# Severken



## rupertbrooke

In Pamela Spence's song:- bir tek aşk için, this is the chorus.

Allah severken tutar elinden
bırakmaz aman of
sevmeyi bilirsen
aşkını beslersen
dertler iz bırakmaz of
The translation is:-
God holds the hand of the one who is in love
Never releases the hand, oh god
If you know how to love
If you nurture your love
Troubles never leave a scar, oh


How can severken mean 'of the one He loves'? Could it mean (totally improbably be it said) 'while fAllah loves...' I would have expected sevdiklerin or some such word. Can this odd grammatical point be explained in a simply way?


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## spiraxo

Hi rupertbrooke,


rupertbrooke said:


> ...  Allah, (sen) severken, tutar elinden...



_God helps you while you love_

Hope it helps.


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## rupertbrooke

Thanks to all for these detailed entries. Perhaps the question in the first place did not merit such analysis. After all, it is only from a pop song. Surely in strict grammar the word severken must go with Allah if Allah is the subject i.e. Allah when he loves... Surely 'of one who is in love' as a genitive with 'elini' can't really be severken. It is my fault. A bit of a storm in a teacup perhaps.....


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## spiraxo

Compressed forms of speech missing commas!


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## Muttaki

rupertbrooke said:


> Surely in strict grammar the word severken must go with Allah if Allah is the subject i.e. Allah when he loves... Surely 'of one who is in love' as a genitive with 'elini' can't really be severken.



Hey, there is not a mistake about Allah being the subject and how severken used. It doesn't say 'when God loves', it says 'God holds the hand when he loves/when you love'. 

Although it may make some to doubt whether the subject of 'severken' is he or you, it is clear that subject is not God. Note that I can say this only from the meaning, gramatically it can also mean 'when God loves he holds the hand' but what she is trying to tell should make us take it otherwise. God is the subject of 'elinden tutmak'.

Or did you mean something else?


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## rupertbrooke

No, spot on! I never thought such a 'straightforward' question would lead to so much discussion. The discussion has been very valuable; the pop song chorus, as is to be expected from such a genre of lyrics, is hardly worth the grammatical attention accorded to it.


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## Reverence

The cause of obfuscation in that line is the fact that possessive suffixes aren't used together with -ken. _Ben severken, sen severken, o severken_... it's always "severken". No clue who on Earth is doin' the lovin'. You just have to rely on the context, especially when the pronoun is dropped as well, as is the case here.


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## rupertbrooke

Thanks, Reverence. That's why I thought that 'of the one you love' in Turkish should be sevdiklerin. Is this how you would would you say it in good Turkish:- Allah sevdiklerin elini tutar? What is the Turkish for 'the one you love' in all cases? How would you then say 'the one who loves you' in all cases. This *is *an important point of grammar worth discussing!


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## Reverence

Depends on what you're asking.

Allah sevdiklerinin elinden tutar: Allah helps those He loves.
Allah sevdiğinin elinden tutar: Allah helps the one He loves.
Allah sevenlerin elinden tutar: Allah helps those who love.
Allah sevenin elinden tutar: Allah helps the one who loves.


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## rupertbrooke

Concise & brilliant as ever! I rely heavily on the grammar books to elucidate points like this but with such questions as the one I have asked the information they supply is surprisingly sparse. This, and other answers, have cleared up my queries. Thanks to all.


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