Magin_Edward-thesis

48
Table 2.
Themes of Northern Kurdish poetry
Kurdish term English meaning Nalbend Sindî Teyb
evîn, evînî love X X X
dawaza 29 jin erotic X
dînî religious X
sîasî political X X
niştimanî patriotic X X X
edeta Kurd Kurdish culture X
nekamî calumny X
zêmar keening/eulogy X
cevak, cevakî society, social X X
secularization
X
tragedy of an
individual
X
I have chosen to refer to these Northern Kurdish classifications as poetic themes
as opposed to genres. I learned through my conversation with Badirxan Sindî that the
subject matter of a poem does not predetermine the form (or forms) one should use. Nor
does it designate a particular style. The poet who writes with a Classical style may choose
freely which form he or she would like to write in. While it is true that in centuries past
29 The spelling dawaz was provided by Findî, who spoke some English. Other resources for this word,
which means ‘to request’ or ‘to demand,’ spell it daxwez (Şirîn 2006) and daxwaz (Chyet 2003).