Magin_Edward-thesis

191
(321) geh şax=e geh westan=e ew (CX1:14)
at.times standing=COP.PRS.3SG at.times kneeling=COP.PRS.3SG 3D
geh mûş=e geh zinar=e dil
at.times mûş=COP.PRS.3SG at.times rock=COP.PRS.3SG heart
‘At times it’s standing (strong), at times kneeling (tired), at times it’s mûş 127 and at
times the heart is a massive rock.’
Also notice the repetitive use of geh, ‘at times,’ in these lines. Cegerxwîn uses
geh in two ways. One, to present antinomy, things that are or seem to be opposites to
him, such as Dêrik and Wan, which are cities in the Kurdish area of Turkey. He also uses
geh to form a group, such as his listing of Berber, Circassian, Turk and Tartar in line 12,
shown in (322). It may be that Berber is somehow the opposite of Circassian, and Turk
the opposite of Tarter. However, without some help from historians who understand
Kurdish history as well as Cegerxwîn’s philosophical stance, I can only presume from the
context given that these four people groups are grouped together here as peoples with
whom the Kurds engaged in past centuries.
(322) geh Berber=e geh Çerkes=e geh (CX1:12)
at.times Berber=COP.PRS.3SG at.times Circassian=COP.PRS.3SG 3D
Turk=e geh Tatar=e dil
Turk=COP.PRS.3SG at.times Tatar=COP.PRS.3SG heart
‘At times it’s Berber, at times it’s Circassian, at times it’s Turkish, at times the
heart is Tartar.’
Other repetitions were more subtle, such as the phrase xatwîna min , ‘my dear,’
repeated five times in Silêman’s 'Eşqa Dihokî Ya, ‘Dohukîan Love.’ The phrase works to
keep the reader empathetically engaged in the message of the poem. He also repeated the
word evîn, ‘love (northern Kurdish),’ eight times and its Arabic equivalent ‘eşiq, ‘love
(Arabic)’ four times. The poem is a comparison of two juxtaposed loves―not between
Kurds and Arabs, but between false love and true love. One love is a counterfit love that
he says is present and active in the city of Dohuk, and he describes some of the ways in
127 Meaning unknown. Muş is the name of a province in the Kurdish area of Turkey, however use of it
seems vague here (whereas in the line above there is a comparison drawn between Dêrik and Wan).
According to Omar, mûş (with a different vowel) can mean ‘unknown land’ (Omar 1992).