The Kazakh in BAYANSULU’s song, for somebody learning it
8 min read
Aua-rai is an apology with a weather report for a chorus. Twenty distinct lines, nearly every verse verb in the past tense, and one habit worth stealing outright: four times over the song sets a verb beside its own negative — qalai (қалай), qalamai (қаламай) and qarai (қарай), qaramai (қарамай) — so the negative marker lands on a form you heard a second earlier without it.
On this page: What the song is doing · A verb, then the same verb negated · One word, four decisions · If you already know Turkish · Ten words worth keeping · Check yourself
The song is one half of an apology. The verses list things that have already happened: men köñılıme senı qaladym (мен көңіліме сені қаладым), I wanted you in my heart; jüregıñdı keide jaraladym (жүрегіңді кейде жараладым), sometimes I wounded your heart; baiqamadym keşır (байқамадым кешір), I did not notice, forgive me. Every one of those verbs is past tense and first person. Nobody here is saying what they do. They are saying what they did.
The ending doing that work is -dym (-дым), and the song repeats it until it is impossible to miss: qaladym (қаладым), jaraladym (жараладым), aştym (аштым), qaştym (қаштым), saldym (салдым). It is the past tense with I attached. Change the last letter and the speaker changes with it — sen de men üşın boldyñ (сен де мен үшін болдың) is you became, where boldym (болдым) two lines later is I became. Same tense, same verb, one consonant apart.
The chorus stops narrating and states a condition instead: Iştegı sezımım aua-rai (Іштегі сезімім ауа-рай), my feelings inside are the weather. That line has no verb in it at all, which is ordinary in Kazakh and is what the lesson on saying that something is something is about. Neither does the rest of the chorus — qalai (қалай), qalamai (қаламай), qarai (қарай) and qaramai (қарамай) are non-finite forms, endings that describe how something is done rather than who did it and when. So the song alternates between a list of past acts and a standing state, and the verb endings alone tell you which one you are in.
Keide (Кейде), sometimes, is the hinge between them. It runs through the verses (keide jaraladym (кейде жараладым), keide qaştym (кейде қаштым), keide sağan qaramadym (кейде саған қарамадым)) and it opens the last line of every chorus (keide bylai, keide bylai (кейде былай, кейде былай)). The apology and the weather turn out to be the same claim made twice: it is not always like this.
Iştegı sezımım aua-rai Іштегі сезімім ауа-рай
My feelings inside are the weather
A complete sentence with no verb in it. Kazakh joins a subject to what it is without any word for "is" — see The Copula.
Jüregıñdı keide jaraladym Жүрегіңді кейде жараладым
Sometimes I wounded your heart
jaralau (жаралау), to wound, carrying the first-person past ending -dym (-дым) — the ending under almost every verse verb in this song.
boldyñ / boldym болдың / болдым
you became / I became
The same past-tense verb, sung two lines apart, with only the person ending different.
Twice in the chorus and once again in a verse, the song says a verb and then immediately says it again with the negative marker -ma (-ма) inside it. It is the clearest way to hear that marker there is, because the form without it has only just gone past your ear.
qalau (қалау) means to want and qarau (қарау) means to look. The chorus takes each of them, puts a non-finite ending on it, and repeats it with -ma (-ма) in front of that ending: qalai (қалай) against qalamai (қаламай), qarai (қарай) against qaramai (қарамай). Nothing else about the word changes.
The verses do the same thing to a finite past verb. qaramadym (қарамадым) is I did not look, built on that same qarau (қарау), and baiqamadym (байқамадым) is I did not notice. If you can hear the -ma (-ма) in qalamai (қаламай) you can hear it in qaramadym (қарамадым), which is what a chorus that drills the pattern four times is quietly training you to do.
This is not the negative the course covers yet. The lesson on negation is about saying that something is not something — emes (емес), a separate word that carries the personal ending itself — which is a different tool for a different job. The one in this song lives inside the verb.
Köñıl keide qalai, qalamai Көңіл кейде қалай, қаламай
Sometimes the heart wants, sometimes it does not
The same verb twice, four syllables apart, with only -ma (-ма) between them.
Közderıñe qarai, qaramai Көздеріңе қарай, қарамай
Looking into your eyes, and then not looking
The same pairing again, on a different verb, in the very next line.
Keşır menı keide sağan qaramadym Кешір мені кейде саған қарамадым
Forgive me, sometimes I did not look at you
Now the negative sits on a finite past verb, with the person ending -m (-м) after it.
Közderıñe (Көздеріңе) is a single word carrying four of them. köz (көз) is eye; -der (-дер) makes it plural; -ıñ (-ің) says the eyes are yours, which is the possessive ending; -e (-е) is the dative, the ending for whatever an action moves towards. Eyes, plural, your, to. Kazakh stacks them in that order every time, and a reader who can take that word apart can take apart most of this song.
Two more, from the same chorus and the verse before it. Jüregıñdı (Жүрегіңді) is jürek (жүрек) (heart) plus -ıñ (-ің) (your) plus -dı (-ді), the accusative, which marks a definite object — the heart being wounded is one particular heart. Note the stem on the page: jürek (жүрек) ends in k (к), and once an ending follows it the word is spelled jüregıñ (жүрегің). Köñılıme (Көңіліме) is köñıl (көңіл) (heart, mind) plus -ım (-ім) (my) plus -e (-е), the dative again.
One thing worth writing down. qarau (қарау) does not take the accusative. In Kazakh you look to someone's eyes rather than at them — közderıñe (көздеріңе), dative — and the same verb takes sağan (саған), the dative of sen (сен) (see what happens to the pronouns under an ending), in keide sağan qaramadym (кейде саған қарамадым). A verb that governs the dative where English wants a plain object is exactly what a dictionary entry will not tell you and a song will.
Közderıñe Көздеріңе
to your eyes
köz (көз) + der (дер) (plural) + ıñ (ің) (your) + e (е) (dative).
Jüregıñdı Жүрегіңді
your heart, as the object of the verb
jürek (жүрек) + ıñ (ің) (your) + dı (ді) (accusative). ñ (ң) is voiced, which is why the ending is -dı (-ді) rather than -ty (-ты) — the rule is in the accusative lesson.
Men köñılıme senı qaladym Мен көңіліме сені қаладым
I wanted you in my heart
köñılıme (көңіліме) is dative — into my heart — and senı (сені) is the accusative of sen (сен), the definite thing wanted.
Three of this song's words are the same word you already have, once the six sound laws are applied. men (мен) is ben and menı (мені) is beni, because Kazakh m (м) answers Turkish b. jüregıñdı (жүрегіңді) is yüreğini, because Kazakh j (ж) answers Turkish y. And qaştym (қаштым) is kaçtım, which needs two rules at once: q (қ) answers k, ş (ш) answers ç.
A second group needs no rule at all, because both languages borrowed them from the same place. adam (адам) is adam, bäle (бәле) is bela, janym (жаным) is canım, äurege (әуреге) is avareye. The etymologies on this song's word list mark them Arabic and Persian, which is exactly why they look familiar — they are loans in Kazakh and loans in Turkish, not cognates.
Then one trap, and this song walks straight into it. The chorus opens Köñıl keide qalai, qalamai (Көңіл кейде қалай, қаламай). Every Turkish speaker learning Kazakh meets qalai (қалай) early as the question word for how — that is the qalai (қалай) in the lesson on asking a question. It is not that here. This qalai (қалай) is a form of qalau (қалау), to want, and the line answers it with qalamai (қаламай), not wanting. The two are spelled identically, and there is no question anywhere in the line to hang the other reading on.
menı мені
me
Turkish beni. Kazakh m (м) answers Turkish b.
qaştym қаштым
I ran away
Turkish kaçtım. Two sound laws in one word: q (қ) for k, ş (ш) for ç.
jüregıñdı жүрегіңді
your heart
Turkish yüreğini. Kazakh j (ж) answers Turkish y.
äurege saldym әуреге салдым
I put you to trouble
Turkish avareye. A Persian word that reached both languages, so no rule is needed to recognise it.
Words from this song that pay off well outside it. Each one is listed in the dictionary form you would look up, with the line it is sung in.
keide кейде
sometimes
The song's hinge word, and the first word of the last line of every chorus.
köñıl көңіл
heart, mind, mood
Not the organ. Köñıl (Көңіл) is where wanting happens: köñılıme senı qaladym (көңіліме сені қаладым).
jürek жүрек
heart
The organ, and the one that gets hurt: jüregıñdı jaraladym (жүрегіңді жараладым).
köz көз
eye
In the chorus with three endings stacked on it: közderıñe (көздеріңе). It is one of the words in the body-parts lesson.
sezım сезім
feeling
Built inside Kazakh from sezu (сезу), to feel. Both sezımım (сезімім) and sezımdı (сезімді) are sung here.
keşıru кешіру
to forgive
The song uses the bare command form twice: keşır (кешір).
bolu болу
to be, to become
Kazakh has no present-tense word for is, but it has a past one, and sen de men üşın boldyñ (сен де мен үшін болдың) is it.
qarau қарау
to look
Governs the dative: sağan qaramadym (саған қарамадым), I did not look at you.
qalau қалау
to want
Whose non-finite form is spelled like the question word qalai (қалай).
aşu ашу
to open
Feelings are opened in Kazakh as they are in Turkish: sezımdı sağan aştym (сезімді саған аштым), duyguyu sana açtım.
Answer before you open the answer. Every one of them is settled somewhere on this page or on the song's own page.
Kazakh joins a subject to what it is with no word for is. The sentence is finished as it stands: my feelings inside — the weather. See The Copula.
-ma (-ма), and nothing else. Both are non-finite forms of qarau (қарау), to look; the second is the negative one, not looking.
köz (көз) (eye) + der (дер) (plural) + ıñ (ің) (your) + e (е) (dative): to your eyes.
qarau (қарау) governs the dative — in Kazakh you look to somebody. sağan (саған) is the dative of sen (сен); senı (сені) would be the accusative, which this verb does not take.
kaçtım, I ran away. Kazakh q (қ) answers Turkish k and Kazakh ş (ш) answers Turkish ç, so both consonants shift at once — see the sound laws.
The lyrics, translations and word list for Aua-rai (Ауа-рай) · The Kazakh grammar course · All songs
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