Magin_Edward-thesis

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a specific example of this theme in the corpus. In his poem Xoşe Wekî Cenetê, ˈIt’s
Wonderful Like Heaven,’ Nalbend does mention some aspects of Kurdish culture.
However, the poem is considered to be niştîmanî, since most of it is devoted to the land
itself and the pride of its people.
Two other themes closely related to sîasî, niştîmanî and edata Kurd are
‘secularism’ and cevakî, which means ‘social.’ Sindî did not provide the Kurdish term for
‘secularism’ but considers it one of the themes in his poetry. He says that this theme is
evident in much of his poetry, sometimes to a greater degree, sometimes less. This would
also describe much of Cegerxwîn’s poetry and is evident in his poem Dînê Me Tête
Zanîn, ‘Our Religion Is Becoming Known.’
The theme cevakî was also described by Sindî. He had the following to say:
I have some poems which deal with our social problems in Kurdistan. And
we have a lot of social problems, because Kurdish society is changing
from old values to new values, from old culture to new culture. That is
why we have a lot of problems related to or due to these transitions.
We’ve got some people in the traditional class and some in the modern
class in our society. We’ve got some people who believe in religion
deeply and we’ve got, on the other side, some people who do not believe
in religion at all. We’ve got people who believe in our customs―Kurdish
customs―and we have another side; we’ve got a lot of people who believe
in European customs and modern customs. So there is a contradiction in
our social life. In my poetry I try to describe these problems and to find
some solutions to our problems. So, we can call these poems as poems of
the social field. (Sindî 2010)
One of Nalbend’s poems, Ey Ze’îmê Bê Nivêjê Bê Werar, ‘O Leader Without
Prayer and Use,’ is considered to be of the theme nekamî, which is basically the opposite
of a eulogy. The word nekamî means ‘criticism’ and, according to Findî, it is a specific
theme of poetry that deals with criticism of “one bad person.” According to Turco
(2000:73), such poetry would fall under the theme of calumny, which he defines as
“slander or disparagement, defamation of one’s character.”
Sindî’s poem Bîrewerîa Barzanî Yê Nemir, ‘Memories of Immortal Barzanî,’
exhibits a theme opposite to nekamî. It, too, is about an individual, but deals with praising
someone who has died. We would call such a poem a eulogy (Turco 2000:78). However,