A lovely song and a touching (and gorgeous) video

The song is sung by the young Kazakh artist Qaraqat (listen, that name probably sounds ugly if you're an American guy used to American names, but that impression will not survive the video). It's in Kazakh; so you won't understand it. But the story the video tells, and the specific emotion it captures, don't require words. (After the video I've put what one of the YouTube commenters said was the story, but you ought to watch it first without the help -- because the video doesn't need the help.) Plus you get to see the inside of a yurt all dolled up, and lots of Kazakhs wearing lovely traditional Kazakh clothing and really quite impressive silverwork, and you get to see what a Kazakh bride traditionally looked like on her wedding day. I think it's well worth seeing even if you don't have my interest in Kazakhstan (or if, like Anya and Kinya, you are an emphatically Russian Kazakhstani).



Several YouTube commenters have asked for somebody to translate the song, and one Kazakh responded:

This song about grandmother. It is called "Asyl azhe", which means My dear Granny". The words are beautiful. It tells about how she loves her granny who upbrough her and gave all her love. If I can get the words I can translate into English. In our Kazakh tradition a girl is angel and parents take care of her like that. The honored place is always given to a daugher. By this vedeo, they showed Kazakh tradtion.

Of course, you can generally count on at least one person to fulfill the worldwide stereotype of the clueless American (I'm chuckling good-naturedly here): somebody called "chantistar" felt compelled to ask, "do people really dress like this all the time?" Um...no, this is traditional folk dress.