Magin_Edward-thesis

49
there were some expectations of the poet with regard to use of form, 30 as of the 20 th
century until today, this is not the case.
The first theme listed in Table 2 is evîn, or evînî, which means ‘love.’ Sindî
defined his love poetry as “romantic,” a word nonexistent in Northern Kurdish. In saying
this, he wanted to distinguish his evîn poems from love poetry by other authors where
respect for women is lacking. He says (in English), “I prefer to use the word romantic for
my poems because I understand love. There is no real love without respect. Love is
mixed with respect” (Sindî 2010). He may have said this to distinguish his poetry from
another theme. Ahmed Nalbend wrote many poems of the theme dawaza jin, which Findî
defined, in English, as ‘wanting a woman.’ This is the name given to Nalbend’s erotic
poetry, which many Kurds consider vulgar.
Poetry about the concerns of a nation covers many themes. Teyb (2010a) summed
up his poetry by saying “most of my subjects are about Kurdistan.” Sîasî (political),
niştîmanî (patriotic) and edata Kurd (Kurdish culture) are three themes that deal with a
country and its people. Chyet (2003) defines niştîman as ‘homeland, one’s native
country.’ For the Kurds― being without their own political state―the word represents
the land where they have lived for centuries, perhaps even millennia. Sindî (2010)
defined niştîmanî as ‘patriotic,’ which would include the desire for nationality. In this
sense, it is hard to separate it from sîasî poetry. But it is not unusual for themes to cross
over one another; nor is it unusual for a poem to contain more than one theme. According
to Findî, Edeta Kurd, ‘Kurdish culture,’ is a theme Nalbend used; however, I do not have
30 For example, traditionally, narrative poems were written in the methnawî, or couplet, form (in Persian,
masnavî). I refer the reader to § 5.3.1.2 for the specifics on this form. The treasured story of Mem u Zîn by
the classicial poet Ahmed Xanî is an example of an epic poem written in the methnawî form (Kreyenbroek
2005). Another example is the qasida, ‘ode,’ the most common form used by the Classical poet Melaye
Cezîrî. Considered to have laid the foundation for the Kurdish qasida, Cezîrî’s qasida’s are devoted to
philosophical and mystical ideas. Unfortunately, in English we have few details on this form which in most
instances consisted of 30 to 99 couplets (Shakely 1996:329). Turco (2000:216) defines an ode as “any
poem that celebrates an event or a person.”