρος, tr, Nusratlı) is a village and a former municipality in the Drama regional unit, of East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been a municipal unit of the municipality ...

() and Karyafiton ( tr, Kozluköy). When viewed from the valley the aqueduct looks like a bridge. On 17 April 2010 Nikos Latsistalis, a member of a population exchangee from

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the central district of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country known as the Marmara Re ...

as well as the Chairman of Drama Asia Minor Refugees Association and a Turkish

muhacir Muhacir or Muhajir (from ar, مهاجر, translit=muhājir, lit=migrant) are the estimated 10 million Ottoman Muslim citizens, and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, mostly Turks but also Albanians ...

from Drama to Bursa collaborated to pinpoint the location of the "bridge". The families of both men had been effected by the

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...

of the 1920s, when

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

from Greece had been sent to Turkey and

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

from Turkey were sent to Greece.

Legend

The song is based on the legend of Debreli Hasan ( Hasan from Debre), who lived at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He was a soldier who killed his superior after a quarrel and was jailed in Drama. He escaped from the prison to hide in the mountains where he lived as a bandit. He was more or less like

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

of English folklore. He robbed the rich and supported the poor. Before becoming a bandit he had been engaged to be married. Judging that life in the mountains would be too difficult for his fiancé, he broke his engagement but continued to send her presents even when she married another man.Milliyet newspaper
/ref> According to the legend, he was later pardoned by the sultan.

Song

The anonymous song emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the title "Drama Köprüsü". Like many folk songs of the time, several versions exist. The most common first and the last couplets are: , :''Drama köprüsü bre Hasan dardır geçilmez'' :''Soğuktur suları Hasan bir tas içilmez'' :''At martini Debreli Hasan dağlar inlesin'' :''Drama mahpusunda bre Hasan dostlar dinlesin'' , :Drama bridge is narrow O Hasan, it can't be crossed, :Its water is so cold Hasan that it can't be drunk. :Shoot your ''"Martini''" Debreli Hasan, let its bang echo throughout the mountains, :Let the friends in Drama prison listen (to the sound). The first couplet is a further proof that the bridge is actually an aqueduct. In the last couplet, the word ''martini'' refers to a Peabody-Martini-Henry rifle. In some versions of the last couplet, the word ''Karakedi'' ("Black cat"), code name of Hasan's friend, replaces the word ''dostlar'' (friends). The song has been covered by many male Turkish singers and in a few cases by female singers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drama Koprusu Turkish folk songs Legendary people from the Ottoman Empire Drama (regional unit) Turkish-language songs Drama, Greece