# Kırk yılda bir gibisin



## Ramisadeh

I presume you heard of this song, I love this song it has a great rhythm. However I don't understand why would the guy flirt with the girl by saying: you are like a 40 year old person. Assuming that is what he is saying. Could anyone explain to me what does the title of the song mean?


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## Muttaki

It certainly doesn't mean what you thought. But I can't tell you what it means exactly because I don't get it. It really doesn't mean anything to me. _Kırk yılda bir_ means _per forty years_. So for example someone really rarely comes to visit you and you can say _Kırk yılda bir bizi ziyaret eder_ meaning _He visits us once in forty years._ So here "kırl yıl" means a long time, not literally forty years. But again _Kırk yılda bir _*gibisin *really sounds a big nonsense to me. And I don't think anyone including the composers makes sense of it.


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## PorFavorDama

Actually it makes sense. The composer wants to imply that she is really rare and special for him to come into existence on earth. 40 yıl (forty years) is just used to emphasize the rarity of her so it could be any number.


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## Muttaki

Well of course, taking every word in the sentence into consideration that is the only guess we can make. Yes, if _Kırkta bir_ indicates rarity and if he says _gibisin_ he probably means something like _You are like you are really rare _which is again silly to say in English too. We can guess what he means to say but it is a ridiculous way to say it. There can't be such an expression in Turkish.

To me it sounds like (from the perspective of the composers) _We are the latest generation in Turkey, we don't care about the Turkish language or the way the Turks express themselves and we can speak in such a nonsense way. Fuck you all and fuck Turkish! 

_


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## Ramisadeh

LOL!!! Well that escalated so quickly. Anyway I think I got it, thanks again kardeşler for all your input.

One thing if I may ask, how do I say a 40 years old man in Turkish?


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## Muttaki

40 yaşında bir adam.


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## Euphoria.

It literally means "you are like once in a blue moon." I'm not really sure if it makes sense in English but for me it does as you get what the person means.


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## Muttaki

Euphoria. said:


> It literally means "you are like once in a blue moon." I'm not really sure if it makes sense in English but for me it does as you get what the person means.


You mean it would make sense to you if someone says "Uçak düşüyor" when he means that the plane is descending but not falling out of the sky, just because you can guess what he means? You know? The person could be an Azeri and in their language it means the plane is descending. But I would argue that it is wrong to say it in Turkish in this sense.

There was a funny joke about a child who hears a bad word, say "Fuck you", and asks his mother its meaning. And the mother just says it means "Thank you". So, the child begins to say "Fuck you" but means "Thank you". So, it is nonsense even if you get what the person means. Me, personally I really didn't get exactly what the sentence (Kırk yılda bir gibisin) meant at the first glance.

I should say again. The sentence is grammatically bullshit. It is like saying "Kırk yaşıyım" instead of "Kırk yaşındayım". And note that one can understand the person is 40 years old when he says "Kırk yaşıyım".


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## ahocan

it makes sense in Turkish. The composer wants to say that- you dont appear frequently, i can rarely see you. For instance, we say 'kırk yılda bir uğruyorsun' when we want to say that you dont come to see us frequently. To sum up, it is frequently used in daily life.


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## Muttaki

ahocan said:


> it makes sense in Turkish. The composer wants to say that- you dont appear frequently, i can rarely see you. For instance, we say 'kırk yılda bir uğruyorsun' when we want to say that you dont come to see us frequently. To sum up, it is frequently used in daily life.


_Kırk yılda bir gibisin_ is not used in daily or any kind of life.

And I want to ask, does the sentence _Kırk yaşıyım_ make sense to you as well?


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## ahocan

i wrote we use kırk yılda bir not kırk yılda bir gibisin. (For instance, we say 'kırk yılda bir uğruyorsun'). however, it is a song and poets or composers use words and sentences in a different way to catch the readers attention and make the song or poem fluentand impressive. indeed, they rarely use the language as people do. 
By the way, kırk yaşıyım does not make any sense to me. Where did you see it?


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## Muttaki

ahocan said:


> By the way, kırk yaşıyım does not make any sense to me. Where did you see it?


Nowhere, I just made it up. I wanted to show it is indeed nonsense but having heard it you can guess the person wants to tell you that he is 40 years old. So, _Kırk yılda bir gibisin_ is exactly the same nonsense even though one can guess what the composer wants to tell with it.


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