Translated from the Kurdish by Tyler Fisher and Haidar Khezri
Setar
My taut and tightened heart is a setar,
and when the fingers of your love
caress its slender strings,
the memory of you afar,
convulses weary hearts,
strums the song of yearning, sings a new, full-throated verse.
سێتار
دڵی تەنگم سێتارێکە
کاتێ پەنجەی خۆشەویستیت
تاڵی کەزیەی تاسەکانی ئەبزوێنێ
لەو ساتەدا، یادی دووریت
دڵی ماندووی ئەلەرزێنێ
ئاوازی خەم لێ ئەدات و
پڕ بە زاری شیعرێکی نوێ ئەچریکینێ
Disgusted
O starless night,
So very like Vitellius, I
smell your rotting corpse, like Otho’s dead, and
sigh and say, “This is the life!”*
The time draws very near for the glass of your life to be shattered:
not much time for me to be like flame
and burn your wildwood that teems with hate,
floodwater to scour the filth from your core.
For ages now
my core has seethed to take revenge on you.
My breath ablaze,
I’ve not much time left to become an eagle
to startle your strange crow
from the wildwood.
*Jila alludes to the Roman emperor Vitellius, who is reported to have remarked after his victory over the troops of Otho at Bedricum (A.D. 69), “Optime olere hostem occisum [A dead enemy always smells best].”
بێزاری
ئەی شەوەزەنگ
وەختە منیش وەک» وەیتەلووس«
لاشەی گەنیوی» ئۆتۆن«یت بۆن بکەم و
بڵێم ئۆخەی
وەختە شووشەی عومرت بشکێ
هێندەی نەماوە ببمە گڕ
چڕستانی پڕ لە کینەت بسووتێنم
ببمە لافاو، جەڵغەی دەروونت ڕاماڵم
زۆر لەمێژە
دەروونی من لە عاستی تۆ پڕ لە قینە
هەناسەی من ئاگرینە
هێندەی نەماوە، وەک هەڵۆ
قەلەڕەشکەی نامۆییی تۆ
لە دارستان بتارێنم
For Jina
Your soul wore white.
In the mouth of stormy cold you reached my door,
became a rain of butterflies and drenched my eyes.
My eyes are continents of flame and aching love.
For this, your life has turned into a river of regret
and rippled down my cheek.
بۆ ژینا
ڕۆحێکی سپیپۆش بوویت و
بەدەم سەرما و کڕێوەوە دەرکەی ژوورەکەمت لێ دا
بووی بە بارانی پەپوولە و باریتە سەر هەردوو چاوم
چاوەکانم کیشوەری ئاگر و سۆزە
بۆیە گیانت بوو بە ڕووباری حەسرەت و
لەسەر گۆنام شەپۆلی دا.
Kurdish poet and activist, Jila Hosseini (1964-1996) was born in Iranian Kurdistan. Immersed in her father’s library, she developed a passion for Kurdish and Persian poetry from childhood. Jila became the first Kurdish female poet of Iranian Kurdistan to write she’ri-now (new poetry), free from the strictures of classical Perso-Arabic prosody.
These three poems in English translation represent the range of Jila’s most powerful poetry and her versatile voice. Amid the movement for civil rights across Iran, the words of this pioneering woman gain greater poignancy and urgency in giving poetic expression to the experience of women and marginalized ethnicities in the region.
Tyler Fisher completed his doctorate in Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford. With Haidar Khezri, he has published collaborative translations of Kurdish poetry in The Bangalore Review and Poet Lore.
Haidar Khezri, Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida, is the author of Comparative Literature in Iran and the Arab World, 1903–2012; It Is Only Sound That Remains; and Central/Sorani Kurdish: An Elementary Textbook. His translations of Kurdish poetry appear in major journals and anthologies, and he is completing a book-length translation of the prison letters of Farzad Kamangar, a schoolteacher executed in Iran.