"Drama Köprüsü" (English "The Bridge of Drama") is a popular Turkish '' türkü'' (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 (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, which was then a part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, is now in the

East Macedonia and Thrace Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ( ; , ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the country, comprising the eastern part of the region of Macedonia along with the region of Western Thr ...

region of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. What is called a bridge in the song is actually an aqueduct between the villages of Nikiforos () and Karyafiton (). When viewed from the valley the aqueduct looks like a bridge. On 17 April 2010 Nikos Latsistalis, a member of a

population exchange Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration that is often imposed by a state policy or international authority. Such mass migrations are most frequently spurred on the basis of ethnicity or religion, but they also occur d ...

from

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

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

muhacir The Muhacirs are estimated to be millions of Ottoman Muslim citizens and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Muhacirs are primarily consist of Turks but also Albanian, Bosniaks, Circassians, Cri ...

from Drama to

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

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 stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involv ...

of the 1920s, when

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

from Greece had been sent to Turkey and

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

from Turkey were sent to Greece.

Legend

The song is based on the legend of Debreli Hasan (

Hasan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...

from

Debre Debar ( ; , sq-definite, Dibra or Dibra e Madhe) is a city in the western part of North Macedonia, near the border with Albania, off the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality. Debar has an ethnic Albanian majority ...

), 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 noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

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 singers.

References

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