said in turkish - türkçesi

when we try to translate turkish lyrics into english, we come across some words or phrases that defy simple translation. this thread will be about them. any help, suggestion, request, contribution or correction would be most welcome.

hani

this word was in a couple of recent lyrics. it has several meanings:

1. the most general meaning is where? it means the same as nerede?(*) in this sense with one subtle difference: hani implies a previous conversation or so about the subject between the speakers, nerede doesn't. it can be translated as so where's the ...? or well, where's the ...?

for example, you enter the kitchen and ask your mother, tuz nerede? here you don't say, hani tuz?

when you return from shopping, your mom looks at the bag and asks, hani tuz? (well, where's the salt?) she implies that it was on the list but you forgot to buy it, didn't you? she could as well say tuz nerede? letting the physical context take care of its being on the list.

as in the refrain of the song,

hani verdiğin sözler?
hani ellerin nerde?
hani huzur bulduğum deniz gözlerin nerde?
hani sen hep benimdin?
şimdi nerdesin, nerde?

so where are your promises (literally, the words you promised)
where are your hands?
where are your sea eyes in which i used to find tranquility
(you used to say that) you were always be mine
where are you now? where?

as it is seen in the second and third line, nerede can be used with hani in the same sentence as an emphasis since they're not exact synonyms of each other.

the penultimate line brings us the second meaning of hani, which will be the subject of the next message.

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(*) also nerde. in spoken language, the e in the middle almost always drops.

2. it's used to remind of something passed between the speakers, or something that everyone around knows about. in this sense it's equivalent to arabic إذ. it can be translated as remember that ... and it's not a question word, do you remember you (used to) said ...? it's not translated as "where" in this sense.

examples:

yolcu yolunda gerek

Yarınlar bizim için geç artık
Çok geç artık sana dönmek
Hani giderken bana demiştin ya sen
Yolcu yolunda gerek

tomorrows are too late for us anymore
it's too late now to return to you
remember what you said to me when you were leaving:
"the traveler must be on his way"

duydum ki unutmuşsun

Hani bendim yedi renk, hani tende can idim
Hani gündüz hayalin geceler rüyan idim

(you used to say that) i was the seven colors, i was the life in the skin
i was your imagination during the day, dream at night


3. there are a few other infrequent meanings, sometimes no meaning -just a filling. i can only remember the phrase "hani var ya" in a sezen aksu song:

Geri dönmek inan işten değil (*)
Hani var ya tutamazsın kendini
Bir ümitle ya olursa dersin hep
Bile bile herşeyin bittiğini

it's much easy to return, believe me
you know, sometimes you can't hold back yourself
you continuously say with hope "what if it happens ..."
even though you know it's all over

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(*) işten (bile) değil: literally, it's not (even) from a work, that is, it requires no extra work for me to do it or i can do it as easily as breathing.