Ali
Sabahat Akkiraz & Orient Expressions Lyrics

The lyrics of Sabahat Akkiraz's song Yar Ali speak of the pain and frustration that the singer feels towards their unfaithful lover. The opening lines urge the lover to not be vain of their beauty, as many before them have fallen into the same trap of arrogance and conceit. The singer laments that their cries and pleas for love have gone unheard and unheeded, and that their sorrows have passed over the mountains of Keşiş. The second stanza addresses the lover directly, denouncing them as ungrateful and cruel for their mistreatment of the singer. Despite this, the lover now seeks friendship with the singer, but it is too late as the opportunity for love has passed.

The song is delivered in the traditional Turkish musical form of türkü, which originated in the Anatolian region of Turkey. The türkü genre encompasses songs that tell stories of love, longing, and loss, and is accompanied by a variety of instruments including the bağlama, a stringed instrument similar to a lute, and the kemençe, a bowed instrument similar to a fiddle. Sabahat Akkiraz, who was born in 1955 in the province of Bursa in Turkey, is a renowned performer of türkü music and has released 30 albums over the course of her career.