An Anthology of Modern Kurdish Literature

215 Pages·2011·0.54 MB·English

_____________________________________________
An Anthology of Modern
Kurdish Literature
Volume One: Poetry
A Short Study of Modern Kurdish Poetry in
Southern Kurdistan
Selected and Translated into English by
LEILA NADERI
iv Modern Kurdish Poetry ______________________
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An Anthology of Modern Kurdish Literature:
A Short Study of Modern Kurdish Poetry in Southern Kurdistan
Leila Naderi
Editor: Dr Bakhtiar Sadjadi
Cover Designer: Behzad Rahimi
Typist: Zeinab Chardawli
First Print: 2011
Publisher: University of Kurdistan
Print run: 1500
Price: 38000R.
All Rights Reserved.
To Kurdistan’s children whose cries
have remained unheard.
iv Modern Kurdish Poetry ______________________
i
Acknowledgement
I am very grateful to Dr. Bakhtiar Sajadi for his sincere
guiding and his extensive comments on the manuscript. I
hope I have been able to reflect his valuable suggestions.
I express my thanks to my dear colleague, Ghotbadin
Ahmadi who contributed in a variety of ways in the
preparation of this book.
I am also very grateful to Naseh Rahmani and Kawa Fatehi
to help me in designing of the pages. Thanks also to Behzad
Rahimi for the design.
I would like to thank my close friends, Shiva Amelirad and
Marzya Zaindasht for their unforgettable assistance. I
appreciate the poets who have given permission to publish
their biographies and poems and those who directly and
sincerely gave me their personal information.
ii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement------------------------------------------------ i
Table of Contents------------------------------------------------- ii
A Note on the Text------------------------------------------------ 1
Preface-------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Modern Kurdish Poetry in Southern Kurdistan:
An Introductory Note ----------------------------------------------------
9
Modern Kurdish Poetry in Southern Kurdistan:
Major Voices --------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Abdula Goran(1904-1962)--------------------------------------- 20
Autumn ----------------------------------------------------------- 22
B loody Flower --------------------------------------------------- 26
Sherko Bekas(1940- )------------------------------------------ 32
H alebja ----------------------------------------------------------- 34
S t ooping ---------------------------------------------------------- 36
T ogether ---------------------------------------------------------- 38
T he Ruin ---------------------------------------------------------- 40
T he Gun ---------------------------------------------------------- 42
S e paration--------------------------------------------------------- 44
Latif Halmat (1947- )------------------------------------------ 46
W riting ------------------------------------------------------------ 48
D ifference -------------------------------------------------------- 50
The Gun ---------------------------------------------------------- 52
Farhad Shakeli(1951- )--------------------------------------- 55
Heart's Mount --------------------------------------------------- 56
The Shelter------------------------------------------------------ 58
iv Modern Kurdish Poetry ______________________ iii
Abdula Pashew(1946- )--------------------------------------- 60
T he Unknown Soldier ------------------------------------------ 62
The Burnt Forest ------------------------------------------------- 66
M asterpiece ------------------------------------------------------ 78
On the Grave of a Great Lover--------------------------------- 70
Rafeq Sabir(1950- )------------------------------------------- 72
E va ---------------------------------------------------------------- 74
T he Beginning of My Love ------------------------------------ 76
Under the Rain --------------------------------------------------- 78
C yclone of Love ------------------------------------------------- 80
A Wide Open Window ----------------------------------------- 82
Delshad Abdula (1956- )-------------------------------------- 87
T he Chess -------------------------------------------------------- 88
T he Guest -------------------------------------------------------- 92
H omeless---------------------------------------------------------- 94
Bakhtiar Ali (1960- )------------------------------------------ 97
A Tired Musician's Work and Homeland -------------------- 98
A Doleful Representative--------------------------------------- 104
Kazhal Ahmad (1967- )--------------------------------------- 109
Proverbs of Saying ---------------------------------------------- 110
O! The Source of Great Sorrow ------------------------------- 118
Kazhal Ebrahim Kheder (1968- )--------------------------- 123
The Pages of History ------------------------------------------ 124
The Lips --------------------------------------------------------- 130
The Body -------------------------------------------------------- 132
iv
Qubad Jalizada (1953- )-------------------------------------- 135
The Earth -------------------------------------------------------- 136
Father ------------------------------------------------------------ 138
1000 -------------------------------------------------------------- 140
Rozh Halabjei (1969- )---------------------------------------- 143
I Come Back Beyond Being Lost; Life! Stop Please! ---- 144
Mahabad Qaradagi (1966- )--------------------------------- 165
Burning ---------------------------------------------------------- 166
Expatriating to another Resistance -------------------------- 168
Najiba Ahmad (1954- )---------------------------------------- 179
Sunflower ------------------------------------------------------- 180
Encountering --------------------------------------------------- 184
Karim Dashti (1955- )----------------------------------------- 187
An Avenue in the Sky ----------------------------------------- 188
B ibliography--------------------------------------------------------- 196
I ndex ----------------------------------------------------------------- 200
A ppendix------------------------------------------------------------- 207
iv Modern Kurdish Poetry ______________________
A Note on the Text
The untranslatable characteristic of poetry is not a unique and
a new idea. Even the most loyal translators may be
considered treacherous because of the fact that a piece of
poetry has a harmonious and organic unity composed of
music, rhyme, rhythm, and other features, and translating
these features needs an enormous effort. However, I had at
least two convincing reasons for translating these poems:
firstly, I do agree with those critics who believe that the act of
translating is the recreation of a text and the translator is
certainly the author of the recreated work. In other words,
non-translated works are condemned to death since their
rebirth is possible only through translation. Secondly, art is
the embodiment of the happiness, pains, suffering, illusions,
wishes, and victories of each nation and there should be some
concrete devices to transfer it to other nations. Indeed, there
2 Modern Kurdish Poetry ______________________
is an urgent need for illustrating the cries, sighs, tears, and of
course the joys, if there are any, of the Kurds. The present
anthology consists of two sections; in the first part readers are
provided with a short historical account of the literary
movements in modern Kurdish poetry of the Southern
Kurdistan and the second one contains those poets who have
founded a new school or style in poetry along with their main
followers who have promising literary works.
A lthough mentioning an exact date for the rise of a
movement or contributing specific traditions to a poet is a
difficult task, a great effort has been done to distinguish the
periods correctly and to introduce the remarkable poets with
their distinctive works. The sequence of the poets is based on
a chronological order which starts at the beginning of the
twenties century.
Kurdish literature like its stateless nation, which has been
divided among several countries, is fragmentary. The rule of
dictatorship and censorship has been an obstacle in the
development of Kurdish literature in Syria. The Latinized
Kurdish system of writing, remarkable differences between
Northern Kurdish dialect and other Kurdish dialects and
many other political and social features separate Northern
Kurdish literature from other Kurdish areas’ literature. The
literary movements in Eastern Kurdistan are more influenced
by Persian literature rather than by Northern or Southern
Kurdish literature. Hence, the present work focuses on
Kurdish poetry only in Southern Kurdistan. However, these
diversities do not connote that the literature of different
Kurdish areas cannot be unified; rather, it needs an enormous
effort and systematic long-time researches to cover the
totality of these diversities.
Since it is the first book of its kind in Kurdish literature, it
might have its own deficiencies, too. Hence, I am looking
forward to hearing readers’ opinions, suggestions and critical
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views. Indisputably, your consideration would be a helpful
lantern through the dark way we are going.