Abdulla Goran, (1904-1962) was a Kurdish poet. He undoubtedly brought about a revolution in Kurdish poetry, and is also called the father of modern Kurdish literature. At this time Kurdish poetry was loaded with hundreds of years of foreign heritage, especially Arabic. Goran cleared his poetry of this influence and gave it a form, rhythm, language and content which was based on Kurdish reality and Kurdish culture, nature and folkloric traditions. The Arabic meter ('urûz), much used in all Muslim Oriental poetry, was exchanged for patterns from old Kurdish folk songs, and the vocabulary was purified of Arabic and other languages. Kurdish-inhabited areas (Kurdistan). ... The Kurdish languages or Kurdish dialects, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, are spoken in the region loosely called Kurdistan including Kurdish populations in parts of Iran (Persia), Iraq, Syria and Turkey. ... Modern can simply mean something that is up-to-date, trendy, new, or from the present time. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...

Life

Born Abdulla Sulaeiman in Halabja in 1904, he studied in Kirkuk. When his father and elder brother died, he left school and worked as a teacher for several years in the Hawraman region. In the 1940s when the Allies established a Radio Station in Jaffa, Goran served as Kurdish staff member. Active in the Iraqi Communist Party he was arrested and tortured many times during the period of the monarchy. Untill 1954, he was editor for the jounal Jîn (Life). In early 1959, he gained the position as editor in chief for the journal Shafaq (dawn, later changing name to Bayan). He was appointed a lecturer at the Department of Kurdish language and literature at the University of Baghdad in autumn 1960. As a member of the Iraqi Committee of peace and solidarity he often traveled to the former Soviet Union. He became ill with cancer and died in Kurdistan on November 18, 1962. Halabja village cemetery Halabja is a town in Iraq, located about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Kirkuk (Kurdish: Kerkûk, Arabic:كركوك ;originally the Assyrian city of Arrapha) is an ancient city in Iraq, sitting near the Hasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jaffa (Hebrew יָפוֹ, Standard Hebrew Yafo, Tiberian Hebrew Yāp̄ô; Arabic يَافَا Yāfā â–¶(?); also Japho, Joppa; also, ~1350 B.C.E.Amarna Letters, Yapu), is an ancient city located in Israel. ... Since its foundation in 1934, the Iraqi Communist Party (in Arabic: الحزب الشيوعي العراقي) has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Average temperature (red) and precipitations (blue) in Baghdad Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and the Baghdad Province. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Kurdish-inhabited areas (Kurdistan). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Works

The dominant themes in Goran's poetry are his ideal of freedom and his love for Kurdistan, for women and for nature. His way of depicting nature is unique within Kurdish literature. Here and through other aspects Goran reveals a familiarity with the leading European modernist poets. Kurdish-inhabited areas (Kurdistan). ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

Goran went through three different periods in his literary career. This is evident in both the content and the form of his poetry. First he went through a classic period following the footsteps of his predecessors. Then he went into a romantic period, where women and nature were the most dominant themes. He started to transform traditional patterns of poetry. Characteristically Goran often sees the woman in Nature and Nature in the woman as in the poem Beauty and the woman. In his mature years, Goran turned to free verse as a means of expressing his political commitment to his people's fight for freedom and the working class struggle. He exposed, in his subtle and innovative poetry, gender discrimination against women, specially honor killing. He strongly condemned honor killing in one of his poems, Berde-nûsêk (A Tomb-Stone). A classic is an item that has become a ubiquitous and unique symbol or icon of a time gone by, mainly because of its inherent quality or its representative status. ... Romance or romantic can refer to: Romance (genre) - a style of Medieval narrative fiction. ... Free verse (or vers libre) is a style of poetry that is based on cadences that are more irregular than those of traditional poetic meter. ... Honor killing is the practice of a family member killing a female relative when the female relative has been considered to have brought dishonor to the family, often through unsanctioned sexual activity—often including cases when a woman is raped. ... Honor killing is the practice of a family member killing a female relative when the female relative has been considered to have brought dishonor to the family, often through unsanctioned sexual activity—often including cases when a woman is raped. ...

Throughout the last years of his writing, however, one will observe how a progressively stronger political tendency in the end overshadows and weakens the aesthethic aspects of Goran's poetry.

Goran published his poems, articles and translations in majority of the Kurdish journals and newspapers between early 1930's and until his death. During his lifetime, two collections of his poetry were published, "Paradise & Memory" and "Tears & Art" in 1950. 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Related topics

• Kurds
• Kurdish
• Iraqi Kurdistan
• Poetry

Kurds are one of the Iranian peoples and speak Kurdish, a north-Western Iranian language related to Persian. ... The Kurdish languages or Kurdish dialects, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, are spoken in the region loosely called Kurdistan including Kurdish populations in parts of Iran (Persia), Iraq, Syria and Turkey. ... Kurdistan is an area in the Middle East, inhabited mainly by the Kurds, covering parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

References

1. Shakely, Farhad, Goran, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, January 2005.
2. Hitchens, Keith. "Goran, Abdulla", In Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. Vol. 2. 3rd ed., completely rev. and enl. Edited by Steven R. Serafin and others, pp. 276-277. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 1999.
3. Shakely, Ferhad, Classic and Modern Kurdish Poetry. In Documentation of the International Conference on Human Rights in Kurdistan, 49-59, 1989
4. Hassanpour, Amir, The Reproduction of Patriarchy in the Kurdish Language, University of Toronto
5. Mojab, Shahrzad, “Honor Killing”:Culture, Politics and Theory, Association of Middle East Women's Studies Review, Vol. XVII, No.1/2, Spring/Summer 2002.
6. Beauty and The Woman, A poem by Goran