Ulrike Tabbert, Mahmood K. Ibrahim - Sherko Bekas - A Kurdish Voice Under The Lens of Critical Stylistics-Palgrave Macmillan (2023)

Sherko Bekas
A Kurdish Voice under the

Lens of Critical Stylistics
Ulrike Tabbert
Mahmood K. Ibrahim
Sherko Bekas
Ulrike Tabbert • Mahmood K. Ibrahim
Sherko Bekas
A Kurdish Voice under the Lens of Critical Stylistics
Ulrike Tabbert Mahmood K. Ibrahim
University of Huddersfield Imam Ja’afar Al-Sadiq University
Huddersfield, UK Baghdad, Iraq
English Department College of Arts
Baghdad, Iraq
ISBN 978-3-031-30601-3 ISBN 978-3-031-30602-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0
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Foreword
‫كارەكەتان بەرز دەنرخێنم‬

…‫ئومێدەكەم كار و كتێبێكی ناوازەی لێدەرچێت‬
‫ئەم نووسینەم بە شیاو دەزانم بۆ ئەو بەشەی باستان كرد‬
‫ڕێزوساڵوی دووبارە و هەر بژین‬
I appreciate your work.

I hope it will produce a wonderful work and a book...
I think this writing is appropriate for the part you discussed
Greetings again and long live you
Halo Sheko Bekas
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Sherko Bekas13
3 Introduction
to Critical Stylistics and Analysis of
The Martyrs’ Wedding25
4 Critical Stylistic Analysis of Bloody Crown by Sherko Bekas45
5 A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Both Poems in Sorani55
Appendix I71
Appendix II75
Appendix III87
Index91
vii
List of Tables
Table 3.1 A synopsis of the tools of Critical Stylistics and Textual

Stylistics and their conceptual categories 29
Table 5.1 Enclitic pronouns in Kurdish 58
Table 5.2 izâfa construction in the opening lines 1–12 of Bloody Crown59
Table 5.3 Nouns in the opening lines 1–14 of The Martyrs’ Wedding62
Table 5.4 Parallel structure in Bloody Crown66
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract This chapter introduces the reader to the topic of the book and
provides a definition of political poetry as written by Bekas. In the second
section, this introductory chapter presents an overview of the content of
this book.
Keywords Political poetry • Aesthetics • Rhetoric • Ideology • Kurds
This book explores poetry by Sherko Bekas, a Kurdish writer and Swedish
Tucholsky Award winner, through the lens of Critical/Textual Stylistics1
(Jeffries 2010, 2022) and in context with biographical and cultural infor-
mation. To our knowledge, there is only a limited number of English (or
German) translations of Bekas’ poems2 and no book so far that offers a
linguistic or even (critical) stylistic analysis of his work. Furthermore, we
found very little scientific literature on the life of Sherko Bekas and none
that combines biographical details with a linguistic analysis of his texts. In
1
Jeffries recently renamed the framework ‘Textual Stylistics’ (2022).
2
Except, for example, translations of Bekas’ poems into German by Reingard and Shirwan
Mirza and Renate Saljoghi (Bekas 2019).
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
U. Tabbert, M. K. Ibrahim, Sherko Bekas,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0_1
2 U. TABBERT AND M. K. IBRAHIM
fact, Bekas appears not to be widely known to a ‘Western’ audience. With

this book we intend to remedy this.
When reading poetry written by Bekas in Sorani, we are intrigued by
the richness of expression and the many layers of meaning we discovered
by means of in-depth critical stylistic analysis of the original Sorani and the
translated English texts (as outlined in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5). Bekas holds
strong political views and even after his death continues to be a Kurdish
voice against oppression as well as a driving force in support of the Kurds’
wish for an independent Kurdistan. It is fascinating for us to see how
Bekas skilfully plays with different layers of meaning and the options the
Sorani (a dialect of Kurdish) language structure offers. We found an abun-
dance of implied messages in every line of his texts. For Bekas, however, it
is not merely an application of the skills he possesses as a poet but his
poetry is, in fact, a liberation from the boundaries of language as well as an
issue of aesthetics as Bachtyar Ali remarks in his foreword to a volume of
poems by Bekas, translated into German:
Je mehr ich las, umso klarer wurde mir, dass Sprache mehr vermag, als nur
etwas darzustellen und auszudrücken. Bislang hatte ich hinter jedem Text
seinen Sinn und die Absicht des Autors gesucht. Aber in diesem Augenblick
spürte ich zum ersten Mal die Ästhetik der Sprache als eigenständige Kraft
und begriff, dass die Befreiung der Sprache wesentlicher ist als der Sinn
hinter den Worten. Sherko Bekas’ Poesie schwebte außerhalb jener rigiden
Lyrikstrukturen, die ich kannte. Sie war ein endgültiger Abschied von der
klassisch traditionellen Dichtkunst …. (Ali 2019, p. 7)
[Translation: The more I read, the more I realised that language can do
more than just representing and expressing something. Until then, I had
looked for the meaning of a text and the intention of the author. But at that
moment, for the first time, I felt the aesthetics of language as a force in its
own right and realised that the liberation of language is more important
than the meaning behind the words. Sherko Bekas’ poetry hovered outside
of the rigid lyric structures I was familiar with. It was a definitive farewell to
classical, traditional poetry …]
Bekas, the ‘mother poet of Kurdistan’3 as he called himself, was unable

to remain silent when he witnessed injustice as, for example, in the case of
the killing of three students on December 17, 1985 in his hometown
Sulaiymaniyah (see poem The Martyrs’ Wedding, analysed in Chaps. 3 and
3
Speech at Folkore Hois, ‘The Whole Sky of My Borders’, 8-8-1987, http://www.rudaw.
net/english/opinion/12092013
1 INTRODUCTION 3
5). He did have an opinion on issues concerning his own people and had
expressed his views in his (poetic) texts throughout his life. Bekas touched
on minority issues and suppression of the Kurds in Iraq. His contribution
to establishing Kurdish identity and belonging cannot be underrated.
Bekas stated that the main source for his poetry stems from his political life
and literary beliefs, and is inspired by his cultural community’s wishes,
hopes and aims (Bekas 2008, p. 16).
1.1 Defining Political Poetry Written by Bekas

We begin this book by approaching our definition of poetry or, to be
exact, political poetry as Bekas used poetry to express his stance and spread
a message. We think it is necessary to clarify our terminology before we
present biographical and historical details (in Chap. 2) and our analysis of
two selected poems (Chaps. 3, 4 and 5). Towards the end of this present
chapter, we provide an overview of the book to give the reader orientation
where to look for those aspects that most interests them.
In order to arrive at a definition of political poetry, it appears suitable to
present Aristotle’s definition of poetry first:
[I]t is not the poet’s business to relate actual events, but such things as
might or could happen in accordance with probability or necessity. A poet
differs from a historian, not because one writes verse and the other prose
[…], but because the historian relates what happened, the poet what might
happen. That is why poetry is more akin to philosophy and is a better thing
than history; poetry deals with general truths, history with specific events.
(Aristotle 1961, ch. IX)
According to this definition, Bekas’ poems would not be considered

poetry at all because Bekas writes about actual and thus historical events
(as in the case of the killing of three students in The Martyrs’ Wedding; see
Chaps. 3 and 5). Furthermore, he uses the typical verse form to express his
opinion on the matter. He invites the reader to step into his shoes and see
the world presented by the text with Bekas’ eyes, in other words, from his
point of view4 (Simpson 1993; McIntyre 2006). He is neither a historian
nor a poet judged on the grounds of Aristotle’s definition.
4
For the purpose of this book, we follow Simpson’s (1993, 11ff) argument, based on
Fowler (1977) and Uspensky (1973), that there are ‘four important categories of point of
view’, namely the spatial, temporal, psychological and ideological point of view. A list of
viewpoint indicators can be found in Short’s (1996, 2019) and McIntyre’s (2006) works.
Another argument made by Preminger et al. (1993, p. 960) holds that

poetry was ‘negatively affected by its contact with political issues’. Such a
value judgement immediately begs the question as to the meaning of ‘neg-
atively’ in this context. What could be a framework for objectively estab-
lishing if there was any impact and whether it was a negative one? And
also, does this mean that poetry has to shun away from any ‘political
issues’?
So far, we raised more questions than we provided answers and we con-
clude that a definition of poetry might be unsuitable as a starting point for
our definition of the type of political poetry Bekas writes. Instead, we
argue that a definition of rhetoric fits much better in our attempt to arrive
at our definition. Rhetoric refers to ‘the skills of public speaking as a means
of persuasion’ (Wales 2001, p. 344). What Bekas does in his poetic texts is
to invite the reader to share his point of view as well as to persuade the
reader to take action as we will see later in our analysis of the poem The
Martyrs’ Wedding (in Chap. 3). For Bekas, the typical verse form is a
means to convey his point of view on political (and also non-political5)
issues. More importantly, though, Bekas makes use of the aesthetics of
(poetic) language and the depth of meaning conveyed by only a very lim-
ited number of words (compared to the length of a prose text). Bekas
employs the poetic form as a means to spread his message, but not only
that, he wishes to persuade the reader. Persuasion is an aspect if not even
the aim of rhetoric but to a lesser extent of poetry, at least not when con-
sidering Aristotle’s definition. We therefore find Burke’s definition of rhet-
oric most suitable to develop our definition of political poetry from. Burke
(1969, p. 41) defines rhetoric as ‘the use of words by human agents to
form attitudes or to induce actions in other agents’. Given that Bekas’
poems which we present and analyse in this volume have a political mean-
ing, the notion of ‘attitudes’ Burke mentions is of importance to our
work. The reason why we put emphasis on ‘persuasion’ and ‘attitudes’ lies
in the nature of the framework we use for our analysis which is Critical
Stylistics.
The term ‘Critical Stylistics’ as introduced by Jeffries (2010, 2014a, b,
2015a, b) is concerned with a systematic and thus rigorous and replicable
5
Not all of Bekas’ poems deal with political issues. In this book, however, we focus on two
poems that have a clear political agenda.
1 INTRODUCTION 5
detection of ideological meaning6 in texts. Jeffries initially developed her

framework from analysing political and other non-literary texts and
expanded and renamed her framework recently to ‘encompass literary
work, and in particular poetry’ (Jeffries 2022, p. 8).
Ideologies, she argues, are conveyed by texts in that these texts con-
struct a ‘particular description of the world through language’ (Jeffries
2015a, b, p. 384) which aligns with the ideational metafunction of lan-
guage (Halliday 1971, p. 332f). Ideology ‘enters the picture […] where
these ideational processes in texts produce worlds which have values
attached to them’ (Jeffries 2015a, b, p. 384). Jeffries (2022) recently
underlined this distinction between ideation (a term she borrowed from
Halliday but uses it as ‘the construction of a particular view of the world
through textual choices’, p. 4) and ideology. She argues that ‘ideology
implies evaluation whereas ideation is neutral’ and that both ‘are delivered
by the same mechanisms […], namely the TCF’s [textual-conceptual
functions]’ of Critical or Textual Stylistics (p. 9). Jeffries sees ‘no theoreti-
cal reason why the same mechanisms that produce the ideation underlying
this ideology shouldn’t also underlie the aesthetic or literary effects of, for
example, contemporary poetry’ (p. 9).
Here we return to Burke’ notion of ‘attitudes’ as well as the notion of
‘persuasion’ which is central to the purpose of rhetoric. We argue that all
poetry (as well as prose and drama texts) present text worlds7 that have
values attached to them and are thus intrinsically ideological in their mean-
ing. In order to understand what values are attached to the text worlds
presented by the text, it is important for the reader to at least temporarily
leave their real world situation (e.g. sitting in a chair in one’s own home
reading a poem by Bekas) or their ‘default position’ at their ‘own deictic
centre’ and be positioned ‘in the viewing position of the consciousness
behind the text, whether that is the author or some kind of narrator’
(Jeffries 2010, p. 150). This way, the reader is open to a new point of view
(or, in fact, Bekas’ point of view). We argue that the reader is foremost
positioned at the spatio-temporal centre of the text but eventually also the
psychological and ideological centre, if only temporarily, as the two
6
We understand ideological meaning in its widest sense and political meaning as a sub-
section of ideological meaning.
7
We are aware of Text World Theory (Werth 1999; Gavins 2007) but, in accordance with
Jeffries (2022, p. 2), we use the term ‘text world’ as a fundamental metaphor and a useful
analytical concept in this book.
remaining categories of point of view. It does, however, not end here as

Ibrahim (2018, p. 21) argues because Bekas also calls for action, if only
implicitly. This is the point where persuasion is being located.
Next, we present some existing definitions of political poetry, keeping
in mind our goal to present our own definition of Bekas’ political poetry.
Dowdy (2007, p. 11) holds that political poems have as their topics
‘injustice, suffering, materialism, oppression’ as well as ‘compassion, jus-
tice, and so on’. He considers these concepts to be political. Poetry, as
many poets and critics say, ‘takes its stand on the side of liberty’ or ‘speaks
for the party of humanity’ (Levertov 1985, p. 166). Preminger et al.
(1993, p. 961) argue that political poetry describes ‘the conditions of life
in different historical contexts’ and that ‘political poets succeed by com-
prehending a wide range of the demands and conflicts of their time, not
by rising above their historical moment’.
What these three definitions of political poetry have in common is that
the topic of the poem defines it as a political poem. Ibrahim (2018, p. 23)
takes up this notion of topic and defines political poems as those ‘that
express attitudes towards those political issues’. Political poems ‘can
deepen consciousness or be implicit or explicit calls for action. Political
poems are not restricted to one particular issue; rather they can be about
anything related to conflict within a society as in Bekas’ poetry’.
We extend this presentation of existing definitions of political poetry to
include the notion of the purpose and function of political poetry. Bly
[cited in (Dowdy 2007, p. 11f)] holds that political poems merely raise
our awareness, rather than call for action. Dowdy (2007, p. 11) goes as far
as to assert that political poetry does not ‘challenge dominant political
groups or social principles’, but ‘implicitly or explicitly supports them’.
After this rather pessimistic view of the power of poetry seen through the
eyes of oppressed Kurds, we cite McGrath (1982, p. 28f), who distin-
guishes between strategic (to expand consciousness) and tactical (show
causes for and diagnose political problems) poems and thereby states that
poems can have an effect on the audience.
To arrive at our own definition of political poetry, we build on a core
definition of poetry as a genre of literature (beside prose and drama) that
makes use of rhyme and rhythm and has a visually distinct verse form.
Furthermore, Bekas’ political poems deal with historic events and convey
an ideological meaning as every text does but in his case his value judge-
ments or ‘attitudes’ follow from conscious stylistic choices he makes on all
levels of language structure. He intends to persuade the reader and
1 INTRODUCTION 7
(implicitly) calls for action in his poetic texts. This epistemic notion (what
might happen if readers follow Bekas’ call for action) reconciles us with
Aristotle in that Bekas does write about ‘what might happen’
(Aristotle 1961).
1.2 Overview of the Book

Having defined Bekas’ political poetry, we continue by providing an over-
view of this book. As we write this book with a linguistically trained audi-
ence in mind, we do not introduce all theories and concepts used in this
book. Instead, we present references for those readers who might feel that
their appreciation of this volume could benefit from some extended read-
ing around certain topics.
Our intention when we developed the idea for this book was to bring
undervalued Kurdish poetry into focus. Furthermore, we want to bring
Bekas, who is very popular among the Kurds, and his political poetry to
the attention of a ‘Western’ audience. At times when the Kurds still have
no autonomous state but live in parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria,
where they consider themselves to be a minority in each of these countries,
we point towards issues of identity, oppression and belonging for a people
still living in a diasporic state. Given that both poems analysed in this book
were written in Sorani, we also wish to make a contribution to translation
studies, in particular from Kurdish (Sorani) to English.
Chapter 2 presents biographical details about Bekas (1940–2013), who
initially served as ‘party poet’ for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a major
political party in the Kurdish Regional Government autonomous zone,
and his career as a writer who later claimed to be a poet ‘of all Kurdish
nation, the poet of revolution and Peshmergas’ and ‘the mother poet of
Kurdistan’.8 We shed light on his political career (after 1991 he was a
member of the Kurdish parliament and became Minister of Culture in the
first Kurdish government). In addition, we explore his development as a
writer, from translating foreign literature to Kurdish (like Hemingway’s
The Old Man and the Sea) and his role as founding member of the Rwanga
movement, a new style of writing that broke with the tradition of rhyme
and rhythm in Kurdish poetry (as skilfully used, for example, by Bekas’
father Fayaq Bekas, also a famous Kurdish writer).
8
See Footnote 3.
Furthermore, Chap. 2 contains an interview with Bekas’ son Halo

Sherko Bekas, whom one of the present authors is in contact with. Halo
Sherko Bekas, who speaks five languages (Kurdish, Farsi, English, Swedish
and Russian), has Swedish and Iraqi citizenship. He was born in
Sulaiymaniyah where he attended the Eastern School of Sulaiymaniyah. In
1988, he lived in Iran for one year before he completed his degree at a
university in Stockholm. He lives in Sweden and in Iraq and is a journalist
and a poet. He agreed to give an interview for this book. Given that
Sherko Bekas’ father, Fayaq Bekas (1905–1948), was also a famous
Kurdish poet in terms of traditional Kurdish poetry, our catalogue of
questions focused on the differences between the poetry written by three
generations of poets in the Bekas family and the different styles of
their works.
In this book, we focus on two poems by Bekas, şayi şehîd/The Martyrs’
Wedding from Bekas’ book keşkollî pêşmerge/Miscellany of Peshmerga
(Bekas 2006a) and tacî xwênawî/Bloody Crown (Bekas 2006b). In Chap.
3 we present our analysis of the English translation of The Martyrs’
Wedding and in Chap. 4 of Bloody Crown.
Bekas wrote the poem The Martyrs’ Wedding in response to the kill-
ing of three students in his hometown Sulaiymaniyah on December 17,
1985, after they were arrested in front of their school for political rea-
son. We approach the linguistic construction of the three martyred stu-
dents in this poem by using the framework of Critical Stylistics / Textual
Stylistics (Jeffries 2010, 2022). This approach is a further development of a
stylistic analysis of poetry and especially suited to detect ideological mean-
ing in texts as Bekas used the art of poetic writing to express his political
stance on the murders. Chapter 3 begins with a brief introduction to the
linguistic sub-discipline of Stylistics as well as to the framework of Critical
Stylistics (Jeffries 2010) or Textual Stylistics (Jeffries 2022) which guides
the analysis of the selected poems in this book. Given the brevity of the
Pivot Series, we limit this introduction to a minimum and provide refer-
ences for introductory literature to Stylistics and Critical/Textual Stylistics.
The linguistic and poetic tools Bekas employs in this poem address an
informed reader. However, the beauty and aesthetics of the language he
uses (that shines through even in the English translation and is much
richer in the original text as shown in Chap. 5) touch the reader also on an
emotional level. They raise core issues of identity, belonging and injustice.
We are aware that our analysis as presented in this chapter is focused on
1 INTRODUCTION 9
selected passages to which we were pointed by frequency counts. A critical

stylistic analysis of this poem shows a way to decipher Bekas’ ideological
(here it is, in fact, a political) statement and we add a critical view because
this text is one of those that has the ‘power to influence us’ (Jeffries
2010 p. 1).
Chapter 4 continues with the presentation of our analysis of Bloody
Crown, a poem Bekas wrote to support his friend, Karim Hashimi, a
Kurdish fighter for freedom in Iran. This poem, although written in 1985
after the Revolution in Iran that ended with the abdication of the last
Persian Shah, is a timely poem given the current revolution that we wit-
ness happening in Iran at the time of writing this book. The reader might
recognise familiar demands Iranian protesters reiterate these present days.
Given that both analyses focus on the English translations of the poems,
Chap. 5 deals with issues of translating Bekas’ poems from Sorani to
English and provides a critical stylistic analysis of the opening lines of both
poems. The poems we analyse in Chaps. 3 and 4 are originally written in
Sorani and are translated to English by one of the present authors who is
a native speaker of Sorani. Sorani is referred to as the Kurdish language
although Kurmanji and Gorani are also Kurdish languages or rather dia-
lects. In this book, we use ‘Sorani’ and ‘Kurdish’ interchangeably. By
including this chapter on translation issues we intend to widen the appeal
of our book to translation studies scholars, particularly since we print the
original text of the poems alongside our translation. There are some major
grammatical differences between Sorani and English that are to be consid-
ered in our analysis, as, for example, the fact that, in contrast to English,
the word order in Kurdish is subject–object–verb. When the subject is a
pronoun, it is often omitted which leaves object and verb. Furthermore, a
verb on its own can already make a complete statement sentence because
it is always combined with the subject pronominal enclitic (bound pro-
noun) as in arom/I go. In case the object is a pronoun, it can be attached
to the verb in the form of a bound pronoun to form a subject–verb–object
structure. Chapter 5 points out these and other differences between the
two languages.
We show the impact of these differences in our analysis of both poems
and provide a critical stylistic analysis of the opening lines of both poems
based on the original Sorani version.
With this book, we put forward our argument that Sherko Bekas’ work
rightfully belongs in the canon of world literature but has been overlooked
in its importance to the present day. We provide linguistic proof for his
virtue as a poet who uses ‘deep language’ (see interview with his son in
Sect. 2.3) and how Bekas achieves meaning making in a skilful and multi-
layered way.
After this brief overview of the book, we turn to Bekas himself and
introduce the reader to Bekas in the following chapter.
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1 INTRODUCTION 11
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CHAPTER 2
Sherko Bekas
Abstract This chapter provides biographical information about Sherko

Bekas (1940–2013), his father Fayaq Bekas and his son Halo Sherko
Bekas. We show how Bekas’ writing was influenced by the canon of world
literature as well as by the political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan and world-
wide. Bekas, together with other writers, founded the Rwanga movement,
a new style of writing that broke with the tradition of rhyme and rhythm
in Kurdish poetry (as skilfully used, e.g., by Bekas’ father Fayaq Bekas).
Rwanga was developed in reaction to the social and political situation and
allowed writers to find new, creative ways of expression. In the third sec-
tion of this chapter, we present an interview with Halo Sherko Bekas that
focuses on the main differences between the writings of three generations
in the Bekas’ family.
Keywords Sherko Bekas • Fayaq Bekas • Halo Sherko Bekas •

Peshmerga • Rwanga movement • Kurdish Regional Government
Sherko Bekas (1940–2013) was a contemporary Kurdish poet, ‘a poet of

lofty visions and noble actions’ (Sharifi and Ashouri 2013). His father,
Fayaq Bekas (1905–1948), was also a well-known Kurdish poet within
traditional Kurdish poetry and a teacher. In a documentary (Raheem
2022), Bekas stated that his father had been a candle of hope for him.

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0_2
Bekas’ father died when his son was only ten years old (Sharifi and Ashouri
2013, p. 6). According to Bekas, his mother Shafiqa Saeedi Wasta Hassan
read poetry to him when he was a child (Raheem 2022), which might have
planted a seed for his love for this literary genre. He said, ‘if there is a great
hero in anyone’s life, my mother is the hero in my life’ (Raheem 2022). In
1969, Bekas married Nasrin Mirza. Bekas has a son, Halo Sherko Bekas,
born on November 13, 1972, and three daughters: Halbast (born in
1970), Hezha (1974) and Hana (1979).
Bekas initially read romantic poetry by Hardi and Goran, two famous
Kurdish poets. He submitted his first poem to the Zhen Magazine, the
only magazine available at that time. The magazine was owned by Ahmed
Zerf, who was a relative of the famous Kurdish poet Permerd. Goran, the
mentioned poet, was chief editor of the magazine and revised Bekas’ poem
for him. For Bekas, simple poems reflect realities better compared to dif-
ficult poems as the first resemble reality. Bekas stated on August 8, 1987 in
a speech at Folkore Hois (The Whole Sky of My Borders)1 that he consid-
ered himself to be the poet ‘of all Kurdish nation, the poet of revolution
and Peshmergas, flowers, Kurmanji children of the South and North, I
consider myself the mother poet of Kurdistan’.
In this chapter we introduce the reader to Sherko Bekas and begin with
some biographical information, followed by an introduction to the
Rwanga movement Bekas founded and conclude this chapter with pre-
senting our interview we conducted with Bekas’ son, Halo Sherko Bekas.
2.1 Biographical Information

Sherko Bekas was born in Sulaiymaniyah on May 2, 1940 and says that he
was born
in the heat of World War II in the Goizha-Gawran neighbourhood. Many of

our neighbours were Christians. Jamila Kahn was the mother of Nuri Mati,
my [mother’s] midwife. After I was born, she drew a cross with a piece of
coal on my forehead. The women around her asked, ‘What is this?’ She told
them it’s for blessing intelligence/Mubarak’s intelligence. I am happy that I
had a midwife from a [Christian] religion, because it is a sign of harmony
and exaltation …. (Raheem 2022)
1
Speech at Folkore Hois, The Whole Sky of My Borders, 8/8/1987, https://www.
rudaw.net/english/opinion/12092013
2 SHERKO BEKAS 15
Bekas lived in an era (from the inception of modern Iraq until 1991)
when the Kurds had been viewed as being second-class citizens. Bekas and
his family, like many other Kurdish families, were displaced inside Iraq in
an attempt to arabise them. He therefore had to live in Ramadi for a while
from 1974, same as one of the present authors of this volume whose fam-
ily was displaced in 1987 and came to live in Ramadi as well. The discrimi-
nation increased during Saddam Hussein’s regime (Ba’athist government
from 1968 to 2003) and was practised in the educational and cultural
sectors as well as in the job market. In the 1970s, Kurds like Bekas and one
of the present authors were displaced in an attempt to demolish the
Kurdish dream of having their own autonomous state. The situation fur-
ther escalated in 1988, with the destruction of over 3000 Kurdish villages,
more than forty chemical attacks, one event killing over 5000 Kurds in
Halabja, and a total of 100,000 civilians being buried after mass killings.
Bekas wrote a poem called Sculpture about the massacre in Halabja,
included in the collection The Small Mirrors and published in Bekas’
Diwan (2008). For our analysis of the poem Sculpture we refer to previous
publications (Ibrahim 2016, 2018; Ibrahim and Tabbert 2021, 2022a, b).
The political situation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq is of importance
for the interpretation of the poem The Martyrs’ Wedding to be analysed in
Chaps. 3 and 5 in this book. At the time of the killings of the three stu-
dents, the governor of the province of Sulaiymaniyah, Sheikh Jaafar
Barzinji, had already been facing far-reaching protests from the (mainly
Kurdish) people in the region.
From an early age, Bekas had taken a political stance, not only in his
poetic texts but also by joining the Peshmerga at the age of twenty-five.
The Peshmerga, whose name translates as ‘those who face death’, is the
military of Iraqi Kurdish forces. Bekas worked for the media of the revolu-
tion and took on a role as the ‘party poet’ for the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, a major political party in the Kurdish Regional Government
(KRG), a semi-autonomous region in Iraq (Levinson-LaBrosse 2018).
After joining the Kurdish Liberation Movement in 1965, Bekas worked
for their radio station (The Voice of Kurdistan). In seeking ‘new aspects
and dimensions’ for the thus far heavily arabised Kurdish poetry, Bekas
turned to international texts and translated Ernest Hemingway’s The Old
Man and the Sea (2000) and Federico Garcia Lorca’s (1899–1936) Blood
Wedding into Kurdish (Naderi 2011, p. 50). Bekas’ poetry depicts his
political and literary beliefs, his cultural community’s wishes, aims and
preferences (Bekas 2006, p. 16) as we will see when analysing the two
poems in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5. Bekas published his first collection of poetry

in 1968. He stated that he only loved his poems when he read them once
or twice which indicates his own critical perception of his work. In the
already quoted documentary by Raheem (2022) he says, ‘if I am satisfied
with it [a poem] completely then I will stop. I feel I have never done any-
thing yet, I feel I am looking for that water that quenches my thirst and I
know I will never find but will always look for it.’ In 1985, he considered
poetry to be a breath and in said documentary he stated, ‘it is still a breath
and part of me, but I always tried to improve my poetry and expand my
experience.’
Bekas joined the second Kurdish Liberation Movement in 1974. After
the failure of that movement, the Ba’ath regime exiled Bekas to Ramadi as
mentioned above where he stayed for three years. At some point, Bekas
became aware that the Ba’ath regime wanted to award him with the
Al-Qadsya Award in order to drew him to their side. He was forced to
either accept the award or leave and chose the latter (Raheem 2022). In
1986, he left for Sweden where he published The Small Mirrors in 1987,
Butterfly Valley in 1991 and, most importantly, Diwani Sherko Bekas
(1974–1986). In these collections of poems, he mourns the victims of
Kurdistan. While in Sweden, he became a member of the Swedish Writers’
Union and the Swedish Pen Club (Sharifi and Ashouri 2013). Bekas once
said that he had never stayed in Sweden for longer than two months in a
row because he was invited all across Europe by communities of Kurdish
migrants to read his poetry (Raheem 2022).
For a brief period of time, Bekas stayed in Syria where he was received
by Kurdish and Palestinian people. When he publicly read his poetry there,
the regime’s intelligence agency asked him what his poetry was about, also
because he read his poems in Kurdish.
In 1990 he visited California in the United States.
Following the uprisings in Kurdistan in March 1991, Bekas returned to
Iraqi Kurdistan. After the 1991 Gulf War, the already mentioned semi-
autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) was created in north-
ern Iraq and the Iraqi government withdrew its troops. This development
prompted Bekas to return to Iraq from Sweden in 1992. In the first
regional election, Bekas was elected a member of the Kurdish parliament
and became Minister of Culture in the first Kurdish government. In 1993,
he resigned from this position because of what he regarded as violations of
democracy.
2 SHERKO BEKAS 17
Bekas returned to Sweden and died in exile in Sweden on August

4, 2013.
Due to Bekas having been exiled, further due to his work with
Peshmerga soldiers fighting for freedom and his work as the manager of
the liberation movement radio, he held a special status within his commu-
nity. These aspects are reflected in his poetry, particularly in diwani awena
buchkalakan/The Small Mirrors in Bekas’ Diwan (Bekas 2006). Many of
Bekas’ poems emphasise the importance of poetry as a powerful weapon
to pursue global recognition of Kurdish culture and rights (Ibrahim
2018). His poetry impresses through ‘hard’ simplicity (see interview with
Halo Sherko Bekas) and elegance. His poems express humanist thoughts
in a sympathetic manner. Bekas was a poet who cried out for justice and
freedom, and was full of love for his fellow humans. He took a stance
against human suffering. His writings are not limited to a certain region,
instead he wrote about events worldwide.
Literary critics (Ali 2009; Omer 2011) consider Bekas’ poetry to be
political (see our definition of political poetry in Chap. 1). We would like
to add that, in fact, not all of Bekas’ poetry is political because some poems
do not include any political issues but centre around concepts of love,
nature and humanism. However, some political concepts are readily trans-
parent in his poetry such as freedom, war, immigration, and/or the sacred-
ness of martyrdom.
There were political attempts to oppress Bekas, as mentioned by
Bachtyar Ali (2019, p. 7ff), but his tireless work for the Kurdish people
and against oppression was recognised by awarding him with the Swedish
Tucholsky Award (a scholarship) by the Swedish PEN Institute in 1988.
This award was presented to him by the former Swedish Prime Minister
Gösta Ingvar Carlsson. Bekas received the Freedom Prize of the city of
Florence/Italy and became an ‘Honorary Citizen’ of Milan. Bekas has an
international reputation for his literary works. The introduction of the
‘poster poem’ (which has its origin in sculpture and painting) to Kurdish
poetry was his doing, ‘with its novel verbal patterning and aesthetics in
which the senses of seemingly trivial and mundane objects inhabiting his
micro-poems open hidden realities and mysteries of the world through his
aesthetic and linguistic variations’ (Sharifi 2016). 2 His poetry consists of
8000 pages, the published collections carry the following titles:
2
https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/06082016, accessed January 13, 2023.
- Moonlight Poems
- The Small Mirrors (which contains the poem Sculpture we men-
tioned above)
- Dawn
- I Appease My Thirst with Fire
- Two Juniper
- Eagle, Cemetery Lighted, Sulaiymaniyah
- The Dawn of the World and the Seat
- The Crying Mule Litter
- Graveyard of Candles
- The Ode to Migration
- The Secret Diary of a Rose
Apart from poetry, Bekas wrote a novel entitled The Cross and the
Snake, which Naderi (2011, p. 32) described as ‘a panorama view to his
own life and his homeland’ and ‘a unique genre in Kurdish literature at the
time of its composition’. Besides writing poetry and novels, Bekas wrote
two plays, Kawa, the Blacksmith and The Gazala. Furthermore, he con-
tributed to children’s literature.
2.2 Rwanga/Ruwange Movement
Bekas had a huge influence on the development of Kurdish poetry.
Whereas in the generation of poets including Bekas’ father, major atten-
tion was being paid to rhyme and rhythm, Bekas, together with other
poets and writers, founded the Rwanga movement in 1970 (Fahmi and
Dizayi 2018). The name ‘Rwanga’ means ‘immediate observation’ in
Kurdish. Rwanga poetry was a reaction to the social and political situation
and is considered to be ‘one of the fruitful consequences of the socio-
political developments’ (Fahmi and Dizayi 2018, p. 72). Poets from the
Rwanga movement tried to adjust poetry to real life (Naderi 2011, p. 32),
thus, it breaks from the traditional rules of rhyme and rhythm to express
many beautiful fantasies. Rwanga allows poets to convey their vision accu-
rately and to overcome the boundaries of language. This was a radical
change in Kurdish poetry (Riengard and Mirza 1998, p. 8). From his
experience of translating works of world literature like Hemingway’s The
Old Man and the Sea to Kurdish, Bekas identified ‘new elements in the
world literature’ and utilised them in his own poetry (Fahmi and Dizayi
2018 p. 73).
2 SHERKO BEKAS 19
Bekas stated in an interview that the Rwanga movement aims to explain

that their desires are ‘free to discover what has not yet been discovered, to
mix local and global languages in new and creative writings, and to sup-
port freedom all over the world’ (Dhiab 2007 p. 132).
Naderi (2011, p. 12) lists several features of the Rwanga movement
that underline its novelty and political agenda:
- It was a reaction to the social and political situation

- It deals with new words, new thought, and new behaviour
- It deals with realism which stimulates the founders of the movement
because they were interested in the Liberation Movement
- It modifies classical works to meet the requirement of the contempo-
rary world
- It emphasises novelty and innovation and focuses on the subject or writing,
rather than to whom the writing is addressed.
The poets of Rwanga proclaimed in 1970 (Naderi 2011, p. 12):
- Our writing is full of suffering …. Thus we are fighting against suffering.

- Beauty is the center of our writing …. Therefore, it is against ugliness.
- It is free and independent …. Hence it breaks boundaries.
- It is revolutionist ….
The Rwanga movement aims to gain justice and to fight suffering. It

uses a mix of local and universal languages in creative ways and supports
freedom universally (Sharifi and Ashouri 2013).
2.3 Interview with Sherko Bekas’ Son Halo

Sherko Bekas
Halo Sherko Bekas, as he revealed in personal conversations with one of
the present authors, was born on November 13, 1972 in the Iskan neigh-
bourhood of Sulaiymaniyah. He completed his primary education at the
Maulana Khalid School and his secondary education at the Rojhelat
Center, both in Sulaiymaniyah. Due to the unfavourable political situa-
tion, Bekas’ family moved abroad and after staying in Iran for a year, they
arrived in Sweden on May 17, 1988, where Halo completed his secondary
education and attended university in Stockholm. He was active in the field
of journalism and was a member of the Kurdish Youth Union in Sweden.
In addition to Kurdish, he is fluent in Swedish, English, Russian and
Persian (Farsi). Being a poet himself, he wrote a number of short and long
poems and was interviewed by radio and TV stations. Halo is a well-known
figure in the field of literature and poetry and takes an active role in social
networks (Facebook, in particular) where he publishes his fathers’ and his
own poems on his official page ‘Halo Sherko Bekas’ with 76,187 fol-
lowers. 3
After the death of his father, Sherko Bekas, on August 4, 2013, Halo
appeared more often in connection with Kurdish cultural and literary
activities and introduced himself to the larger public. When reading poetry,
his tone of voice resembled that of his father. As his father used to read his
poems on TV and on the radio, his tone of voice is famously linked to
his poems.
Halo completed and published his poem Memories of a Kirkuk Bicycle
in five parts after his father’s death, which caused a lot of controversy and
was discussed by a number of well-known writers. 4 In 2018, he published
a book entitled One Hundred and One Days of Loneliness (420 pages)
about the last days in the life of the late poet Sherko Bekas (from April 25,
2013 until his death on August 4, 2013). At present, Halo is writing a
book about haiku/poetry posters in both Kurdish and English entitled I
Wish My Father Would Give Me These Poems. He lives in Sweden and in
Iraq, and has Swedish and Iraqi citizenship.
Halo Bekas agreed to be interviewed for this book. What follows is him
answering our questions via email. As his answers are in Sorani and trans-
lated by one of the present authors, we provide the original interview in
Appendix I.
Q How would you describe your father to those who don’t know
him? What kind of person was he?
A He was calm and quiet, listening more than speaking, a good-hearted,
naturally soft-spoken man. Also, he was very committed to his time, and
he made every promise he made.
Q What has most attracted you in the poetry of your father?
A My father’s poems as I said have a hard simplicity and language at a
very high level.
It seems that he writes fluent, simple and deep language, always.
3
https://www.facebook.com/sacco.bekas
https://www.facebook.com/halosherkobekas, both accessed November 20, 2022.
4
https://www.kurdipedia.org/default.aspx?q=20191203133310376068&lng=16,
accessed January 22, 2023.
2 SHERKO BEKAS 21
Q Do you feel like you can write that too but you have not
written it?
A It is the beauty of his poetry.
Q How does your father’s poetry differ from the poetry your
grandfather, Fayaq Bekas, wrote? And to the poetry you your-
self write?
A Fayaq Bekas’s poems, my grandfather’s is more poetic and patriotic
in terms of art.
Poetry is somewhat simple, for example, simple feeling. They are beau-
tiful like ‘Hemn’ poems … My poems are shorter and have a case of poetic
briefs that are more advanced in today’s world of technology. In terms of
content, they are closer to my father’s poems than my grandfather’s poems.
Q What is typical for the style of your father’s poetry?
A It is a style of its own and nature is a stable centre in it.
The philosophy of humanity exits behind it, working continuously.
Q Given that you, your father and grandfather are poets, is poetry
something innately endowed or inherited?
A Poetry writing is not inherited, it’s more talent and self-education.
Through continuous reading … But at the same time, there is a spiri-
tual motivation if your father and grandfather are poets.
The fathers and grandfathers of other poets were not poets and they
nevertheless became great poets, such as Goran in modern Kurdish poetry
and Nali in classic poetry, for example, of the world and there are tons of
other examples.
Q Do you follow your father in using stylistic elements from the
Rwanga movement?
A Possibly, time may be different … Like everything else, so does poetry.
It changes the level of vision and perspective for me. It is very impor-
tant to me, in the briefest form and style of modernity, I convey what I
want to the reader.
Q Are you going to add a new element to Kurdish poetry as your
father did when he founded the Rwanga movement?
A I am working more on writing Haikoyi poems now.
Perhaps this is a newer work for the World of Kurdish Poetry.
Q Given that you, your father and grandfather lived in different
political and geographical environments, do you think each of these
environments plays a role in shaping the way poetry is constructed?
A Of course poetry is completely different considering the political and
geographical environment … even in my father’s poems.
This can be seen when he writes mountain defence poems and the
homeland will be a prominent centre of poetry.
Yet, the same poet forty years later reverses this in a text like ‘Now a girl
is my homeland’. He is a wake-up man.
Q Is there anything in particular that has made your father’s
poetry so widely known and popular and what is it?
A Sherko’s poetry horizon is wide and has not stopped at some level.
He has always thrown his poetry in all his time.
That is why people feel a rapid and continuous change in their poems
and are far from imitating and repeating themselves, so they always feel a
new and unique sensitivity to readers … In addition, he writes in a ‘simple
and expensive’ language that characterises Sherko one by one and has his
own seal and mark.
Q Do you think that there are links between poetry in different
languages or do you think they are completely separate because of the
different languages they are written in?
A Of course, every language has its own code and secrets.
But beautiful poems are beautiful in any language they are written in.
There is still a connection because they are the product of human imag-
ination such as a beautiful poem by Paploniro in Chile. Mahmud Darwesh
should be in Palestine or Abdullah Pashew in Kurdistan, they have to do
with the same universal imagination.
Q What difficulties do you face when translating your father’s
poems into English like you do on your Facebook account?
A As they say: translating your poetry into another language is a kind
of betrayal! You may still be able to convey your idea.
But you lose the feelings, senses, and secrets of the language.
The translator should be well aware of both languages in a good way
and have a rich literary background in both languages. Only language
knowledge is not enough to translate poetry. And there is no solution.
You have to do it like that. It is like smelling artificial flowers!
References
Ali, A. (2009). ‘The Structure of Artistic Imagery in Sherko Bekas’ Poems’. Iraq:
Sulaymanya.
Ali, B. (2019). Sherko Bekas und die vielen Formen der Freiheit. Geheimnisse der
Nacht pflücken: Gedicht, mit einem Vorwort von Bachtyar Ali. S. Bekas.
Zürich, Unionsverlag: 7–15.
2 SHERKO BEKAS 23
Bekas, S. (2006). Awena Buchkalakan (The Small Mirrors) in Dewane Sherko

Bekas: Barge Dwam (The Divan of Sherko Bekas), 2nd volume. Iraq: Kurdistan.
Bekas, S. (2008). dewane sherko bekas: barge dwam (The divan by Sherko Bekas).
2nd volume. Kurdistan (Iraq).
Dhiab, S. (2007). ‘Reality precedes Poetic Vision (translated by Chenwa Hayek)’.
Masarat Magazine.
Fahmi, I. M. and S. Dizayi (2018). ‘The Thematic Presence of The Wast Land in
Sherko Bekas’ Jingl’. University-Erbil Scientific Journal 1: 71–90.
Ibrahim, M. K. (2016). A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Sherko Bekas’ Snow.
Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Poetics and Linguistics Association
(PALA). https://www.pala.ac.uk/uploads/2/5/1/0/25105678/ibrahim_
mahmood.pdf.
Doctoral thesis.
Ibrahim, M. K. and U. Tabbert (2021). A Critical Stylistic Analysis of the
Construction of State Crimes in Sherko Bekas’ Poem The Small Mirrors.
Proceedings of the 20th Meeting of the Texas Linguistics Society, Austin, Texas.
Ibrahim, M. K. and U. Tabbert (2022a). Do not ask how? – A Critical Stylistic
Approach to Sherko Bekas’ Poem ‘The Martyrs’ Wedding’. In: Fazeli, Seyed
Hossein (ed.). Ahwaz/Iran: Ahwaz Publication of Research and Sciences (The
Ministry Approval Number: 16171). ISBN: 978-622-94212-2-2. pp. 1–11.
Full Articles: The Seventh International Conference on Languages, Linguistics,
Translation and Literature. Volume 2. S. H. Fazeli. Ahwaz/Iran, Ahwaz
Publication of Research and Sciences (The Ministry Approval Number: 16171).
ISBN: 978-622-94212-2-2: 1–11.
Ibrahim, M. K. and U. Tabbert (2022b). The Linguistic Construction of Political
Crimes in Kurdish-Iraqi Sherko Bekas’ Poem The Small Mirrors. The Linguistics
of Crime. J. Douthwaite and U. Tabbert. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press: 105ff.
Levinson-LaBrosse, A. M. (2018). ‘A Portfolio of Kurdish Poetry’. World
Literature Today 92(4): 42.
Naderi, L. (2011). An Anthology of Modern Kurdish Literature: A Short Study of
Modern Kurdish Poetry in Southern Kurdistan, University of Kurdistan.
Omer, S. (2011). ‘Realism in Bekas’ Poetry’. Unpublished MA Thesis. University
of Sulaimani.
Raheem, S. (2022). Poetry Forest – Sherko Bekas, Rudaw Channel, https://www.
rudaw.net/sorani/onair/tv/episodes/episode/documentari-sherko-bekas/
13102022041338.
Riengard and S. Mirza (1998). A journey Through Poetic Kurdistan, The Secret
Diary of a Rose, Sherko Bekas, Translated by Reingard and Shirwan Mirza.
Suleimani, Khak Press.
Sharifi, A. (2016). ‘Third anniversary of Sherko Bekas: A poet’s death, a national
loss’. https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/06082016.
Sharifi, A. and A. Ashouri (2013). ‘A Tribute to Sherko Bekas, the Kurdish Poet
of the Century’, https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/12092013.
CHAPTER 3
Introduction to Critical Stylistics and Analysis

of The Martyrs’ Wedding
Abstract This chapter is the first of three chapters in this book that pres-
ents a Critical Stylistic analysis of two of Bekas’ poems and begins with an
analysis of our own English translation of The Martyrs’ Wedding. Bekas
wrote this poem in response to the killing of three students in his home-
town Sulaiymaniyah. We approach the linguistic construction of the three
martyred students in this poem by using the framework of Critical Stylistics
(Jeffries, Critical Stylistics. The power of English. Basingstoke, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010) and a revised version of the framework called Textual
Stylistics (Jeffries, The Language of Contemporary Poetry: A Framework
for Poetic Analysis. Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). The
chapter begins with an introduction to the framework followed by the
analysis.
Keywords Critical Stylistics • Textual Stylistics • The Martyrs’ Wedding
Bekas’ work is widespread among the Kurdish people but also well known
beyond the borders of his homeland among the Kurds living in diaspora,
which allows researchers to conduct their work on his œuvre in several
languages.
In an interview with NRT TV, Halo Sherko Bekas pointed out that his
father’s poetry is studied in history classes in the United States, Canada
and Finland (Bekas 2018).

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0_3
Bekas’ poetry is mainly examined from the perspective of literary criti-

cism (Muhammed 2001; Ali 2009; Omer 2011; Mala 2012; Ghaderi
2015; Tabari et al. 2015; Fahmi and Dizayi 2018; Mohammad and Mira
2018; Abdulqadir 2019; Darwish and Salih 2019). These studies reveal
the different techniques Bekas uses in his writings to depict the political
and social situation. One of the present authors (Ibrahim 2018) employed
a stylistic perspective to primarily reveal ideological meaning in Bekas’
texts and is thus the first to apply Critical Stylistics (Jeffries 2010) to
Kurdish poetry. The present authors have further developed this critical
stylistic approach to analysing Bekas’ poems. We have already pointed to
our analysis of the poem Sculpture in the collection The Small Mirrors,
published elsewhere (Ibrahim and Tabbert 2021, 2022a, b). In this chap-
ter, we analyse the poem The Martyrs’ Wedding and begin with a brief
introduction to Stylistics and, in particular, Critical/Textual Stylistics, the
framework we use for our analysis. Due to space constrains that come with
publishing in the Pivot Series, we refer those readers who wish to get a
deeper understanding of the framework of Critical/Textual Stylistics to
Jeffries’ (2010, 2022) and Tabbert’s (2016) publications.
3.1 A Brief Introduction to Critical/

Textual Stylistics
During the time of Ba’athist power (1968–2003), an incident occurred in
Bekas’ hometown Sulaiymaniyah in the north of Iraq, not far from the
Iranian border. Three students (Aram Muhammed Karim, Sardar Osman
Faraj and Hiwa Faris Fayeq) were shot dead on December 17, 1985, one
month after they were arrested in front of their school for political reasons.
Their deaths led to an outcry and protests against Sheikh Jaafar Barzinji,
the governor of the province during Saddam Hussein’s regime, and
prompted Bekas to write his poem The Martyrs’ Wedding about the three
sons of his hometown Sulaiymaniyah as he commented at the end of this
poem (see Appendix II). He also indicated that he dedicated his poem to
them and he read it himself for the first time in a broadcast for the
Kurdistan People’s Voice Station. This poem and the collection which
includes it both have the same title The Martyrs’ Wedding. It is the second
of fourteen poems in this collection.
We approach the linguistic construction of the three martyred students
by using the framework of Critical Stylistics (Jeffries 2010), further
3 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL STYLISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF … 27
developed into Textual Stylistics (Jeffries 2022). This approach is based on

a stylistic analysis of poetry and especially suited to detect ideological
meaning in texts as Bekas, first and foremost, uses the art of poetic writing
to express his political stance on the murders.
Stylistics, to begin with, is ‘a sub-discipline of linguistics that is con-
cerned with the systematic analysis of style in language and how this can
vary according to such factors as, for example, genre, context, historical
period and author’ (Crystal and Davy 1969, p. 9; Leech 2008, p. 54;
Jeffries and McIntyre 2010, p. 1). Stylistics focuses on why one textual
feature is chosen over other possible alternatives and thus on the ‘element
of choice’ (Jeffries and McIntyre 2010, p. 25) or on the ‘variation of lan-
guage use’ (Nørgaard et al. 2010, p. 155). Stylistics offers a broad analyti-
cal toolkit for the examination of poetic texts but is not so much concerned
with the detection of ideological meaning in (poetic) texts.
Critical Stylistics, developed by Prof. Lesley Jeffries at the University of
Huddersfield, UK, is firmly grounded in stylistics and is a further develop-
ment of Critical Discourse Analysis (Wodak and Meyer 2009). CDA ‘itself
is not a method of research but a social movement of socio-politically
discourse analysts using many different methods of analysis’ (Van Dijk
2011, p. 621). Therefore, there is no agreed-upon framework of CDA
and no single tradition. From her experience as a teacher, Jeffries saw the
necessity to provide her students with a framework that guides them when
approaching a text and doing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Jeffries
acknowledged that CDA does not offer such a framework but most schol-
ars choose their own method of analysis which frequently includes transi-
tivity analysis, speech acts, modality, and lexical and syntactic structure
(Jeffries 2010, p. 13). Done this way, one might criticise results and con-
clusions drawn from a CDA approach and claim that the analyst subjec-
tively chose the tools to verify pre-fabricated results. Jeffries argued that
because CDA aims to expose an ideological stance presented in the anal-
ysed text, any claims of bias should carefully be avoided. One means to do
so is to secure rigour and replicability of the analysis by following a frame-
work such as the one provided by Critical/Textual Stylistics. It allows the
analyst to remain in an objective position as opposed to a manipulative
position where too many choices are made subjectively.
As Stylistics, Critical Stylistics builds on established linguistic founda-
tions like Saussure’s (1986) distinction between langue and parole, speech
act theory (Searle 1969; Grice 1975) and Halliday’s (1985) three meta-
functions of language (textual, ideational, ideological). Based on these
foundations, Jeffries initially developed ten textual-conceptual functions

(TCFs) of texts, like Naming and Describing or Representing Actions/
Events/States (see Table 3.1). Each TCF ‘refers to a feature of the text
which is evident in the lexis and grammar (thus textual) but performs a
specific type of role in building the world of the text (hence conceptual)’
(Jeffries 2022, p. 7). These TCFs, according to Jeffries (2022, p. 8), are
‘form-meaning dyads’ but with no ‘one-to-one relationship between form
and meaning because the forms which deliver the TCF are often made up
of a range of forms, sometimes with a prototypical form at the centre and
fuzzy boundaries’.
Under each of these TCFs, Jeffries lists linguistic realisations like, for
instance, for Naming and Describing she recommends to analyse the
build-up of noun phrases with their pre- and postmodifications, nominali-
sation and apposition. In the category of Representing Actions/Events/
States, Jeffries recommends to look at the verb phrase and to analyse tran-
sitivity mainly. Jeffries never claimed that these ten textual-conceptual
functions were cast in stone and always emphasised the flexibility of her
framework (Jeffries 2015a, b, 2014, p. 412). On the topic of languages
other than English, as relevant to this book, she sees ‘the potential for dif-
ferent languages and cultures to have a different (sub-)set of textual-
conceptual functions to English, or to prioritise their use differently to
English-speaking communities’ (2014, p. 412).
Table 3.1 provides an overview of the original framework with ten
TCFs alongside the revised model and points out similarities as well as
differences.
In her recent book, Jeffries (2022, p. 8f) argues that ‘there is no abso-
lute cut-off between intentional manipulation’ by means of normalising
ideologies on the one hand and ‘everyday assumptions’ of those ideologies
that are widespread in society and thus subconscious. She argues to thus
pay attention to ideation (‘the construction of a particular view of the
world through textual choices’ which is ‘neutral’, p. 4, 9) as well as to
ideology, both ‘delivered by the same mechanisms, namely the TCFs’
(p. 9). The emphasis on ideation allows Jeffries to apply her framework, or
model as she now calls it (Jeffries 2022, p. 9), not only to non-literary,
political texts but also to poetry. She argues that ‘there is no theoretical
reason why the same mechanisms that produce the ideation underlying
this ideology shouldn’t also underlie the aesthetic or literary effects of, for
example, contemporary poetry’ (Jeffries 2022, p. 9). In her revised model,
Jeffries acknowledges the importance of the ‘soundscape of poems’
Table 3.1 A synopsis of the tools of Critical Stylistics and Textual Stylistics and
their conceptual categories
Textual- Textual- Formal Realisation/List of Form(s) in Textual
Conceptual Conceptual Analytical Tools Critical Stylistics
Function Function Stylistics
Critical Stylistics Textual Stylistics
Naming and Naming and The choice of a noun to Noun phrases,

Describing Describing indicate a referent; adjectival
nominalisation; the modifications,
construction of noun phrases adjectival phrases
with modifiers (in pre- and
post-position) to further
determine the nature of the
referent
Representing Representing The choice of a verb, Choice of main
Actions/ processes transitivity (Simpson 1993, (lexical) verb
Events/States p. 88ff) transitivity type
Equating and Equating and Antonomy, equivalence Intensive relational
Contrasting Contrasting (parallel structure) and the structures and
creation of oppositional apposition
meaning (Jeffries 2010) (equating)
Syntactic and
semantic triggers,
including, for
example, not X but
Y frame
Exemplifying Listing Three-part lists (implies Lists of words,
and completeness without being phrases or clauses
Enumerating comprehensive, Jeffries 2010, which perform the
p. 73), four-part lists to same function in the
indicate hyponymous and higher-level
meronymous sense relation, structure
apposition
Prioritising Prioritising Relates to sentence structure: Placement in
three ways in which the syntactic structure
English language may (subordination or
prioritise elements of its fronting)
structure: exploiting the
information structure
(clefting), transformational
possibilities (active/passive
voice) or subordination
possibilities
(continued)
Table 3.1 (continued)
Textual- Textual- Formal Realisation/List of Form(s) in Textual

Conceptual Conceptual Analytical Tools Critical Stylistics
Function Function Stylistics
Critical Stylistics Textual Stylistics
Implying and Alluding Relates to Pragmatics Definite noun

Assuming (Levinson 1983): existential phrases and of
and logical presupposition, logical
implicature according to the presuppositions
cooperative model of Triggers of
interaction by Grice (1975, conventional
1978) (maxims of quality, implicatures
quantity, relation, manner)
Negation Negating The creation of unrealised Core negators (no,
worlds (Nahajec 2009) not), pronouns
(none), morphemes
(de-), lexical items
(deny)
Hypothesising Hypothesising Modality (Simpson 1993) Modality from
modal verb through
modal adverbs and
adjectives to lexical
verbs of opinion
Presenting Presenting Speech and thought Direct, indirect and
Other’s Speech Others’ Speech presentation (Semino and free indirect
and Thoughts and Thought Short 2004; Short 1996) reporting
mechanisms
Representing Representing Deixis, Text World Theory Deixis
Time, Space and Time, Space (Werth 1999), Possible World
Society and Society Theory (Ryan 1991), choice
of verb tense, metaphor
(Lakoff and Johnson 2003)
Evoking Onomatopoeia
(sound)
Layout
Line-breaks and
stanzas
Long, delayed or
extended clause
elements
Minor sentences
Adapted from Jeffries (2010, 2022)

(phonological choices, p. 10ff) and of the use of figurative language (met-

aphor, p. 12). Furthermore, she now distinguishes between ‘core’ and
‘peripheral’ TCFs due to different frequencies of their occurrences in anal-
yses (p. 12f). She introduces an eleventh TCF which she calls ‘Evoking’,
see Table 3.1.
Our approach to decipher ideological meaning in (political) poems by
Bekas sits comfortably between the original framework of Critical Stylistics
and the revised model of Textual Stylistics. With her revisions, Jeffries
paved the way for our argument that Critical/Textual Stylistics is applica-
ble to poetry (Ibrahim 2018). With this book, we apply the model to
poems in Sorani and thus show how it needs to be adapted when dealing
with a language other than English.
For a more comprehensive introduction to Critical/Textual Stylistics,
the reader is referred to Jeffries’ books Critical Stylistics (2010) and The
Language of Contemporary Poetry: A Framework for Poetic Analysis (2022)
as well as to both present authors’ applications of Critical Stylistics to the
topic of representations of crimes and criminals (Tabbert 2015, 2016)
and, as mentioned, to our analysis of Bekas’ poems (Ibrahim 2016, 2018,
2021; Ibrahim and Tabbert 2021, 2022a, b).
We are aware that The Martyrs’ Wedding carries political meaning as
Bekas presents his view and judgement of the incident. We understand
political meaning as a sub-section of ideological meaning in that value
judgements are added to ideation with the purpose of persuading the
reader of a particular point of view on a political topic and the often subtle
call for action in reference to a political purpose.
With one of the present authors being of Kurdish origin, we are criti-
cally aware of a possible bias in our analysis and therefore strictly follow
the framework of Critical/Textual Stylistics in order to pre-empt criticism
in that respect. However, as every text carries ideological meaning, so does
this book which means that despite all precautions there might still be the
possibility that our personal views on the incident are visible in this book.
For clarification, we acknowledge that linguistic meaning-making hap-
pens on two planes, namely meaning is projected by the text through
textual features (semantics, pragmatics and grammatical structure) which
trigger meaning and, on a different plane, meaning-making happens in the
mind of the reader who constructs meaning by bringing their world
knowledge to the text (Semino 1997, p. 125). Therefore, Jeffries in her
framework of Critical/Textual Stylistics acknowledges this by presenting
textual-conceptual functions of texts and by combining textual and
conceptual meaning-making. This meaning becomes ideological when

values are attached to the constructed text world (ideation) following a
judgemental process (Jeffries 2015a, b, see also Chap. 1 in this book).
Bekas, as we will see, does attach his own value judgements about the
incident, and thus a political issue, to the textual meaning and it is our aim
to decipher and prove it linguistically.
Out of the ten/eleven textual-conceptual functions of texts as formu-
lated by Jeffries (2010, 2022), our focus when analysing The Martyrs’
Wedding in English lies on naming and describing entities from the same-
named TCF (e.g. the meaning created by Bekas’ repeated use of the
numeral adjective ‘three’ in pre-modifying positions when naming the
killed students). Furthermore, we look at negation (TCF: Negating) in
this rather lengthy poem, foregrounded most prominently in eleven rep-
etitions of the phrase ‘Do not ask (how)’. We show a way to decipher
Bekas ideological statement by means of a detailed stylistic analysis and we
add a critical view because this text is one of those that has the ‘power to
influence us’ (Jeffries 2010, p. 1).
We do not, however, analyse rhythmic aspects of the poem because, as
Ibrahim has argued elsewhere (2016, p. 206), ‘I do not think these aspects
reveal much about the world of the poet’. According to Jeffries, rhythmic
aspects belong to ‘more conventional stylistics’ and are not usually
‘exploited for ideological purposes’. In her revised model, Jeffries takes
the view that phonological aspects ‘should not be excluded from consid-
eration where [they] contribute[s] to the textual meaning’ (Jeffries 2022,
p. 10). In our analysis of the original Sorani texts we found these ‘musical
aspects of poetic form’ (p. 10) not leading to new insights into the mean-
ing of these poems.
3.2 Analysis of Sherko Bekas’ Poem The

Martyrs’ Wedding
We began our analysis by one of the present authors translating the poem
into English. In finding the best possible translation, Ibrahim sought the
help of native Kurdish speakers who speak English as well. Both poems
were given to twelve teachers of English at the English Zone Institute for
Languages in Kirkuk and to thirteen English teachers at Kirkuk Private
Institute. These persons are between twenty-two and thirty years of age
with at least three years of experience in teaching English as a foreign lan-
guage. They were all asked to first translate the poem individually. Then,
after a thorough discussion of all translated versions, the translation we

present in this book was found jointly. Halo Sherko Bekas in his interview
for this book (see Sect. 2.3) emphasises that the ‘translator should be well
aware of both languages in a good way and have a rich literary background
in both languages’. With our way of translating the poem we are confident
to have found a good basis for our analysis.
Although Bekas is a well-known poet among speakers of Kurdish, not
all of his works have been translated into other languages and we know of
no translation of The Martyrs’ Wedding into English. The complete text of
the (translated) poem is provided in Appendix II, together with the origi-
nal Sorani text to enable speakers of Sorani to critically follow our
argument.
In a next step, we converted the .docx file into a .txt file to make the
text readable for the software package AntConc (Anthony 2022). Although
we could have counted the words manually, using a software tool allows us
to gain results much quicker. At the top of the wordlist (which lists all the
words in the poem according to their frequency) we found ‘three’ (28
occurrences) and ‘not’ (17 occurrences)/‘no’ (8 occurrences) which pro-
vides the statistical reason for our foci of analysis.
3.2.1 The Cardinal Number ‘Three’ or Naming

and Describing the Killed Students
The cardinal number ‘three’ first occurs 505 words into the English text.
It co-occurs with itself, mainly in clusters, meaning we find at least two
occurrences in close proximity to each other. We looked at the biggest
cluster ranging from lines 161 through 180 (we underlined all occur-
rences of ‘three’ and numbered the lines for ease of reference, the full
poem is to be found in Appendix II):
159 December 17th, a sunny morning,

160 It was a big marriage.
161 He was the king of our three sons.
162 They were three grooms.
163 There were no brides,
164 There were no three shy flowers
165 There were no three legs of the highland of kalikhani
166 They were three red dressed grooms
168 There were not three girls
169 Not three (young cute) girls such as white shirt pears
170 they were three Wanawashas with blue T-shirts
171 not three dotted partridges.
172 There were three grooms, no brides.
173 The brides were all the girls of Sulaiymaniyah and Kurdistan!
174 The brides were the daughters of Zozan and Kwestan.
175 They are three knight/horsemen sons-in-law
176 They were three storms
177 But the beloved and the fiancée with flowers in their hands
178 Were thousands of Khaj, Sherry, and Parikh
179 They were three groomed mountains
180 The brides were not three.
181 River … was a bride.
182 Snow … was a bride.
183 Garden was a bride.
184 Poetry … was a bride.
(Cited from the poem The Martyrs’ Wedding by Sherko Bekas, complete
text in Sorani and in English in Appendix II)
Out of a total of twenty-eight occurrences of the word ‘three’ in the

entire poem, fourteen and thus 50% are to be found in the lines of the
passage cited above. The numeral adjective ‘three’ in the context of this
poem has multiple layers of meaning. ‘Three’ refers to the number of stu-
dents who were killed in the incident on December 17, 1985. Furthermore,
‘three’ in rhetorics indicates completeness or even perfection. It shows in
the Bible (trinity of father, son and holy ghost) as well as in the Qur’an
(the shortest Surahs—Al-Kawthar/Abundance (108) and Al-Asr/Time
through Ages (103)—consist of three verses each). Three is called a triade,
meaning it has a beginning, a middle and an end. ‘Three’ refers to the
build-up of the world (heaven, earth, water) as well as of a human being
(body, soul, spirit). Time is divided into three periods (past, present,
future) as is human life (birth, life, death).
‘Three’ occurs three times in a pre-modifying position to the head
noun ‘groom’ (lines 162, 166, 172), naming the killed students.
Furthermore, the students are named with reference to nature
[Wanawasha/violet (with blue T-shirts), storms, groomed mountains] as
well as with reference to family relations (sons, sons-in-law). What makes
it clear that these metaphorical naming choices refer to the killed students
is the pre-modifying cardinal number ‘three’ that unites all these naming
choices and foregrounds the number itself and the different layers of
meaning it has in the poem by means of repetition.
Other than what the three students are, it is also worth looking at what
they are not and at what is not there for them which means that we extend
our analysis of naming choices to include negated and oppositional mean-
ing. According to the framework of Critical/Textual Stylistics, these are
separate textual-conceptual functions of texts, but it has turned out that
the textual-conceptual functions cannot always be looked at separately but
instead sometimes need to be looked at in tandem in order to describe a
phenomenon in its entirety. It clearly has its advantages to follow the
framework/model word for word in order to avoid bias. We do, however,
find it useful to be guided in our analysis by the poem itself and not by the
model. We also do not believe that Jeffries intended for her TCFs to be
entirely fenced off from each other as can be deducted from her critical
remarks in her conclusion from testing the model on (English) poetry
(Jeffries 2022, p. 245ff). In order to pay attention to the separation
between textual-conceptual functions listed by the model, we present a
separate Sect. 3.2.2 where we specifically look at the use of negation and
implied meaning in the poem.
Lines 170, 171 present an opposition between what the killed students
are and what they are not. Here we notice an ellipsis because subject and
predicator (‘they were’) are not repeated in line 171. Nevertheless, the
parallel syntactic structure in these two lines is still intact, the same struc-
ture as in the majority of lines presented in the extract under scrutiny.
However, the syntactic difference by means of the ellipsis leads to an
imbalance because of the omission and thus shorter form in line 171. This
brings in a subtle feeling that not all is well or a slight uneasiness and
increases the pathos of the scene.
Parallelism as well as repetition are means to create a foregrounding
effect. The noun phrases in a subject complement position are fore-
grounded (‘Wanawasha with blue T-shirts’, ‘dotted partridges’), both
noun phrases being further pre-modified by the cardinal number ‘three’.
Comparing the two subject complement slots, however, finds that the par-
allelism is interrupted as there is postmodification of the head noun by
means of a prepositional phrase in line 170 but not in line 171 which
underlines this effect of imbalance and uneasiness mentioned before. The
just described parallelism together with negation lead to the creation of
oppositional meaning between the two head nouns ‘Wanawasha’ (or vio-
let, a flower that grows in Kurdistan) and ‘partridges’ (here Bekas uses the
Kurdish word for a female partridge). Although both nouns refer to
nature, ‘partridge’ names an animal and ‘Wanawasha’ a flower. Nature is
at the heart of Bekas’ poetry as Halo Sherko Bekas stated in our interview
(Sect. 2.3) and as Malmir (2017) remarked.
The meat of a female partridge is more delicious and more costly than
that of its male counterpart because female partridges offer less meat as
they are smaller. Furthermore, female partridges are known to be more
peaceful as opposed to their male counterparts. With regard to politics,
female partridges in Kurdish culture are furthest away from any political
meaning or dispute.
Wanawasha (violet) is used as medication and is either taken orally or
sniffed, to treat different diseases such as coughs, flu, breathing sores and
all the pain of the throat. In Kurdish culture, the violet is also used to
produce olive oil, rosewater or as an ingredient in creams. Smelling the
Wanawasha helps to alleviate anxiety and insomnia. Naming the students
‘three Wanawashas’ means that killing them is actually an act of killing
nature. This underlines the brutality of the killings and evokes the notion
of the three killed students being ‘ideal victims’ (Christie 1986) in terms
of their victimhood status, the same as, for example, the fictional character
of Little Red Riding Hood from the same-named fairytale who is innocent
and unaware of the danger she is in.
However, not only the cardinal number ‘three’ or ‘trio’ (line 195) con-
tributes to a foregrounding of the number of the students who were killed.
We also find
– an actual list of three romantically involved characters (‘Khaj, Sherry, and

Parikh’, line 178),
– a triple repetition of the modal adverb ‘maybe’ in line 55,
– three negated verb forms in a row ‘does not blink, neither faints nor dies’
(lines 61 through 63) as well as
– three parallel syntactic structures ‘will be the suns, will be moons, will be
kings’ (lines 137 through 139).
Bekas thus foregrounds the number ‘three’ at various linguistic levels,

first and quite obviously by a frequent use of the actual numeral adjective
but also by means of three-part lists, triple repetition, syntactic structure
and negation.
The latter brings us to our second part of the analysis, namely the use
of negation and thus the creation of implied meaning in the poem.
3.2.2 Positioning Bekas as the Author: The Use of Negation

and Implicitness
In this section, we analyse the phrase ‘Do not ask how’/‘Don’t ask
how’/‘Don’t ask’/‘Do not ask’ that is repeated eleven times in the poem
out of which nine occurrences appear in lines 1 through 33 (the poem has
208 lines in total) in the beginning of the poem. In fact, the poem begins
with this phrase. It is presented in interrogative (questions) and imperative
(directives) sentences, in lines 17 and 18 it provides both the (rhetorical)
question and the subsequent answer. The high frequency of repetitions,
especially in the beginning of the poem, has a foregrounding effect and
invites if not even urges the reader to do the opposite and ask this ques-
tion. Furthermore, the frequent repetition creates a contradictory effect
to the literal meaning of the phrase: Although the phrase forbids to ask the
question ‘how’, the expression of absence draws attention to the possibil-
ity of presence (Nahajec 2012, p. 39), that is to ask that question, and thus
makes the reader aware of an alternative scenario (Jeffries 2010, p. 106).
Negation usually works on two levels, first it creates a pragmatic pre-
supposition (that is the meaning tied to particular words, here the negator
‘not’ added to the auxiliary, (Levinson 1983, p. 167ff)) and secondly, a
conversational implicature arises from flouting the cooperation maxims in
conversation (Grice 1975) in that the conversation is not as direct and
therefore as informative as it could be. In the phrase under scrutiny (‘don’t
ask’), the pragmatic presupposition is that the (implied) narrator presup-
poses that the reader wants to know how this incident happened and that
the reader has questions (which is the meaning of the phrase without the
negating participle—do ask). By adding a negative particle (the negator
‘not’), the narrator implies that there is no use in asking questions about
the incident. That would be the meaning of this phrase if Bekas had used
it only once in the poem. However, the repetitive use of the phrase ‘don’t
ask’ and its grammatical variations adds an additional third layer of mean-
ing to the discussed meaning conveyed by the pragmatic presupposition
and implicature. In fact, the frequent repetition of the phrase annuls nega-
tion and brings back the positive meaning of ‘do ask’ the question ‘how’.
Why does Bekas use this detour to get the reader to ask this question,
especially since he could have said so straight away? This has something to
do with hedging, a politeness strategy (Leech 2014) described in pragmat-
ics, where it could be regarded a face-threatening act to be direct and is
considered more polite to, for example, express a request indirectly.
Viewed against the background of Bekas’ poem in the time of the Ba’ath
regime and the already ongoing public protests following the incident, it
becomes clear why Bekas felt the need to disguise his request to the reader
of the poem.
In addition, Bekas uses this strategy to avoid presenting his own point
of view expressively and opts for an indirect means of expression. Point of
view, briefly mentioned in Chap. 1, is the ‘angle of telling’ a story (Simpson
1993, p. 2) and thus a ‘projection of positions and perspectives, as a way
of communicating attitudes and assumptions’ (Simpson 1993, p. 2). A
comprehensive analysis of point of view expressed in this poem is not pos-
sible due to space constraints. However, building on the already estab-
lished requests with which Bekas addresses the reader (to actually ask the
question ‘how’), we end our analysis of The Martyrs’ Wedding with posi-
tioning Bekas in regard to the text.
The phrase ‘Do not ask how’ is the negation of a verbalisation process
(Simpson 1993, p. 90), that is, verbally asking the question ‘how’.
Classifying the predicator in terms of transitivity (as recommended by
Jeffries under the headline of the second textual-conceptual function,
namely Representing Actions/Events/States or Representing Processes)
sheds light on ‘how speakers encode in language their mental picture of
reality and how they account for their experience of the world around
them’ (Simpson 1993, p. 88). Asking the question ‘how’ has an additional
layer of meaning which is the metaphorical meaning that by asking this
question, the sayer extends a verbal, one-sentence utterance to an act of
actively searching for truth and information about how the students died.
Considered in light of speech act theory, asking this question thus becomes
a speech act (Searle 1969) that, by and in itself, can be regarded as an act
of doing and thus a Material Action Intention Process in transitivity terms
(Simpson 1993, p. 89, 2014, p. 22ff). Asking questions and searching for
the truth metaphorically lead on to a subsequent process of mental cogni-
tion, a process of revelation and realisation. This is how Bekas pictures the
ideal and thus implied reader (Genette 1980, p. 260, 1988, p. 135ff) of
his poem. This reader is able to decipher Bekas’ implicit request to do
something by critically searching for answers and thereby revealing
the truth.
Bekas is the author of the poem as well as the implied author in the
poem itself, addressing the implied and therefore ideal reader (Genette
1980, p. 260; Genette 1988, p. 135ff). Bekas furthermore appears as the
first person narrator evidenced, for example, in lines 51 through 53:
51 It is very possible my heart neighbourhood.

52 My eye house.
53 My room of my soul and my abdomen.
The use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’ indicates the presence of a nar-
rator who also addresses a ‘you’ (social deixis, TCF: Representing Time,
Space and Society), that is the implied reader, for example by means of the
imperative ‘Do not ask how’. Bekas’ presence in the text world of this
poem becomes even more obvious by the metaphorical aligning of the
narrator’s physical body with urban structure (‘neighbourhood’, ‘house’,
‘room’), a phenomenon we also found and described in relation to Bekas’
poem Sculpture from the collection The Small Mirrors (Ibrahim 2021;
Ibrahim and Tabbert 2021, 2022a, b). The effect is that Bekas almost
melts in with the city of Sulaiymaniyah (spatial deixis) and its people, and
draws the (implied) reader into this union, making it a very personal mes-
sage by framing (Fillmore 1982, 1985) the incident as a matter that con-
cerns all. However, Bekas by means of politeness strategies (hedging),
implied meaning (through repeated use of negation), conceptual meta-
phors (urban structure is a human body), the use of questions and rep-
etition as rhetorical tools as well as his choice of the predicator (transitivity)
presents meaning on an implicit or subtle level instead of providing a one-
sided, explicit account of events. Bekas asks questions (or rather one ques-
tion ‘Do ask how?’) and invites the reader to do the same.
In this chapter we have looked at selected parts from the rather lengthy
poem The Martyrs’ Wedding that deals with a political event and have pre-
sented our critical stylistic analysis of it. Our aim was to discover the ideo-
logical meaning projected by the text. We acknowledge that there is a
certain degree of contextual knowledge necessary to understand the
meaning of this poem and we also acknowledge that the analysis in this
chapter focuses on the English translation of the original Kurdish text. We
hasten to add that one of the present authors is a native speaker of Kurdish
who was raised in the Kurdish area of Iraq and therefore possesses the
relevant cultural knowledge and is familiar with the Kurdish language to
analytically decipher the meaning of this highly political text. The reader is
also referred to Chap. 5 in this volume where we present a critical stylistic
analysis of the original Sorani text.
As mentioned, the linguistic and poetic tools Bekas uses in this poem
address an informed reader. However, the beauty of the language he uses
(that shines through even in the English translation and is much richer in
the original text) touches the reader also on an emotional level. This might
also be due to the fact that Bekas uses ‘the method of memory narrative
and the enumeration of the natural elements of the Kurdistan climate’
(Malmir 2017) the Kurdish reader is familiar with. Bekas raises core issues
of identity, belonging and injustice. We are aware that our analysis as pre-
sented here is focused on selected passages to which we were pointed by
frequency counts. It has to be left to another publication to present an
in-depth analysis of the entire poem.
In the following chapter we turn to another poem by Bekas and present
a critical stylistic analysis of Bloody Crown.
References
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CHAPTER 4
Critical Stylistic Analysis of Bloody Crown

by Sherko Bekas
Abstract This chapter continues with the presentation of an analysis of

our translation of the second poem entitled Bloody Crown, a poem Bekas
wrote to support his friend, Karim Hashimi, a Kurdish fighter for freedom
in Iran. This poem, although written in 1985 after the revolution in Iran
that ended with the abdication of the last Persian Shah, is a timely poem
given the ongoing revolution that we witness in Iran.
Keywords Metaphor • Opposition • Karim Hashimi • izâfa

construction • AntConc
In this chapter we present and analyse the poem Bloody Crown, written by
Bekas for Karim Hashimi in 1985. Hashimi was born in 1940 in Bana. He
was a fighter, writer and intellectual from eastern Kurdistan (Iran) who
worked for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP). From 1947 to
1959, he completed his studies in his hometown and joined Sina University
to be a teacher. In 2005, he published a book with the title ‘Hashemite
Karimi, Religion and Power’.
Bekas and his family lived in Iran for a short period of time; Bekas’ son
Halo speaks Farsi.

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0_4
The poem was published by the Kurdistan Union of Writers and was
intended as a motivation for Hashimi not to surrender. We present our
translation of the poem here and the Sorani text in Appendix III:
Bloody Crown
1 For my friend Karim Hashimi
2 Oh right atrium of my heart
3 Oh the east window of my wounds
4 Oh my Kurdistan of Iran
5 In the country of gown of black
6 My poetry of Syamnd1 (my poetry turned smart)
7 Searched for the eyes of Khaja2
8 The poetry of love with the height of Warmi3
9 Tried to hold a flower in (its) hand
10 And smile with freedom
11 Wanted to put mouth in its mouth
12 It was a clear fountain
13 Actively sprays
14 Asked a lot
15 Searched a lot and saw the smile of none
16 Khaja is a moon
17 A detained moon in jail inside Iran
18 My Khaja
19 Like the reddish apple of BuKan4 garden
20 Its neck is tilted and its eye is full of water5
21 Like - the groom and bride of - Sablax6
22 The beauty of Kurdistan is grounded - the hair distorted
23 Now May
24 Like the pale cheeks of
25 Children of all Iran
26 Annoyed, weak and pale
27 Waiting for a new rain
28 Now my fountain resembles
1
Khaja’s lover.
2
Name of a women that carries cultural connotations.
3
A place in Iran.
4
A city in Iran.
5
Indicated weakness and being tired.
6
A place.
4 CRITICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF BLOODY CROWN BY SHERKO BEKAS 47
29 The gaze of Sinnandaj’s7 girls

30 It is blurred
31 It does not become clear until
32 The owls8 leave the country
***
33 Oh part of my life
34 Oh the bloody crown of my head
35 Collect all the gowns predating on other people
37 Like a locked curtain in a dark night
38 From Khan to Saqiz9
39 They cover your body but they will
40 Not cover the candles of the wound of the martyrs
41 Will not block my storm
42 I am the tree of this life
43 you cut me from here
44 I grow from there
45 My pain is a chopper cut
46 The more it cuts me, the stronger I grow
47 Oh water killer!
48 You tie all the hair of the preachers
49 Together
50 Like a rope
51 From ‘Bana’10
52 To Sardasht11
53 You extend it very much
54 Even then, you cannot stop the mouth of my arts
55 And automatic Kalashnikov!
***
56 Oh, the weapon of my right shoulder!
57 The guard of my east castle
58 All the offspring and precedents of ‘Shah’12
59 From ‘Kursh’ to ‘Qachar’13
60 Every day they were killing flowers
7
Name of a city in Iranian Kurdistan.
8
Referring to the religious men in Iran (negative connotation in Kurdish).
9
Khan is the ancient name of Piranshahr, local people still call the city by this old name.
The distance between Khan and Saqqez is 205 kilometres.
10
City.
11
City.
12
Shah is a royal title for the ruler of Iran, the last Iranian Shah Pahlavi was overthrown in
the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
13
Cities.
61 They were shedding the blood of the weather

62 But then
63 Flower was not lost
64 Weather did not die
65 The one who died was the Shah, the king
66 The one who lived, who stayed was Kurdistan!
***
67 Oh my battlefield full of eastern sun
68 Oh the flower on the chest of Shirin14
69 The torch in the hand of Farhad15
70 The preacher said
71 I am cancerous
72 I am shield wall against hatred
73 But not tomorrow
74 The day after tomorrow
75 When the compressed flood of my nation
76 Spilled onto
77 The street.
78 Then the gown will tear apart by itself
79 Then I get Khaja
80 Children
81 Flowers and fountains
82 I get all with a smile
83 Then darkness will know
84 If cancer exists and does not stop
85 If it exists and does not die
86 Nothing stops it
87 It is only the sun of a nation
88 Heart of a nation
89 Power of a nation
We began our analysis by converting the text into a .txt file and uploaded
it into the software package AntConc (Anthony 2022), the same proce-
dure we applied to The Martyrs’ Wedding (see Sect. 3.2). Highest-ranking
words in the wordlist are ‘the’ (44 occurrences), ‘of’ (35), ‘my’ (16), ‘a’
(15), ‘and’ (10), ‘oh’ (9), ‘it’ (8), and ‘not’ (8) which means that these
words are used most frequently in Bloody Crown. We will deal with most
14
The name of a female character in a romantic fairytale.
15
The male character in the same fairytale.
of these words in the following Chap. 5. In particular, the use of the (in)
definite determiner or the generic form as well as the possessive preposi-
tion ‘of’ are examples for the structural differences between English
and Sorani.
What is most noticeable in Bloody Crown is frequent repetition of single
words or structures which is best explained under the headline ‘Equating
and Contrasting’ as one of the textual-conceptual functions in the frame-
work of Critical/Textual Stylistics. Furthermore, we noticed the use of
metaphors (e.g. ‘owls’, line 32, for religious men in Iran) and negation
(e.g. ‘smile of none’, line 15). The latter will also be dealt with in Chap. 5.
The presentation of our analysis of Bloody Crown in English will be shorter
compared to Chap. 3. The reason is that frequency results point us towards
phenomena that are well suited to present structural differences between
English and Sorani and how this affects the application of the framework
of Critical/Textual Stylistics to Sorani texts. We therefore decided to pres-
ent our findings in Chap. 5 and in connection with the Sorani text to
enable a better understanding of the argument. This means that Chap. 4
is rather short and focused on the textual-conceptual function of Equating
and Contrasting that was briefly mentioned in Chap. 3.
4.1 The Textual-Conceptual Function

of Equating and Contrasting
This textual-conceptual function, as outlined elsewhere (Jeffries 2010a, p.

51ff, b; Tabbert 2016, p. 103ff), ‘deals with the construction of equiva-
lence and opposition’. Equivalence is mainly achieved by means of apposi-
tion or subject/object complements, whereas opposition can take various
forms, for example, negated opposition (X, not Y), as outlined in more
detail elsewhere (Jeffries 2010a, b). In her recent revision of the model,
Jeffries (2022, p. 11, 113f) explicitly includes the frame ‘Not X but Y’ in
the TCF ‘Equating and Contrasting’, although it would also fit in the
TCF ‘Negating’, which indicates the permeability of the different TCFs.
We begin our presentation with four lines from the end of Bloody Crown
where Bekas pictures the future of Kurdistan. The four lines we present all
contain a high-ranking content word, namely the noun ‘nation’ (rank
19 in the wordlist with four occurrences):
75 When the compressed flood of my nation

…
87 It is not only the sun of a nation
88 Heart of a nation
89 Power of a nation
(Extract from Bloody Crown)
The possessive relationship between ‘nation’ as a modifier and the (dif-

ferent) head nouns is established by means of a prepositional phrase post-
modifying the respective head noun. In the original Sorani text, we find an
izâfa construction, further explained in Chap. 5. We argue that this paral-
lel grammatical structure underlines the notion of a united (Kurdish)
‘nation’ by means of repetition but also foregrounds the head nouns
‘flood’, ‘sun’, ‘heart’ and ‘power’ and brings them into a meaning relation
with each other. This is the future Bekas pictures not only for the Iranian
Kurds but for, at least, South Kurdistan. All four nouns are positively con-
notated and are used in a metaphorical sense as the ‘compressed flood’ can
be understood as the amount of Kurdish people or protesters on the
streets, the ‘sun’ relates to radiance and attractiveness of the Kurdish
nation but also its warmth in terms of hospitality, ‘heart’ refers to the emo-
tions and feelings of this nation but also its culture, history and legends
and, finally, ‘power’ is a reference to the military power of the Peshmerga
fighters, called ‘PJAK’ in Iran. Our reading of the meaning of ‘power’ is
supported by Bekas mentioning of ‘Kalashnikov’ (line 55) and ‘weapon’
(line 56). We therefore argue that the four head nouns are not put in
opposition to each other but complement each other, each emphasising a
different aspect of Kurdish strength. In this sense, the ending lines of this
poem are a plea for strength based on unity.
Another extract from the poem that makes use of parallel structure is to
be found in lines 63 through 66:
63 Flower was not lost

64 Weather did not die
65 The one who died was the Shah, the king
66 The one who lived, who stayed was Kurdistan!
Lines 63 and 64 differ in their structure compared to lines 65 and 66.

The first two use negation and list things that did not die although some-
one expected them to ‘die’ or to get ‘lost’. Here we bring in the
textual-conceptual function of negation/negating (for an explanation we

refer to Sect. 3.2.2). The expectation by a discourse participant that these
two ‘died’ is a pragmatic presupposition (see Sect. 3.2.2). By negating
their deaths, Bekas establishes that the Kurds are like ‘flower’ and ‘weather’
and therefore subject to natural laws as opposed to man-made laws, for
example, by the Shah. They cannot be oppressed and will not ‘die’ as no
ruler in this world is powerful enough to turn against the laws of nature.
In line 65, we find ‘negated opposition’ (Jeffries 2010a, p. 55, b) in the
form ‘Not X, Y’ (Jeffries uses ‘X not Y’ but in lines 64 and 65 we find the
opposite order). Another type of opposition is to be found in lines 65 and
66, namely opposition created by means of parallelism. These two lines
have the same sentence structure, namely a cleft sentence where one ‘takes
one of the clause elements from the basic sentence and places it into focal
position’ (Jeffries 2010a, p. 83, b). The analysis of prioritising (e.g. by
means of cleft structure) belongs to the textual-conceptual function of
‘Prioritising’ but we discuss this in tandem with the creation of opposi-
tional meaning to fully appreciate the meaning of the lines under scrutiny.
This cleft structure has the effect that the ‘Shah’ is placed in opposition to
‘Kurdistan’. One might argue that also the verb ‘died’ is placed in opposi-
tion to ‘lived’ because of said parallel structure. However, these two are
canonical opposites that are naturalised and come to mind in an almost
automatic way. Them being placed in opposition by means of this parallel
syntactic structure underlines the opposition that is central to lines 65 and
66, namely the opposition between ‘Shah’ and ‘Kurdistan’. Given the his-
torical context at the time when this poem was written, we argue that
Bekas encourages Karim Hashimi, the addressee of this poem, not to lose
faith given that one ruler (the Shah) had already been successfully over-
thrown and that the ‘preachers’ and ‘owls’ could be as well. What succeeds
and endures is ‘flower’, ‘weather’ and ‘Kurdistan’, aligning ‘Kurdistan’
with beauty and (the power of) nature.
Both nouns ‘flower(s)’ and ‘Kurdistan’ re-occur in the text and are to
be found five and three times in the poem respectively. The metaphorical
naming strategy Bekas employs here and also in the poem Sculpture, where
he uses words from the semantic category of nature to name human enti-
ties (see also our interview with Halo Sherko Bekas, where he states that
‘nature is a stable centre’ in his father’s poetry) was explored by the pres-
ent authors in another publication (Ibrahim and Tabbert 2022).
4.2 The Use of Metaphorical Meaning-Making

We have already pointed out that Bekas used words from the semantic
category of nature to name human entities and the Kurds in particular. An
example is the use of ‘heart’ and ‘fountain’ in the opening lines of the
poem. For an analysis we refer to Chap. 5.
Another vivid image that Bekas creates is to be found in lines 48
through 53 that has metaphorical meaning:
48 You tie all the hair of the preachers

49 Together
50 Like a rope
51 From ‘Bana’
52 To Sardasht
53 You extend it very much
The visibly worn beards of religious man, if tied together, form a rope
that does not reach from Banabad to Sardasht (14 kilometres on the map).
These two places are in the Kurdish region of Iran, Banabad is a village
with a population of 609 inhabitants (according to the census in 2006),
Sardasht is the capital of Sardasht County, West Azerbaijan Province in
Iran, with a population of 68,165 people (according to the census of
201616). Sardasht was bombed by Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein in
1987 and thus after the poem was written.
Wearing a turban and growing a beard is a century-old custom follow-
ing the example of the Prophet. Wearing a turban symbolises a certain
degree of (religious) learnedness and wisdom.
Although many Kurds are of Muslim faith, Bekas in these lines of the
poem sarcastically remarks that even if the beards of all the religious men
were tied together, it would not span said distance. Although there is a
simile to be found in line 37 (‘like a rope’), there is an additional layer of
metaphorical meaning in these lines. In a metaphorical sense, the beard
and its length stand for the religiousness of the wearer and what Bekas is
saying metaphorically is that their religiousness is only pretence and that
these ‘preachers’ are not as full of religious wisdom as they pretend to be,
expressed by the fact that the rope does not even cover such a rela-
tively short distance.
16
https://www.amar.org.ir
A continuation of this metaphor theme is to be found in lines 35

through 40, where we encounter a combination of a parallel structure and
a metaphor that continues on the same topic:
35 Collect all the gowns predating on other people

37 Like a locked curtain in a dark night
38 From Khan to Saqiz
39 They cover your body but they will
40 Not cover the candles of the wound of the martyrs
Especially lines 39 and 40 with their ‘negated opposition’ (see previous

section) metaphorically construct the physical gown that covers one’s
body as a means of hiding torture and killing. Here a conceptual metaphor
is used to understand and experience ‘one kind of thing in terms of
another’ (Lakoff and Johnson 2003, p. 5). We consciously leave aside any
ongoing discussion about and further development of this basic defini-
tion. A gown is usually used to cover one’s body and has its origin in the
Bible, where Adam and Eve, after they had eaten from the forbidden fruit
in paradise, became ashamed of their nakedness and sought to cover them-
selves (Genesis 3). A gown, apart from covering one’s nakedness, also has
the function of warming the human body, it is used to express cultural
belonging, status and gender. This familiar concept of ‘gown’ (or concep-
tual domain) is mapped onto the conceptual domain of covering or hiding
all sorts of wrongdoings in order to arrive at the conceptual metaphor
‘wearing a gown is covering wrongdoing’. We acknowledge that this
conceptual meaning is supported by the simile ‘like a locked curtain’
which underlines the notion of hiding and secrecy.
The noun ‘gown(s)’ together with the pronoun ‘they’, used as an ana-
phoric reference pointing back to ‘gowns’, occurs five times and thus fre-
quent in the poem. Here is a list of all occurrences:
5 In the country of gown of black

35 collect all the gowns predating on other people
39 They cover your body but they will …
78 Then the gown will tear apart by itself
The black gown is central to this poem as Bekas views Iran as ‘the coun-
try of gown of black’ (line 5) and projects a future where the gown will be
torn apart (line 78). In this sense, the gown is also used as a symbol of
oppression and an ongoing fight for freedom. As Hashimi is an activist

who is fighting for freedom, he is also put in opposition to the metaphori-
cal ‘gown’ or ‘locked curtain’ (line 37) with freedom to be found on the
other side.
In this chapter we provided an analysis of some aspects in the English
translation of the poem Bloody Crown. We outlined findings from the cat-
egory of ‘Equating and Contrasting’ and we highlighted some of the met-
aphors Bekas used. Being aware of the multilayered meanings in Bloody
Crown, we intend the following chapter with an analysis of Bloody Crown
in Sorani to complement this chapter.
References
Anthony, L. (2022). ‘AntConc (Version 4.0.3) [Computer Software]’. Tokyo,
Japan: Waseda University. Available from https://www.laurenceanthony.
net/software.
Ibrahim, M. K. and U. Tabbert (2022). The Linguistic Construction of Political
Press: 105ff.
Jeffries, L. (2010a). Critical Stylistics. The power of English. Basingstoke, Palgrave
Macmillan.
Jeffries, L. (2010b). Opposition in discourse: The construction of oppositional
meaning. London, Continuum.
Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, University of
Chicago Press.
CHAPTER 5
A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Both Poems

in Sorani
Abstract This final chapter deals with issues of translating Bekas’ poems
from Sorani to English and provides a critical stylistic analysis of the open-
ing lines of both poems in Sorani. Although Sorani has a different lan-
guage structure compared to English, particularly when it comes to the
use of possessives and the addition of (in)definite articles, this does not
hinder the application of Critical/Textual Stylistics to the original Sorani
texts if used in a flexible way.
Keywords Sorani • Kurmanji • Translation • izâfa construction •

Indefinite article • Generic form • Transitivity • Negation •
Presupposition
In this final chapter of the book, we provide a critical/textual stylistic

analysis of the original Sorani texts of both poems. This chapter intents
to complement Chaps. 3 and 4 and is limited to the opening lines of both
poems. With our analyses in Chaps. 3 and 4 we focused on the translated
texts of both poems. We have, however, not dealt with the original texts
yet. We are aware that translating a text is, in fact, the creation of a new
text that is different from the original. In this chapter, we will see if the
findings so far are in support of our findings from analysing Bekas’ origi-
nal texts.

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0_5
We therefore apply Jeffries’ framework/model (2010, 2022) to the

original (Sorani) texts and take into consideration the typological differ-
ences between English and Sorani to test the applicability of Jeffries’
model to Sorani in particular. This was done before by both present
authors, Ibrahim (2018) with Sorani and Tabbert (2015) with German.
With this chapter, we build on these foundations and indicate modifica-
tions for Jeffries’ model in a way that makes it comprehensive and work-
able with languages other than English. Furthermore, this chapter
contributes to the field of translation studies between English and Kurdish
(Sorani).
5.1 Application of Critical/Textual Stylistics

to Kurdish Poems
The main concern of the study presented in this chapter centres on the use
of Critical/Textual Stylistics (Jeffries 2010, 2022) to analyse the poems in
Sorani and the differences when applied to the English translations of a
Sorani text.
Naturally, our work can only analyse those textual features that we
encounter in these poems. There may be other distinct features in Kurdish
that are not present in our data and that we therefore cannot discuss in this
chapter.
Stylistics and Critical/Textual Stylistics were developed based on texts
in English (Simpson 2004; Leech and Short 2007; Jeffries 2010; Jeffries
and McIntyre 2010). They are applicable to Kurdish texts with some
modifications and additions (in particular at the intersections between the
textual-conceptual functions) that we will point out in this chapter. This is
because of the differences between the two languages that we focus on
next. For example, we have found that Bekas repeatedly used words
semantically related to nature in modifying positions in noun phrases in
both poems, Bloody Crown and The Martyrs’ Wedding. Furthermore, the
former poem has more nouns than the latter (which has more verbs). We
therefore argue that the textual-conceptual function of ‘Naming and
Describing’, which deals with the build-up of noun phrases, needs modi-
fications when the framework is applied to Kurdish texts.
This is due to the fact that in Sorani, the meaning changes if there is an
(in)definite article present in a noun phrase and also where it is placed (in
proximity to the head noun or the pre-/postmodifier). This can change the
connotations of the noun phrase and is the reason for most of the differ-
ences between the Sorani and the English version of the poem Bloody Crown.
5 A CRITICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF BOTH POEMS IN SORANI 57
We begin with some general remarks on the Kurdish languages in com-

parison to English, followed by our analysis of the opening lines of both
poems in Sorani.
Kurdish belongs to the Western Iranian group of Indo-Iranian lan-
guages. This group is a branch of the Indo-European language family.
There are two main dialects in modern Kurdish. The first is Kurmanji,
which is the native language of most of the Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Armenia
and Azerbaijan, an area known among the Kurds as ‘North Kurdistan’.
This language is spoken by an estimate fifteen to seventeen million speak-
ers. The second dialect is Sorani, the language of the vast majority of
Kurds in Iraq and Iran (about five million speakers each), in an area known
as ‘South Kurdistan’. Although both dialects are closely related, Kurmanji
and Sorani differ in their basic structure, vocabulary and idioms. In addi-
tion, Kurmanji is still not a unified or standardised language, whereas
Sorani has been the second official language in Iraq since its foundation
after World War I. There have been activities in the literature for many
decades to use Sorani more often.
In contrast, Kurdish has never been an official language in Iran.
Nevertheless, there are noteworthy Kurdish publications in Iranian
Kurdistan, especially after the Iranian Revolution in 1978/79. Outside
this area (in the south to Kermanshah and in the east as far as Bijar), the
language is known as Gorani or South Sorani, which has a language struc-
ture derived from Persian but with Kurdish vocabulary. It is noteworthy
that Sorani Kurdish dictionaries are not easy to find (Wahby and Edmonds
1966; McCarus 1967; Jolaoso and Olajimbiti 2020). Sorani Kurdish is
written with a modified Arabic alphabet. Throughout this chapter, we use
the Latin alphabet to make it easier for the reader to follow our argument.
For this purpose we used the Arabic to Latin online converter. 1
There are some descriptive or prescriptive grammatical studies such as,
for example, by Haig and Matras (2002) and critical literary studies as, for
example, by Mohammad and Mira (2018) on Kurdish. However, no study
has yet applied stylistic analysis to Sorani data. Our study is a contribution
to the application of (Critical/Textual) Stylistics to Sorani language data.
It is also useful for teachers of Kurdish literature and language as C
ritical/
Textual Stylistics provides a systematic set of tools, which can also be used
for analyses of prose, drama and poems (see Sect. 3.1).
1
http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/kurdish_conversion.htm, accessed on November
14, 2022.
Table 5.1 Enclitic pronouns in Kurdish
qutabim Student (copula verb, first-person singular I am a student

possessive)
kuřekim Son (first-person singular possessive) a son of mine
dáchim Go (first-person singular possessive) I go
The poem Bloody Crown consists of 341 words in the original Sorani
text while it is 478 words long in the English translation. The Martyrs’
Wedding consists of 922 words in Sorani and 1,163 in the translation. The
increase in words is due to the fact that articles, pronouns and present
copulas are enclitic which means they are part of the preceding words in
Sorani (and not separate words as in English) as in the following examples
(Table 5.1).
5.2 The Textual-Conceptual Function of Naming

and Describing
We begin our analysis with the textual-conceptual function of ‘Naming

and Describing’ strategies in the two poems. For this purpose, we sorted
the noun phrases from the beginning lines of both poems into categories
and found two predominant patterns in the data: an izâfa construction
and modifying adjectives. With our analysis we demonstrate why some
patterns are culturally sensitive or embedded even and how cultural con-
notations play a crucial role in the analysis of noun phrases. We show fea-
tures related to ‘Naming and Describing’ that are present in Sorani but
not to be found at all or with minor differences in English. We find it
useful to discuss our findings from our ‘Naming and Describing’ analysis
together with findings from other textual-conceptual functions to avoid
repetition.
In Bloody Crown, Bekas used eyi/‘Oh’ in the beginnings of lines 2
through 4 (as well as in lines 33, 34, 56, 67 and 68). In Kurdish, similar
to English, ‘Oh’ is used when introducing something new, when talking
to someone (as a form of address) or when one wishes to express some-
thing in an emotional way. In the context of this poem, Bekas addresses
‘the atrium of my heart’ (line 2), ‘the east windows of my wounds’ (line
3) and ‘my Kurdistan of Iran’ (line 4) to enforce emotionality of the mes-
sage. The interjection ‘oh’ is followed by an izâfa construction. In this
construction, the izâfa vowel i links two parts of a possessive construction
and can be compared to the use of the possessive preposition ‘of’ in

English. In Sorani, i is used as a modifier and can be combined with an
adjective or a noun. This construction is different in Sorani compared to
English in where the article is placed.
There are three uses of an article in Kurdish: definite, indefinite and a
zero article. The use of a zero article in a noun phrase constructs a generic
noun phase (absolute) or, in other words, establishes a permanent relation
between the head noun and the modifier. For example, in the noun phrase
gwêçkîleyi rastî dllm/‘right atrium of my heart’ (line 2), the modifier right
is a permanent and not a temporary property of heart, referring to the
commonly known fact that human hearts have a right atrium. Bekas used
‘right atrium’ because it refers to the part of the heart that receives deoxy-
genated blood from the veins/body and pumps it into the ventricles of the
heart and out through the left atrium into the body again. During this
process the blood is enriched with oxygen. The heart is metaphorically
known as the place where pain is felt, and therefore the right atrium, in a
metaphorical sense, is the place where the pain first hits the heart and is
then transferred on to the deeper parts of the heart (the ventricles) which
metaphorically deepens the pain felt. This line emphasises the severity of
the pain. Furthermore, the right atrium receives deoxygenated blood
which metaphorically refers to poverty and deprivation.
The examples in Table 5.2 all display an izâfa construction, which links
noun and modifier. Furthermore, we need to examine the use of the arti-
cle in these examples as they carry different meanings for Sorani speakers.
In Example 2, because the definite article –ka-/‘the’ is part of the mod-
ifier (‘wounds’) and not the head noun (‘window’), the canonical opposite
Table 5.2 izâfa construction in the opening lines 1–12 of Bloody Crown
Line in Poem Example Translation
2 1. gwêçkîleyi rastî dllm! right atrium of my heart

3 2. epencereyi rojhellatî zamekanm east window of my wounds
4 3. kurdistanî êranm! my Kurdistan of Iran
5 4. wllatî cbeyi reşa country of gown of black
6 5. şî’rî tazem my poetry of Syamnd/new
8 6. şî’rî şeydayi Poetry of love
9 7. destî gullê Hand of flower
10 8. zerdexeneyi hîçî Smile of freedom
12 9. kanîyeki rûn Fountain of clear
of ‘wounds’ (which is ‘safety/health’) automatically comes to mind as a

desirable condition. 2 Bekas uses this naturalised opposition between the
state of being healthy and that of being wounded to call for an end of the
bloodshed in a subtle way.
It is slightly different in Example 9, where the indefinite article -yek (‘a’
or ‘an’) is part of the head noun (‘fountain’). Here, the reader/hearer
might imagine a clear fountain in opposition to a fountain with tur-
bid water.
We combine the textual-conceptual function of ‘Naming and
Describing’ with the TCF ‘Equating and Contrasting’, concerned with
the linguistic construction of oppositional meaning on different levels of
language structure and which we encountered in Sect. 4.1. The use of the
definite article enables the creation of oppositional meaning in this line
due to the grammatical structure of Sorani.
In Example 5, meaning is constructed by a combination of an enclitic
possessive preposition and a generic noun (without an article). Therefore,
şî’rî tazim/‘my poetry of new’ does not refer to poems as a literary genre
but, we argue, rather to the feeling of the poet. In order to create a differ-
ent meaning, the definite article could have been used as part of the noun,
for example şî’rî tazakam.
In Examples 4 through 6, the generic meaning of the nouns is expressed
by the omission of any article (zero article). This indicates that the stated
facts (‘poetry of Syamnd’, ‘poetry of love’ and ‘country of gown of black’)
must not be questioned. This is an important addition at the intersection
between ‘Naming and Describing’ and another of the ten textual-
conceptual functions, namely ‘Assuming and Implying’ (new: Alluding).
The effect is an explicit and categorical unification between poetry and
love/Syamnd and between country, gown and black. By using these con-
structions (this is the ‘element of choice’ we mentioned in Sect. 3.1), the
relationship between ‘Iran’ and ‘Kurdistan’ (line 4), ‘country’ and ‘black’
and ‘gown’ (line 5), ‘poetry’ and ‘love’ (line 8), ‘hand’ and ‘flower’ (line
9) as well as between ‘fountain’ and ‘clear’ (line 12) is inseparable and
treated as permanent. This finding complements our argument in Sect.
4.2 that the (metaphorical) meaning of ‘gown’ plays a crucial role in
this poem.
2
Another canonical opposition, one might argue, exists between the second level modifier
‘east’ which brings to mind the opposite ‘west’ and, in this context, is linked to Eastern and
Western Kurdistan, one is Iran and the other Iraq.
In these constructions, the head nouns include the normal possessive

preposition and unstressed enclitics are added to the noun. An enclitic
possessive preposition may be added to the generic form (dl/‘heart’), the
definite (dlakam/heart-DEF-my) or indefinite (dlekm/heart-INDEF-my)
forms of the noun. By adding a possessive pronoun (‘my’) to the generic
form as in line 2 (Example 1), the noun (‘heart’) gets a figurative meaning.
In order to achieve actual and concrete meaning, the definite form is used.
The noun ‘heart’ in its generic form as used in line 2 of the poem refers to
emotions of fondness and love. For more information on article placement
in Kurdish we refer to Thackston (2006).
Similarly, zamekanm/‘my wounds’ (line 3) conveys a negative experi-
ence that does not directly result from any physical wounds but is meta-
phorical in meaning. We refer back to Sect. 4.2 and lines 39–40 of the
poem, where we argued that the ‘gown’ is unfit to cover torture and
killings.
Based on the outlined grammatical differences, we are able to distin-
guish different spheres of emotions in these opening lines of Bloody Crown.
On the one hand, there is a sphere of romantic disposition (poetry of love,
hand of flower in lines 8 and 9). On the other hand, there is a sphere of
negative (sad/painful) emotions (east window of my wounds, country of
gown of black, lines 3 and 5). We notice instances of metaphorical mean-
ing like in line 9 (hand of flower) where we find the conceptual metaphor
a human being is a flower and thus has a (human) hand. Hand stands for
the whole human being in a figurative comparison and is thus metonomy.
We now turn to The Martyrs’ Wedding where most nouns are used
without an article. Similar to English, the lack of an article before these
nouns makes them generic and thus referring to a whole class of things
instead of one thing in particular. The use of generic nouns makes the
reader feel that the things mentioned are rather vague (Table 5.3).
If we look more carefully at these nouns, we can distinguish different
semantic fields. There are nouns used in relation to the human body
(heart, head, eye(lids), wounds, tears, and, arguably, chest). Next there are
feelings (pain, concern, love). Then there are words from positively con-
notated nature (partridge, Wanawasha, nest, sky, cloud, mountain, thun-
der), words that refer to urban structure (Sulaiymaniyah, streets, houses)
and, finally, words that we group into the broader semantic category of
human life (words, poems, chest). We argue that chest is ambivalent in its
meaning in line 14, as it can either mean a wooden chest where papers full
Table 5.3 Nouns in

Dll heart
the opening lines 1–14
Slêmanî Sulaiymaniyah
of The Martyrs’ Wedding swêske female partridge
Hêlane nest
şî’r poetry
Asmanêke a sky
Pol herd
Wşey sewz û sûrî red and green words
sere grrgrtuweyş eager head
hewrêkî nzim a low cloud
Newîy offspring
Ezimirr Azmar
Grme booms
Zhanewe pain
şeqam û mallanda streets and houses
şî’rîş poetry
Serçaweyeke a source
binarî çawanewe mountain of eyes
Serçaweye tears
Xem concern
Brûske thunder
ewînî wenewşeyî love of Wanawasha
Çaw eye
Rêga path
Brûske thunder
Trûsk shine?
zamî şî’ranem wounds of my poems
bestellekî singed ice of chest/frozen chest
with poems are stored or this noun refers to the human chest and would
then be grouped into the semantic category of the human body.
We find the use of ‘Wanawasha’ (a violet that grows in Kurdistan) in
these opening lines interesting and the reader might remember that we
pointed out this flower in our interpretation of lines 159–184 of this poem
in English (see Sect. 3.2.1). The name ‘Wanawasha’ carries positive asso-
ciations in Kurdish. It is a small flower, it is clearly pretty and smells sweet.
Kurdish readers/hearers immediately relate ‘Wanawasha’ to this positive
image. ‘Wanawasha’ was also used historically to alleviate stress which cor-
relates with the outrage the victims’ families and the Kurdish people in
Sulaiymaniyah felt over the killings of the students. In the context of this
poem, the noun ‘Wanawasha’ interestingly enforces the innocence of the

victims.
Whereas Wanawasha is a flower, partridge is an animal and this noun
has positive connotations for Kurdish speakers as the meat, especially of
the female bird, is very delicious (again we refer to Sect. 3.2.1). As we have
pointed out there, female partridges in Kurdish culture are furthest away
from any political meaning or dispute.
Mentioning a stress-relieving flower and a peaceful bird in the opening
lines of this poem underline the striving of the people for peace and
tranquility.
To summarise, we found that naming strategies in the opening lines of
both poems show repeated use of an izâfa construction, through which a
possessive relationship between the head noun and the modifier (e.g.
‘hand of flower’) is established. We also found repeated use of generic
noun phrases (e.g. şî’rî/‘poetry’, three instances in Bloody Crown and one
in The Martyrs’ Wedding). Furthermore, we pointed out an infrequent use
of the definite article (one instance in The Martyrs’ Wedding: ḧucrekeyi
«nalî»/‘Nali’s room’) and a limited number of instances where an izâfa
construction is used in combination with an adjective (four instances, e.g.,
kanîyek rûn/‘fountain of clear’ in line 12 in Bloody Crown). The low fre-
quency of definite articles as well as the frequent use of generic nouns
makes the world constructed in both poems appear new and unfamiliar, as
if this world were somehow out of place. This increases the alienation the
speaker feels from the situation portrayed in the poems. This effect is due
to the fact that definite articles trigger an existential presuppositions
(Levinson 1983, p. 172ff), meaning ‘assumptions that are built into a
text’ (Tabbert 2016, p. 113). If, for example, one talks about ‘The king of
France’, the use of the definite article presupposes that such a king exists
(Levinson 1983, p. 172). The low frequency of definite determiners there-
fore makes the things mentioned in both poems new and unfamiliar. The
frequent use of the izâfa construction that we pointed out in the opening
lines of Bloody Crown establishes relations between these ‘new’ things and
therefore creates a new (text)world with its own rules and relations. The
reader/hearer brings their own knowledge of the abstract concepts men-
tioned to the text which allows for the text to be meaningful to a varied
audience with individual background knowledge. We again felt the need
to cross boundaries between the textual-conceptual functions of ‘Naming
and Describing’ and ‘Assuming and Implying/Alluding’ to fully
appreciate the meaning we deciphered. Having looked at naming strate-

gies we now proceed with an analysis of the predicators in the opening
lines of both poems.

of Representing Actions, Events and States or
Representing Processes
We began with an analysis of the predicators in the opening lines of Bloody
Crown and noticed that the first verb occurs in line 7 only. In lines 7–15
we find eight verb phrases: ‘searched’ (lines 7 and 15) ‘tried to hold’ (line
9), ‘smile’ (line 10), ‘wanted to put’ (line 11), ‘sprays’ (line 13), ‘asked’
(14) and ‘saw’ (line 15). These verbs belong to the following transitivity
categories: material action intention processes (searched, tried to hold,
wanted to put, sprays), verbalisation process (asked), mental perception
(saw) and mental reaction (smile) (Simpson 1993, p. 88ff, 2014, p. 22ff).
The frequent use of material action processes (not only in the opening
lines but throughout the poem) signals that the fictional world projected
by this poem is less static but rather dynamic and thus mirrors the dynam-
ics of protests and uprising in the years of the revolution in Iran.
Interestingly, Jeffries (2022, p. 246) argues for an inclusion of the seman-
tic labels ‘stative/dynamic’ in the TCF ‘Representing Processes’ based on
her analysis of poetry.
Furthermore, this high frequency of material action creates the expec-
tation that there is an actor and, ideally, also a goal like in the invented
sentence ‘Mary kicked the ball’ where Mary is the actor and the ball is the
goal. The actors are ‘poetry’ and ‘fountain’ which are metaphorical nam-
ing strategies for the people of Iran (TCF: Naming and Describing). In
the opening lines of this poem, Bekas states his friendship with Karim
Hashimi and underlines that this poem was written to support Hashimi in
his fight for freedom for the Kurds and against oppression by the religious
leaders (Mullahs) in Iran. This poem, although written in 1985, cannot be
surpassed in terms of topicality given the ongoing revolution in Iran at the
time of writing this book.
We move on with an examination of the extended verb phrase zerdex-
eneyi hîçî nedî/‘saw the smile of none’ (line 15), a mental process of per-
ception in combination with negation. Negation is the absence of
something and a separate TCF in Critical/Textual Stylistics. In order to
understand absence, the absent part first needs to be imagined as existing
which is a necessary intermediate state to then picture absence
(Hidalgo-Downing 2000; Nahajec 2009, 2012, 2015, 2021). Negation

therefore is a ‘powerful linguistic device because the expression of absence
draws attention to the possibility of presence’ (Nahajec 2012, p. 39,
quoted in Tabbert 2016, p. 126). What Bekas is saying in line 15 is that
nobody was smiling which draws attention to the fact that at least some-
body was expected to be smiling (pragmatic presupposition) and under-
lines the uneasiness of the situation projected by the text as mentioned in
Sect. 5.2. Furthermore, ‘smile’ occurs in lines 10 and 15 and in both
instances the smile is denied as ‘poetry’ ‘tried’ to smile (lines 8–10) but
did not. The verb ‘saw’ is a mental process of perception and usually done
by humans. Here, it is an inanimate ‘clear fountain’ that ‘saw’ and there-
fore perceived something. This deviation from expectations has a fore-
grounding effect and underlines that ‘fountain’ is, in fact, a metaphorical
name for people who ‘saw the smile of none’. Our reading of line 15 cor-
relates with the use of inanimate ‘poetry’ that ‘tried’ to ‘smile with free-
dom’ and ‘wanted to put mouth in its mouth’ which entails that these
actions create positive emotions evoked by gestures between people and
that ‘poetry’ is therefore a metaphorical naming strategy for human beings
seeking happiness. These naming strategies (TCF: Naming and Describing)
have the effect of creating proximity in the perception of these pleasant
acts and make the reader/hearer feel that these people named in the poem
are innocent and very beautiful and emotional entities. The poem sets a
romantic scene by mentioning Syamnd and Khaja, who are lovers in a
well-known Kurdish fairytale. In addition, treating poetry as humanlike
suggests unity between human beings and their feelings. This personifica-
tion of poetry produces a tension between reassurance on the one hand
and, as mentioned before, alienation through the use of generic nouns.
The fact that humans can do good things, even in difficult circumstances,
is part of the ideological meaning that Bekas wants to convey. Halo Sherko
Bekas refers to the ‘philosophy of humanity’ in his father’s poems (see
Sect. 2.3).

of Equating and Contrasting
Bekas used parallelism to construct equivalence. Parallelism is the repeti-

tion of the same structures at phrase-, clause- or sentence-level. Parallelism
is used to foreground specific words or concepts and often makes an oppo-
sitional meaning apparent. In Bloody Crown, lines 2–4 bear witness to this.
Table 5.4 Parallel structure in Bloody Crown
eyi gwêçkîleyi rastî dllm! Oh right atrium of my heart

eyi epencereyi rojhellatî zamekanm Oh the east window of my wounds
eyi kurdistanî êranm! Oh my Kurdistan of Iran
The parallel syntactic structure foregrounds the head nouns (‘atrium’,

‘window’, ‘Kurdistan’) and the (post)modifiers (‘heart’, ‘wounds’, ‘Iran’)
and sets them into a meaning relation with each other. We have already
established that ‘right’ refers to eastern Kurdistan (Iran) and ‘heart’ is a
metaphorical naming choice for the people of Iran.
The first and third lines in Table 5.4 show the nouns used in their
generic form whereas in the middle, a definite article is used. This altera-
tion from generic to definite and back to generic constructs a continuity
of emotion. In this trio of parallel syntactic structure the middle line is
set apart from the other two in that extra emphasis is put on this mid-
dle line.
Turning to The Martyrs’ Wedding, one could argue that the repetition
of the phrase ‘do not ask how’ is a form of parallelism and we have already
established (see Sect. 3.2.2) that this phrase is highly foregrounded in the
poem. However, given the meaning of this phrase, we opted for present-
ing our analysis in the TCF ‘Negation’ and will continue with it in the next
section.

of Negation/Negating
The Martyrs’ Wedding begins with the phrase meprsin çon/‘Do not ask
how’. This clause is repeated three times (lines 1, 4 and 10) in the opening
lines that we examine (we refer to our analysis of this phrase in Sect. 3.2.2).
The phrase is presented in the form of different sentence types, namely as
an interrogative (question, lines 1 and 4) and an imperative (directive, line
10). The questions are, of course, rhetorical as Bekas provides the answer
in his poem as outlined above. The frequent repetition of this phrase
throughout the entire poem has a foregrounding effect in that it makes
this phrase central to the meaning of this poem and invites, if not even
urges, the reader to do the opposite and ask this question.
We found other instances of negation in The Martyrs’ Wedding, namely

in line 10 (ger xem nebê be brûske/‘if concern does not become a thunder’)
and in lines 11 and 12 (ewînî wenewşeyî çawî êwe, nebê be rêga û tiruske/‘if
Wanawasha love of your eye does not become a path and a thunder’).
Both instances construct an alternative scenario, namely the possibility of
presence. In these alternative scenarios, concern does become a thunder
and Wanawasha love does become a path and a thunder. We wish to point
out that ‘thunder’ has positive connotation in Kurdish and we argue that
in this alternative scenario, the positively connotated thunder becomes a
force and relates to the request to ask questions.
In the poem Bloody Crown we found negation in the following lines:
- line 15 ‘saw the smile of none’

- line 31 ‘does not become clear until’
- lines 39, 40 ‘they will not cover’
- line 41 ‘will not block my storm’
- line 54 ‘you cannot stop the mouth of my arts’
- line 63 ‘Flower was not lost’
- line 64 ‘Weather did not die’
- line 73 ‘But not tomorrow’
- line 84 ‘does not stop’
- line 85 ‘does not die’
- line 86 ‘Nothing stops it’
In all these instances, Bekas uses negation to draw attention to the pos-
sibility of presence, namely that people smile, things become clear, the
body is not covered and protests are not blocked. Here again, like in The
Martyrs’ Wedding, Bekas uses negation as a hedging strategy to convey his
message of support and encouragement in a subtle and indirect way. Lines
39 and 40 present negation together with oppositional meaning, indi-
cated by the conjunction ‘but’. Bekas refers to covering of the female body
with a head scarf (rusari) or a niqab and of the male head by means of a
turban (especially among the religious leaders in Iran) as a superficial
demand and therefore unsuitable to cover the wrongdoings committed
‘under’ such cover, like the killing of martyrs.
We did not mention the textual-conceptual functions of ‘Exemplifying
and Enumerating/Listing’ as well as ‘Hypothesising’, ‘Presenting Others’
Speech and Thought’ and ‘Representing Time, Space and Society’ in this
chapter as we were guided by the text and used the framework of Critical/
Textual Stylistics in a rather flexible way and according to the findings in

the texts. Interestingly, Jeffries herself in her revision to the model distin-
guishes between core and peripheral TCFs and three out of the four men-
tioned TCFs that we did not cover here are regarded as peripheral. With
reference to the core TCF ‘Representing Time, Space and Society’ (the
use of deixis) we point to our various instances of mentioning spatio-
temporal or social pointers as, for example ‘I’/‘you’ in relation to the
implied author/reader or the mentioning of the city of Sulaiymaniyah as
the place where the killings occurred, both in Sect. 3.2.2. This chapter
focused on the application of Critical/Textual Stylistics to poems in Sorani
and has shown that some adaptation is in order due to the differences
between Sorani and English. Nevertheless, we can confidently argue, that
Critical/Textual Stylistics is applicable to Sorani texts if used in a flexible
and adapted way. We put forward the argument that the textual-conceptual
functions can guide the analysis in order to avoid bias but that the inter-
pretation of the findings requires to combine different textual-conceptual
functions to explain more comprehensively how meaning making is
achieved in the text. Although Sorani has a different language structure
compared to English, particularly when it comes to the use of possessives
and the addition of (in)definite articles, this does not hinder the applica-
tion of Critical/Textual Stylistics when one bears these differences in
mind. Sherko Bekas’ poetry, for sure, is precious material for the testing
and adapting of the model of Critical/Textual Stylistics to Sorani texts.
Or, as we would rather frame it, Critical/Textual Stylistics helps to uncover
the multiple layers of meaning in Bekas’ poems and thus to fully appreciate
Bekas’ ‘deep language’ (Halo Sherko Bekas in Sect. 2.3).
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tual and communicative perspective. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins.
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A resource book for students, Psychology Press.
Simpson, P. (2014). Stylistics: A resource book for students. Abingdon/New
York, Routledge.
Tabbert, U. (2015). Crime and corpus: The linguistic representation of crime in
the press. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
Thackston, W. M. (2006). Sorani Kurdish – A Reference Grammar with Selected
Readings, Harvard University.
Wahby, T. and C. J. Edmonds (1966). ‘A Kurdish-English Dictionary’.
‫‪Appendix I‬‬
‫)‪Interview with Halo Sherko Bekas (in Sorani‬‬

‫چۆن باسی باوکت دەکەیت بۆ ئەو کەسانەی کە نایناسن؟‬
‫چ جۆرە کەسێک بوو؟‬
‫*كەسێكی لەسەرخۆ و ئارام بوو‪ ،‬زیاتر گوێی دەگرت وەك لەوەی‬
‫قسە بكات‪ ،‬كەسێكی دڵپاك و بە سروشت نەرم و نیان بوو‪،‬‬
‫زۆر پابەند بوو بە كاتەوە لە كاتی خۆیدا هەر بەڵێنێكی بدایە دەیكرد‪..‬‬
‫چ شتێک زیاتر سەرنجی تۆی ڕاکێشاوە لە شیعرەکانی باوکتدا؟‬
‫*دیارە زمان پاراو و ساكار و قووڵ دەینووسی‪ ،‬هەمیشە‬

‫واهەست دەكەیت كە تۆش ئەتوانی وا بنووسی بەاڵم نەتنووسیوە؟‬
‫ئەوە سەخڵەتی هەرجوانی شیعرەكانیەتی‪.‬‬
‫چۆن شیعرەکانی باوکت جیاوازە لەو شیعرانەی کە باپیرت فایق بێکەس نووسیوویەتی؟ و لەو‬
‫شیعرانەی خۆت دەینووسیت؟‬
‫*شیعرەكانی باوكم وەكو ووتم ساكارێكی سەختە و زمان‬

‫تێدا لە ئاستێكی ئیجگار بااڵدایە‪ ،‬شیعرەكانی فایەق بێكەسی‬
‫باپیرم زیاتر شیعری بۆنەیی و نیشتمانپەروەرین لە ڕووی هونەری‬
‫شیعرەوە تا ڕادەیەك سادەن بۆ نموونە سادەیەكی هەست‬
‫‪© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature‬‬ ‫‪71‬‬

‫‪Switzerland AG 2023‬‬
‫‪U. Tabbert, M. K. Ibrahim, Sherko Bekas,‬‬
‫‪https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0‬‬
‫‪72‬‬ ‫‪Appendix I‬‬
‫جوانن وەكو شیعرەكانی“هێمن“ …شیعرەكانی خۆم زیاتر كورتن و حاڵەتێكی كورتە نامەی‬
‫شیعریی هەیە كە لە دونیایی ئیمڕۆی تەكنەلۆجیادا زیاتر برەویان هەیە‪ .‬لە ڕووی ناوەڕۆكەوە‬
‫نزیكترن لە شیعرەكانی باوكمەوە زیاتر وەك لە شیعریی باپیرمەوە‪.‬‬
‫شێوازی بنەڕەتی شیعرەکانی باوکت چۆنە؟‬

‫*شێوازێكی تایبەت بە خۆیەتی‪ ،‬سروشت تێدا سەنتەریكی‬
‫جێگیری هەیە‪...‬فەلەسەفەیەكی ئینسانی لە پشتیەوە بەردەوام‬
‫كار دەكات‪.‬‬
‫بە ڕەچاوکردنی ئەوەی کە هەم تۆ وهەم باوک و باپیرت شاعیرن‪ ،‬ئایە شیعر شتێکە کە لە‬
‫سەرەتاوە لە ناخی شاعیردا بوونی هەیە یاخود بۆماوەییە؟‬
‫*شیعر نووسین بۆ ماوەیی نییە‪ ،‬زیاتر بەهرەو خۆ پەروەردە كردنە‬
‫لە ڕێگای خوێندنەوەی بەردەوامەوە‪...‬بەاڵم لە هەمان كاتدا هاندانێكی مەعنەویش هەیە ئەگەر‬
‫باوك و باپیرت شاعیر بن‪...‬‬
‫زۆربەی شاعیرانی تر باوك و باپیریان شاعیر نەبوون و زۆر شاعیری گەورەشن‪ ،‬وەكو گۆران‬
‫لە شیعری هاوچەرخی كوردی و‬
‫نالیی لەشاعیرانی كالسیكدا بە نموونە و دەیانی نموونەی تریش‬
‫هەیە‪.‬‬
‫ئایا هاوشێوەی باوکت هەمان ئەو پێکهاتە ستایلیستیکانەی بزوتنەوەی ڕوانگە بەکاردەهێنیت؟‬
‫*ڕەنگە زەمەنەكان جیاواز بن‪...‬وەكو هەموو شتێكی تر شیعریش‬
‫ئاستی بینین و ڕوانگەی بۆ من دەگۆڕێت‪...‬بۆ من زۆر گرنگە‬
‫بە كورتترین شێوە و ستایەڵی سەردەمیانە ئەوەی ئەمەوێ بێگەینمە خوێنەر‪.‬‬
‫ئایا پێکهاتەی نوێ دەهێنیتە ناو شیعری کورديیەوە وەک چۆن ئەوەی باوکت ئەنجامی دا کاتێک‬
‫بزوتنەوەی ڕوانگەی پێکهێنا؟‬
‫*من زیاتر كار لەسەر نووسینی شیعری هایكۆیی دەكەم ئێستا‬
‫ڕەنگە ئەمە كارێكی نوێترە بۆ دونیایی شیعری كوردی‬
‫بە لەبەرچاوگرتنی ئەوەی باوک و باپیرەت لە دوو ژینگەی سیاسی و جوگرافی جیاوازدا ژیاون‪،‬‬
‫ئایە بڕوات وایە هەریەک لەم ژینگانە ڕۆڵێک دەبینێت لە دیاریکردنی ئەوەی چۆن شیعر پێکدەهێنرێت؟‬
‫*بێ گومان شیعر تەواو جیاواز دەبێتەوە بە لەبەرچاوگرتنی‬
‫ژینگەی سیاسیی و جوگرافی‪...‬تەنانەت لەناو شیعرەكانی باوكمدا‬
‫ئەمە بەدیی دەكرێت كاتێك شیعری بەرگری لە شاخ دەنووسێ و‬
‫نیشتمان دەبێتە چەقی سەنتەرێكی دیاری شیعرەكانی‬
‫كەچی هەمان شاعیر چل ساڵ دواتر ئەمە لە دەقێكی وەكو ئێستا كچێك نیشتمانمەدا تەواو پێچەوانە‬
‫دەكاتەوە‪...‬ئاشكرایە بۆ…‬
‫‪Appendix I‬‬ ‫‪73‬‬
‫ئایا شتێکی دیاریکراو هەیە کە وای لە شیعرەکانی باوکت کردووە ئەوەندە الی خەڵکی بەرباڵو‬
‫و ناسراو بێت؟ ئەو شتە چییە؟‬
‫*بازنەی شیعری شێركۆ فراوانە و لە ئاستێكدا نەوەستاوە‬
‫بەردەوام كاژی شیعری خۆی لە هەموو سەردەمەكاندا فڕێداوە‬
‫بۆیە خەڵك هەست بە گۆڕانكاریی خێرا و بەردەوام دەكات لە شیعرەكانیدا و دوورە لە السایی و‬
‫خۆدووبارە كردنەوە بۆیە هەمیشە الی خوێنەران هەست بە ئحساسێكی نوێ و ناوازە دەكەن‪...‬جگە‬
‫لەوەش بەزمانێكی “سادە و گران “دەنووسێ كە یەكسەر شێركۆی پێدەناسیتەوە و مۆر و ماركەی‬
‫خۆیی پێوە‬
‫دیارە…‬
‫بڕوات وایە کە پەیوەندی لە نێوان شیعری زمانە جیاوازەکاندا هەیە یاخود بە تەواوی جیاوازن‬
‫چونکە بە دوو زمانی جیاواز نوسراون؟‬
‫بێگومان هەموو زمانێك‪ ،‬كۆد و نهێنی تایبەت بە خۆی هەیە‪.‬‬
‫بەاڵم شیعری جوان هەر جوانە بە هەر زمانێك نووسرابێت ئەو‬
‫پەیوەندیيە هەر هەیە چونكە زادەی خەیاڵی ئینسانن‪.‬‬
‫شیعرێكی جوان هی پاپلۆنیرۆدا بێ لە چیلی و یان هی‬
‫مەحمود دەروێش بێ لە فەلەستین یان هی عەبدواڵ پەشێو بێ‬
‫لە كوردستان پەیوەندییان هەیە بە هەمان خەیاڵی گەردوونی‬
‫شیعرستانەوە…‬
‫ئەو ئاستەنگانە چین کە ڕووبەڕوویان دەبیتەوە لە وەرگێڕانی شیعرەکانی باوکت بۆ ئینگلیزی‬

‫وەکو ئەوەی دەیکەیت لە پەیجی فەیسبووکەکەت؟‬
‫*هەروەك دەڵێن‪ :‬وەرگێڕانی شیعر خۆی بۆ زمانێكی تر جۆرێكە لە خیانەت! تۆ ڕەنگە هەر‬
‫بتوانیت فكرەكە بگەیەنیت‬
‫بەاڵم هەست و ئیحساس و نهێنی زمانەكە لە دەستدەدەیت‪،‬‬
‫وەرگێڕەكە دەبێت تا ڕادەیەكی باش ئاگاداری هەر دوو زمانەكە بێت بە شێوەیەكی باش و‬
‫پاشخانێكی ئەدەبی دەوڵەمەندی هەبێت لەسەر هەردوو زمانەكە‪...‬تەنها زمان زانین بەس نییە بۆ‬
‫وەرگێڕانی شیعر‪ .‬چارەش نییە دەبێت هەروا بكەیت و وەكو‬
‫ئەوە وایە بۆنی گوڵی نایلۆن بكەیت!‬
Appendix II
The Martyrs’ Wedding by Sherko Bekas (in English, line numbers added
for ease of references)
1 Do not ask how?

2 When the heart turns into a partridge and ‘Sulaiymaniyah’ becomes
its nest
3 And poetry is a sky and herd by herd green and red words fly in it.
4 Do not ask how? When this eager head
5 Becomes a heavy cloud and the offspring of ‘Azmar’ painfully and
with booms
6 overflows down
7 On the streets and the houses
8 Then poetry is a productive source of these eyelids
9 sheds tears
10 Do not ask how if worry does not become a thunder
11 If Wanawasha love of your eye
12 Does not become a path and a thunder
13 The blossom wound of my poems
14 In the frozen chest opens?!
15 How voice becomes a storm
16 And how the wave in my body sleeps?!
17 Do not ask how?
18 No. do not ask!
19 In the middle of Goyzha’s eyes and

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0
76 Appendix II
20 The neck of Peramagron

21 My love: the Peshmerga pigeon
22 With a letter from the last martyred
23 With a lamentation comes and goes
24 Do not ask how?!
25 Now the lover of ‘Sulaiymaniyah’
26 Is a red moon and
27 Slowly slowly rises
28 Don’t ask how?
29 No … Don’t ask!
30 The poet is like a migrant swallow
31 Twitting for its lover
32 And that is a voice and closers its eye
33 Don’t ask how?
34 Peshmerga legend says:
35 Syamand’s path is Khaje
36 In which big whales pass
37 The season of love wants
38 Farkh, Mam, Mamarisha and Najo there!
39 A lot poetry wings
40 A lot of songs.
41 will shed in this winter
42 their hair is too purple.
43 Very weeping willow.
44 like my city daughter’s hair.
45 Fall by this snowflake.
46 Perhaps a lot of fast growing love poplars
47 in front of Nali’s room
48 fall off while standing!
49 Maybe Habiba breast.
50 Will be hammered on this night wall.
51 It is very possible my heart neighbourhood.
52 My eye house.
53 My room of my soul and my abdomen.
54 Destructively, destructively get flattened
55 Maybe. Maybe. Maybe
56 But the vision of ‘Glazarda’
57 Is a candle in the hands of the martyr
58 since two hundred years
59 visits different houses and wanders.
60 Since two hundred years.
61 This flame of this eyelid of this candle does not blink
Appendix II 77
62 neither faints
63 nor dies!
***
64 17th of December.
65 In autumn animals, before the last bird’s death last year
66 A sunny morning, a morning, a bright cheek, like a child,
67 laughed and glittered on the city of Ben-Banar
68 A sunny morning, a cold scarlet, like a hail.
69 It was the breath of Saiwan hill
70 like every morning.
71 Today my city was worried confused queen.
72 Whose guilt was a blink, blink suit
73 on the sidewalks
74 In welcoming that day
75 They put their hands on their neck and chests
76 they besieged them for killing them
77 They examined the body of poetry
78 They put flowers under their feet.
79 A sunny morning.
80 on the street sword
81 One by one, two by two students
82 Like colourful pen
83 quick word ingress
84 They were flying bees.
85 to the classroom!
***
86 The month of leakage and fall
87 December 17th, a sunny morning.
88 Under the moist ground of the city
89 from the prison of the faithful.
90 They brought out three beauties.
91 Three Beauties rebelling the mesh
92 They were excited
93 And tortured forehead
94 in the heat of a tank
95 upside down
96 They were taken to be slaughtered.
***
97 The month of leakage and fall
98 December 17th,
99 on a sunny day
100 In front of a surprised school
78 Appendix II
101 Next to a low wall, they stopped them

102 They were very purple
103 They turned to Parametron.
104 They were three deer
105 Three deer of ‘Sulaiymaniyah’
106 Three beauty of the season of sacrifice.
107 Three songs.
108 Three trees.
109 ‘Sardar’ was the branch of apricot bud
110 It was the first spring to flower.
111 ‘Hiwa’ was similar to a laughing spring
112 ‘Aram’ was a baby eagle with a sharp eye
113 wanted fly before getting feather.
114 to Hasarost!
115 Next to a low wall, they stopped them
116 A match strike (light), two, three, four, and fourteen
117 Rifles are going to kill the sun!
118 Rifles throw blood of my flowers
119 on the street!
120 Rifles dig cultures eyes
121 Rifles. Rifles
122 Three blood stains, three red fields
123 Under three electric trees in front of the school
124 Leave it for the bulbs and for the passengers!
***
126 in the autumn beast
127 Before the year wears winter coats
128 Before it carries the wand and raise his trembling hand
129 And says goodbye to all of this world.
130 Thirteen days, before life was again
131 Engages to a new year!
132 On that day, our mountains, from the top,
133 Towards history
134 They played the game.
135 to know who they are in that year
136 in the country of martyrs
137 will be the sun.
138 will be moons.
139 will be kings.
***
Appendix II 79
140 December 17th, a sunny morning.

141 with the sound of the red mountain flute
142 With the sound of the soil of Sharazur
143 The mouth with flowers and lips with a smile
144 ‘Sulaiymaniyah’ has curtained its three son-in-law!
145 The seventeenth of December, a sunny morning,
146 Suddenly,
147 In front of a surprised school
148 In front of messed up hair
149 It was a weeding of our three son-in-law.
150 It was martyr’s party
151 It was a party of love and burning
152 Among the companions of the victims of this city
153 On that day, who you do not see!
154 On that day, my Kurdistan looked
155 In the weeding gathering for
156 Those who have shed bleeding two hundred years ago
157 And sacrificed themselves for it
158 It saw there!
***
160 It was a big marriage.
161 He was the king of our three sons.
162 They were three grooms.
164 There were no three shy flowers
165 There were no three legs of the highland of kalikhani
166 They were three red dressed grooms
168 There were not three girls
169 Not three (young cute) girls such as white shirt pears
170 they were three Wanawashas with blue T-shirts
171 not three dotted partridges.
172 There were three grooms, no brides.
173 The brides were all the girls of Sulaiymaniyah and Kurdistan!
174 The brides were the daughters of Zozan and Kwestan.
175 They are three knight/horsemen sons-in-law
176 They were three storms
177 But the beloved and the fiancée with flowers in their hands
178 Were thousands of Khaj, Sherry, and Parikh
179 They were three groomed mountains
180 The brides were not three.
80 Appendix II
181 River … was a bride.

182 Snow … was a bride.
183 Garden was a bride.
184 Poetry … was a bride.
185 On that day they will be grooms

186 My Kurdistan was just a bride!
187 Don’t ask how? That poetry will be loving and
188 ‘Sulaiymaniyah’ is the place of lover meeting!
189 So my patience is a tree,
190 On the streets, venus, and houses of that city
191 set on fire!
192 Don’t ask how? No … Don’t ask.
193 Now in the ‘Sarchnar’ of this heart
194 Martyr weeding is boisterous
195 The dance is of Trio-dance, it is Shekhania
196 Of this party
197 It is neither seven nights nor seven days.
198 Until the bride freedom does not arrive its place
199 The moon will not go down to the groom
200 This wedding does not end
201 Martyr wedding is boisterous
202 All the days
203 All night.
204 I’m a nephew of a poem
205 Tara blood and
206 And the head of the dance chain
207 And the heat of my head.
208 On January 17, 1985, the brutal Regime of Iraq shot and killed three
Young Kurds in The War of Sulaiymaniyah. This is a poem that has been said
to them, and for the first time, I presented and read the voice of the martyrs
with my voice in The Voice of the People
Poem ‘The Martyr’s Wedding’ in Sorani
‫شایی شەهید‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟‬
‫کە دڵ ئەبێ بە سوێسکە و «سلێمانی» بە هێالنەی‬
!‫ئیتر شیعریش ئاسمانێکە و پۆل پۆل وشەی سەوز و سووری تێدا ئەفڕێ‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟ کە ئەم سەرە گڕگرتووەیش‬
‫‪Appendix II‬‬ ‫‪81‬‬
‫ئەبێ بە پەڵە هەورێکی نزم و نەویی سەر «ئەزمڕ» و‬

‫بە دەم گینگڵی ژانەوە‪ ،‬گرمەگرم‬
‫بۆ بەرەوخوار دائەگەڕێ‬
‫بە سەر شەقام و مااڵندا دائەبارێ‬
‫ئیتر شیعریش سەرچاوەیەکە و قوڵپەقوڵپ‬
‫لەم بناری چاوانەوە هەڵئەقوڵێ!‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟ گەر خەم نەبێ بە برووسکە‬
‫گەر ئەوینی وەنەوشەیی چاوی ئێوە‪،‬‬
‫نەبێ بە ڕێگا و ترووسکە‬
‫چرۆی ئەم زامی شیعرانەم‬
‫لەم بەستەڵەکی سنگەدا‬
‫چۆن ئەپشکوێ؟!‬
‫دەنگ چۆن ئەبێ بە ڕەشەبا و‬
‫شەپۆل چۆن لە گیانما ئەنوێ؟!‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟‬
‫نەء‪ ،‬مەپرسن!‬
‫ئیستە الی من‬
‫هەموو ڕۆژێ‬
‫لەنێوان چاوانی «گۆیژە» و‬
‫گەردنی «پیرەمەگروون»دا‬
‫خۆشەویستیم‪ :‬کۆترەشینکەی پێشمەرگەیە و‬
‫نامەی دوا شەهیدی پێیە و‬
‫شەقژەنێتی دێت و ئەچێ‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟!‬
‫ئیستە الی من‬
‫هەموو شەوێ‬
‫خۆشەویستیی «سلێمانی«‬
‫مانگی سوورە و‬
‫لەناو بەفری شیعرەکانما‬
‫ورد ورد هەڵدێ!‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟ نەء‪ ،‬مەپرسن‬
‫شاعیر وەکوو پەڕەسێلکەی کۆچەر وایە‬
‫هەرچەند وەرزێ بۆ «شەم»ی یار ئەجریوێنێ و‬
‫ئیتر ئەویش ئاوازێکە و چاو لێک ئەنێ!‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟!‬
‫داستانی پێشمەرگە ئەڵێ‪:‬‬
‫ڕێی سیامەند بۆ الی خەجێ‬
‫بە ناو گەرووی زۆر نەهەنگدا تێئەپەڕێ‬
‫وەرزی عاشق سواری وەکوو‬
‫«فەرخ» و «مەم» و «مامەڕیشە» و «نەجۆ»ی ئەوێ!‬
‫ڕەنگە باڵی زۆر هۆنراوە‬
‫زۆر گۆرانی‬
‫‪82‬‬ ‫‪Appendix II‬‬
‫لەم زستانەدا هەڵوەرێن‪.‬‬

‫ڕەنگە قژی زۆر ئەرخەوان‬
‫زۆر شۆڕەبی‬
‫وەکوو پرچی کچی شارم‬
‫بەم کڕێوەیە داڕنرێن‪.‬‬
‫ڕەنگە زۆر چناری عیشقی هەڵچووی‬
‫بەردەم وەک حوجرەکەی «نالی«‬
‫هەر بە پێوە هەڵپڕووکێن!‬
‫ڕەنگە مەمکی زۆر «حەبیبە»م‬
‫بەم دیواری شەوگارەدا دابکوترێن‪.‬‬
‫ڕەنگە زۆر گەڕەکی دڵم‬
‫ماڵی چاوم‬
‫ژووری دەروون و هەناوم‬
‫کاوالش‪ ،‬کاوالش‪ ،‬تەخت کرێن!‬
‫ڕەنگە‪ ،‬ڕەنگە‪ ،‬ڕەنگە‬
‫بەاڵم نیگای «گڵەزەردە«‬
‫چرایەکە وا بە دەستی شەهیدەوە‬
‫دووسەد ساڵە‬
‫ماڵەوماڵ ئەکا و ئەگەڕێ‬
‫دووسەد ساڵە‬
‫ئەم چرایە نە پێڵووی گڕی ئەترووکێ و‬
‫نە کز ئەبێ و‬
‫نە ئەشمرێ!‬
‫**‬
‫حەڤدەی «کانوون«‬
‫لە گیانەاڵوی پاییزدا‪ ،‬پێش دوا کۆچی باڵندەی پار‬
‫بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‪ ،‬بەیانییەک ڕوومەتی گەش‪ ،‬وەکوو منداڵ‪،‬‬
‫پێئەکەنی و سوورمەی شەوقی ئەدا لە شاری بن بنار‪.‬‬
‫بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‪ ،‬کزەبای سارد‪ ،‬وەکوو تەرزە‬
‫هەناسەی گردی سەیوان بوو‬
‫وەکوو هەموو بەیانییەک‬
‫ئەمڕۆیش شارم‪ ،‬شاژنێکی شڵەژاوی نیگەران بوو‬
‫تاوانی جل بەڵەک‪ ،‬بەڵەک‬
‫لەسەر پیادەڕەوی شەقام‬
‫لە پێشوازی ئەو ڕۆژەدا‬
‫دەستیان ئەکردە مل سونگی و‬
‫تاقیان لێ ئەدا بۆ مەرگ‬
‫تاوانی جل بەڵەک‪ ،‬بەڵەک‬
‫دەست لەسەر چەک‬
‫لەشی شیعریان ئەپشکنی و‬
‫گوڵیان ئەخستە ژێرپێیان‪.‬‬
‫بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‬
‫بە سەر شمشێری شەقامدا‬

‫یەک یەک‪ ،‬دوو دوو‪ ،‬قوتابییان‬
‫وەکوو قەڵەمی ڕەنگاوڕەنگ‬
‫هەنگاوی خێرای وشە بوون‬
‫هەنگ بوون ئەفڕین‬
‫بەرەو شانەی پۆلی مەکتەب!‬
‫**‬
‫مانگی پژان و هەڵوەرین‪،‬‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪ ،‬بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‬
‫لە ژێرزەمینی شێداری بن شارەوە‬
‫لە زیندانی خونخوارەوە‬
‫سێ جوانویان هێنایە دەر‬
‫سێ جوانووی تۆڕ‬
‫لە مێخ یاخی‬
‫چاو ئاگرین‬
‫پشت داخکراو‬
‫یاڵ خوێناوی‬
‫لەناو تەندووری تانکێکدا‬
‫سەر بەرەوژوور‬
‫ئەیانبردن بۆ سەربڕین‪.‬‬
‫**‬
‫مانگی پژان و هەڵوەرین‪،‬‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪،‬‬
‫لە ڕۆژێکی خۆرەتاودا‬
‫لە بەردەمی مەکتەبێکی حەپەساودا‬
‫لەپاڵ دیوارێکی نزما‪ ،‬ڕایانگرتن‬
‫ئەرخەوان بوون‬
‫ڕوویان کردە «پیرەمەگروون«‬
‫سێ ئاسک بوون‬
‫سێ ئاسکی «سلێمانی«‬
‫سێ جوانووی وەرزی قوربانی‪.‬‬
‫سێ گۆرانی‪.‬‬
‫سێ دارنەمام‪.‬‬
‫»سەردار» لقی دارچوالە بوو‬
‫یەکەم بەهار بوو گوڵ بگرێ‬
‫»هیوا»‪ ،‬ئەتوت کانییەکە و پێئەکەنێ‬
‫»ئارام»‪ ،‬بێچووە هەڵۆی چاو تیژ‬
‫ئەیویست بەر لەوەی پەڕ دەرکا‬
‫بەرەو حەسارۆست هەڵفڕێ!‬
‫لەپاڵ دیوارێکی نزما ڕایانگرتن‬
‫شریخەیەک و دوان و سیان و چوار و دە‬
‫تفەنگ‪ ،‬خۆرەتاو ئەکوژێ!‬
‫تفەنگ‪ ،‬خوێنی گوڵەگەنم‬

‫بە سەر شەقامدا ئەڕێژێ!‬
‫تفەنگ‪ ،‬چاوی ڕۆشنبیریی هەڵئەکۆڵێ‬
‫تفەنگ‪ ،‬تفەنگ‬
‫سێ پەڵە خوێن‪ ،‬سێ کێڵگەی سوور‬
‫لەژێر سێ داری ئەلکتریکی بەر مەکتەبا‬
‫بۆ گڵۆپ و بۆ ڕێبواران بەجێدێڵێ‪!.‬‬
‫**‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪ ،‬بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‪،‬‬
‫لە گیانەاڵوی پاییزدا‬
‫بەر لەوەی ساڵ پاڵتۆی زستانە لەبەر کا و‬
‫گۆچانەکەی هەڵگرێت و دەستی لەرزۆک هەڵبڕێت و‬
‫بە ئێجگاری مأل ئا وایی لەم دنیایە هەمووی بکا‪.‬‬
‫بە سیانزە ڕۆژ‪ ،‬پێش ئەوەی ژیان هەمدیسان‬
‫ساڵێکی تر مارە بکا!‬
‫لەو ڕۆژەدا‪ ،‬شاخەکانمان لە لووتکەوە‬
‫بەرەو مێژوو‬
‫بازیان هەڵدا‬
‫تا بزانن کێن ئەوانەی لەو ساڵەدا‬
‫لە واڵتی شەهیداندا‬
‫ئەبن بە خۆر‬
‫ئەبن بە مانگ‬
‫ئەبن بە شا‬
‫**‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪ ،‬بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‬
‫لەگەڵ دەنگی باڵەبانی چیای سووردا‬
‫لەگەڵ هۆرەی خاکوخۆڵی شارەزووردا‬
‫دەم بە گوڵ و لێو بە خەندە‬
‫»سلێمانی»ی سێ زاوای خۆی کردە پەردە‪!.‬‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪ ،‬بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‪ ،‬لەناکاودا‬
‫لە بەردەمی مەکتەبێکی حەپەساودا‬
‫لە بەردەمی مەکتەبێکی قژ ژاکاودا‬
‫شاییی سێ زاوای ئێمە بوو‬
‫ڕەشبەڵەکی شەهیدان بوو‬
‫ئاهەنگی عیشق و سووتان بوو‬
‫لەناو یارانی قوربانیی ئەم شارەدا‬
‫لەو ڕۆژەدا کێت نەئەدی!‬
‫لەو ڕۆژەدا کوردستانم چاوی گێڕا‬
‫لە ئاپوورەی زەماوەندا‬
‫ئەوەی لە دووسەد ساڵەوە خوێنی دایە و‬
‫خۆی پێ بەخشی‬
‫لەوێ ئەیدی!‬
‫**‬
‫حەڤدەی کانوون‪ ،‬بەیانییەکی خۆرەتاو‪،‬‬

‫زەماوەندێکی گەورە بوو‬
‫شایی سێ کوڕی ئێمە بوو‬
‫زاوا سیان بوون‬
‫بووک سیان نەبوون‪ ،‬سێ گواڵڵەی شەرمن نەبوون‬
‫سێ ڕێواسی قاچ خەناویی کەلیخانی کوێستان نەبوون‬
‫ئەوان سێ زاوای جل سوور بوون‬
‫بووک سیان نەبوون‪ ،‬سێ کیژۆڵەی‬
‫سێ ناسکۆڵەی وەکوو هەرمێ کراس سپی‬
‫سێ وەنەوشەی سوخمە شین و‬
‫سێ ماکەوی خاڵدار نەبوون‪.‬‬
‫زاوا سیان بوون‪ ،‬بووک سیان نەبوون‬
‫بووک هەر هەموو کچەکانی سلێمانی و کوردستان بوون!‬
‫بووک هەر هەموو کەنیشکەکانی گەرمێن و‬
‫کیژی زۆزان و کوێستان بوون‪.‬‬
‫ئەوان سێ زاوای ئەسپ سوار‬
‫سێ زریان بوون‬
‫بەاڵم یار و دەزگیرانی گوڵ بە دەستیان‬
‫هەزاران خەج و شیرین و پەری خان بوون‪!.‬‬
‫ئەوان سێ شاخی زاوا بوون‬
‫بووک سیان نەبوون‬
‫ڕووبار بووک بوو‬
‫بەفر بووک بوو‬
‫باخچە بووک بوو‬
‫شیعر بووک بوو‬
‫لەو ڕۆژەدا ئەوان زاوا و‬
‫کوردستانم تازەبووک بوو‪!.‬‬
‫**‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟ کە شیعر ئەبێ بە دڵدار و‬
‫»سلێمانی» بە جێژوان!‬
‫ئیتر منیش چاوەڕوانیم درەختێکە و‬
‫لەسەر شەقام و کۆاڵن و بەرمااڵنی ئەو شارەدا‬
‫ئاگر ئەگرێ!‬
‫مەپرسن چۆن؟! نەء‪ ،‬مەپرسن‬
‫ئیستا لەناو «سەرچنار»ی ئەم دڵەدا‬
‫زەماوەندی شەهید گەرمە‬
‫ڕەشبەڵەکە‪ ،‬سێپێیییە‪ ،‬شێخانییە‬
‫ئەم ئاهەنگە‬
‫نە حەوت شەوە‪ ،‬نە حەوت ڕۆژە‬
‫تا مایینی ئازادیی بووک نەگاتە جێ‬
‫مانگ بۆ زاوام دانەبەزێ‬
‫ئەم شایییە دوایی نییە!‬

‫زەماوەندی شەهید گەرمە‬
‫هەموو ڕۆژێ‬
‫هەموو شەوێ‬
‫شیعرێکم برازاوایە و‬
‫تارا خوێنە و‬
‫دەسەسڕی سەرچۆپی کێش‬
‫کڵپەی سەرمە!‪.‬‬
‫‪Appendix III‬‬
‫‪Poem Bloody Crown in Sorani‬‬

‫)‪(English translation in Chapter 4‬‬
‫تاجی خوێناوی ‬
‫ئەی گوێچکیلەی ڕاستی دڵم! ‬
‫ئەی پەنجەرەی ڕۆژهەاڵتی زامەکانم ‬
‫ئەی کوردستانی ئێرانم! ‬
‫لە واڵتی جبەی ڕەشا ‬
‫سیامەند بوو شیعری تازەم ‬
‫گەڕا بە شوێن چاوی خەجا ‬
‫شیعری شەیدای بااڵی «ورمێ« ‬
‫ویستی دەستی‬
‫گوڵێ بگرێ‬
‫ئازادانە پێبکەنێ! ‬
‫ویستی دەم بنێتە دەمی ‬
‫کانییەک ڕوون‪ ،‬گەش هەڵقوڵێ ‬
‫زۆری پرسی‬
‫هەموو گەڕا و زەردەخەنەی هیچی نەدی! ‬
‫خەجم مانگە‬
‫‪© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature‬‬ ‫‪87‬‬

‫‪Switzerland AG 2023‬‬
‫‪U. Tabbert, M. K. Ibrahim, Sherko Bekas,‬‬
‫‪https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0‬‬
‫‪88‬‬ ‫)‪Appendix III (ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN CHAPTER 4‬‬
‫مانگی گیراوی زیندانی ناو ئێرانە‪ .‬‬

‫خەجم ‬
‫وەکوو سێوە السوورەکەی باخی “بۆکان” ‬
‫ملی الرە و چاو پڕ لە ئاو ‬
‫وەکوو‪ -‬زاوابووک‪-‬ی ساباڵخ ‬
‫هەنیە ڕنراو‪ ،‬قژ ئاڵۆزکاو ‬
‫ئیستە گواڵن‬
‫وەک ڕوومەتی ڕەنگپەڕیوی ‬
‫مندااڵنی هەموو ئێران ‬
‫پەست و سیس و بێ تریقەن ‬
‫چاوەڕوانی بارانێکی ‬
‫تازە ئەکەن‪.‬‬
‫ئیستە کانیيم‬
‫وەکوو نیگای کیژەکانی ‬
‫شاری سنە ‬
‫لێڵوپێڵن ‬
‫ڕوون نابنەوە‪ ،‬تا ئەو ڕۆژەی ‬
‫کوندەپەپووی مێزەر بە سەر ‬
‫ئەم واڵتە جێئەهێڵن ‬
‫* * ‬
‫ئەی پارچەیەک لە جگەرم! ‬
‫ئەی تاجی خوێناویی سەرم! ‬
‫هەرچی جبەی ئاخووندەیە کۆی کەنەوە ‬
‫وەکوو پەردەی شەوی تاریک بیگرنەوە ‬
‫لە «خانە»وە ‬
‫هەتا سەقز‬
‫بیدەن بە سەر لەشی تۆدا ‬
‫چرای برینی شەهیدان ناشارنەوە‪ ،‬‬
‫بەر لە زریانم ناگرن ‬
‫من درەختی ئەم ژیانەم ‬
‫تۆ لەو الوە من ئەبڕیت و ‬
‫لەو الی دیکە من دێمەوە ‬
‫ئازارێکم چەشەی تەور ‬
‫تا بمبڕێ من سەرلەنوێ ‬
‫بنچ قایمتر ئەڕوێمەوە ‬
‫ئەی ئاوکوژان! ‬
‫هەرچی تاڵەمووی ڕیشێکی ئاخووندەیە ‬
‫بە یەکەوە گرێی بدەن ‬
‫وەکوو گوریس‬
‫لە «بانە»وە ‬
‫هەتا سەردەشت ‬
‫درێژ درێژی کەنەوە ‬
‫)‪Appendix III (ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN CHAPTER 4‬‬ ‫‪89‬‬
‫ئەوساش دەمی هۆنراوەم و ‬

‫تفەنگەکەم نابەستنەوە! ‬
‫* * ‬
‫ئەی چەکەکەی شانی ڕاستم! ‬
‫پاردەی قەاڵی خۆرهەاڵتم! ‬
‫پشتاوپشتی زنجیرەی «شا« ‬
‫لە «کۆڕش»ەوە هەتا قاجار ‬
‫هەموو ڕۆژێ گوڵیان ئەکوشت ‬
‫خوێنی کەژ و هەردیان ئەڕشت ‬
‫بەاڵم دوا جار ‬
‫گوڵ نەفەوتا ‬
‫کەژ هەر نەمرد ‬
‫ئەوەی کە مرد شا‪ ،‬سوڵتان بوو ‬
‫ئەوەی ژیا‪ ،‬ئەوەی هەر ما ‬
‫کوردستان بوو!‬
‫* * ‬
‫ئەی سەنگەری پڕ هەتاوی ڕۆژهەاڵتم! ‬
‫گواڵڵەی سنگی شیرین و ‬
‫مەشخەڵی دەستی فەرهادم ‬
‫مەال وتی‪ :‬تەلیسماویم‪ .‬‬
‫دیوارێکی گوەللبەندی زۆر ڕقاویم‪ .‬‬
‫بەاڵم سبەی نا دووسبەی ‬
‫کە سێاڵوی پەنگخوراوەی نیشتمانم ‬
‫ڕژایە سەر‬
‫سەر شەقام و گۆڕەپانم‪ .‬‬
‫ئەوسا ئێران‬
‫جبەی ڕەشی خۆی دائەدڕێ‪ .‬‬
‫ئەوسا ئیتر بە خەج ئەگەم ‬
‫بە منداڵ و گوڵ و کانی‪ ،‬‬
‫لێو بە خەندە هەمووی ئەگەم ‬
‫ئەوساش تاریکیی ئەزانێ ‬
‫گەر تەلیسمێ هەبێ و نەشکێ ‬
‫هەبێ و نەمرێ ‬
‫هیچ نەیبڕێ‬
‫بە تەنها هەر خۆری گەلە ‬
‫دڵی گەلە ‬
‫هێزی گەلە!‬
Index
A C
Adjective, 32 Canonical opposites, 51
Aesthetics, 2, 4 Cardinal number, 33
AntConc, 48 Choice, 27
Apposition, 28 Conceptual metaphors,
Arabic alphabet, 57 39, 53, 61
Attitudes, 4 Connotation, 67
Conversational implicature, 37
Cooperation maxims, 37
B Critical Discourse Analysis, 27
Ba’ath regime, 16, 38 Critical Stylistics/Textual
Ba’athist government, 15 Stylistics, 1, 4, 8, 26,
Barzinji, Sheikh Jaafar, 27, 56
15, 26
Bekas, Fayaq, 7, 13
Bekas, Halo Sherko, 8, 14 D
Bekas, Sherko, 1, 13, 14 Definite article, 66
Belonging, 7, 8 Diasporic state, 7
Bible, 34 Diwan, 15
Bloody Crown, 9 Diwani Sherko
Butterfly Valley, 16 Bekas, 16
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature 91

Switzerland AG 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30602-0
92 INDEX
E Indo-Iranian language, 57
Ellipsis, 35 Injustice, 8
Equivalence, 49 Interjection, 58
Existential presuppositions, 63 Interrogative, 66
Iran, 7
Iraq, 3, 7, 15
F Izâfa construction, 50, 58, 63
Face-threatening act, 37
Faraj, Sardar Osman, 26
Fayeq, Hiwa Faris, 26 K
Florence, 17 Karim, Aram Muhammed, 26
Flouting, 37 Kurdish, 2, 3, 7, 9
Foregrounding effect, 35, 65 Kurdish Liberation Movement, 15, 16
Framing, 39 Kurdish poetry, 7
Freedom Prize, 17 Kurdish Regional Government (KRG),
7, 15, 16
Kurdistan, 2, 7, 14, 51
G Kurdistan Democratic Party
Generic noun, 60, 61 (KDP), 45
German, 56 Kurdistan Union of Writers, 46
Goizha-Gawran, 14 Kurmanji, 9, 57
Goran, 14
Gorani, 9
Gulf War, 16 L
Language, 8
Langue, 27
H Latin alphabet, 57
Halabja, 15 Linguistics, 27, 31
Hardi, 14
Hashimi, Karim, 45, 51, 64
Head noun, 34 M
Hedging, 37 Material action intention processes, 64
Hemingway, Ernest, 7 Mental perception, 64
Mental reaction, 64
Metafunctions of language (textual,
I ideational, ideological), 27
Identity, 7, 8 Metaphorical meaning, 38
Ideological meaning, 5, 8 Metaphors, 49, 53
Ideology, 5 Metonomy, 61
Imperative, 66 Milan, 17
Implicature, 37 Minority, 7
Implied reader, 38 Modality, 27
Indefinite article, 60 Modifier, 50
INDEX 93
N S
Naming and Describing strategies, 58 Saddam Hussein, 15, 26
Negated opposition, 49, 51 Sayi şehîd/The Martyrs’ Wedding, 8
Negation, 32, 35, 37, 38, 65, 67 Sculpture, 15
Niqab, 67 Semantics, 31
Nominalisation, 28 The Small Mirrors, 15, 16
North Kurdistan, 57 Sorani, 7, 9, 57
South Kurdistan, 57
Speech act theory, 27, 38
O Stylistics, 8, 27, 56
Oppositional meaning, 35, 49 Subject, 35
Oppression, 7 Sulaiymaniyah, 2, 8, 14, 15, 26, 39
Sweden, 16
Swedish Pen Club, 16
P Swedish PEN Institute, 17
Parallelism, 35, 65 Swedish Writers’ Union, 16
Parole, 27 Syria, 7
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, 7, 15
Permerd, 14
Persuasion, 4 T
Peshmergas, 7, 14, 15, 17 Tacî xwênawî/Bloody Crown, 8
PJAK, 50 Textual Stylistics, 8, 27
Poetry, 2, 3 Text worlds, 5
Point of view, 3–5, 38 Transitivity, 27, 28, 38, 64
Politeness strategy, 37 Translation, 56, 58
Political meaning, 4 Triade, 34
Political poem, 6 Tucholsky Award, 1
Political poetry, 3, 6 Turkey, 7
Possessive preposition, 61
Poster poem, 17
Postmodification, 35 V
Power, 9 Verbalisation process, 64
Pragmatic presupposition, 37, 65 Verb phrase, 9, 28
Pragmatics, 31, 37 Verse form, 3, 4
The Voice of Kurdistan, 15
Q
Al-Qadsya Award, 16 W
Qur’an, 34 Word order, 9
World, 3
R
Repetition, 35, 50 Z
Rhetorics, 4, 5, 34 Zerf, Ahmed, 14
Rwanga/Ruwange, 7, 14, 18–19 Zhen Magazine, 14

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Sherko Bekas

A Kurdish Voice under the

ISBN 978-3-031-30601-3 ISBN 978-3-031-30602-0 (eBook)

Cover pattern © Harvey Loake

‫كارەكەتان بەرز دەنرخێنم‬

I appreciate your work.

Halo Sheko Bekas

4 Critical Stylistic Analysis of Bloody Crown by Sherko Bekas45

5 A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Both Poems in Sorani55

Table 3.1 A synopsis of the tools of Critical Stylistics and Textual

Keywords Political poetry • Aesthetics • Rhetoric • Ideology • Kurds

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

fact, Bekas appears not to be widely known to a ‘Western’ audience. With

Bekas, the ‘mother poet of Kurdistan’3 as he called himself, was unable

1.1 Defining Political Poetry Written by Bekas

According to this definition, Bekas’ poems would not be considered

Another argument made by Preminger et al. (1993, p. 960) holds that

detection of ideological meaning6 in texts. Jeffries initially developed her

remaining categories of point of view. It does, however, not end here as

1.2 Overview of the Book

Furthermore, Chap. 2 contains an interview with Bekas’ son Halo

selected passages to which we were pointed by frequency counts. A critical

Jeffries, L. (2015b). Language and ideology. Introducing language and linguistics.

Abstract This chapter provides biographical information about Sherko

Keywords Sherko Bekas • Fayaq Bekas • Halo Sherko Bekas •

Sherko Bekas (1940–2013) was a contemporary Kurdish poet, ‘a poet of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 13

2.1 Biographical Information

in the heat of World War II in the Goizha-Gawran neighbourhood. Many of

poems in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5. Bekas published his first collection of poetry

Bekas returned to Sweden and died in exile in Sweden on August

Bekas stated in an interview that the Rwanga movement aims to explain

- It was a reaction to the social and political situation

The poets of Rwanga proclaimed in 1970 (Naderi 2011, p. 12):

- Our writing is full of suffering …. Thus we are fighting against suffering.

The Rwanga movement aims to gain justice and to fight suffering. It

2.3 Interview with Sherko Bekas’ Son Halo

Bekas, S. (2006). Awena Buchkalakan (The Small Mirrors) in Dewane Sherko

Introduction to Critical Stylistics and Analysis

Keywords Critical Stylistics • Textual Stylistics • The Martyrs’ Wedding

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 25

Bekas’ poetry is mainly examined from the perspective of literary criti-

3.1 A Brief Introduction to Critical/

developed into Textual Stylistics (Jeffries 2022). This approach is based on

foundations, Jeffries initially developed ten textual-conceptual functions

Naming and Naming and The choice of a noun to Noun phrases,

Table 3.1 (continued)

Textual-­ Textual-­ Formal Realisation/List of Form(s) in Textual

Implying and Alluding Relates to Pragmatics Definite noun

Adapted from Jeffries (2010, 2022)

(phonological choices, p. 10ff) and of the use of figurative language (met-

conceptual meaning-making. This meaning becomes ideological when

3.2 Analysis of Sherko Bekas’ Poem The

after a thorough discussion of all translated versions, the translation we

3.2.1 The Cardinal Number ‘Three’ or Naming

159 December 17th, a sunny morning,

Out of a total of twenty-eight occurrences of the word ‘three’ in the

– an actual list of three romantically involved characters (‘Khaj, Sherry, and

4 Critical Stylistic Analysis of Bloody Crown by Sherko Bekas45

5 A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Both Poems in Sorani55

Textual- Textual- Formal Realisation/List of Form(s) in Textual

textual-conceptual function of negation/negating (for an explanation we

(Hidalgo-Downing 2000; Nahajec 2009, 2012, 2015, 2021). Negation