Şêrko Bêkes

Prince of Modern Kurdish Poetry · Voice of the Mountain and of Exile · 1940 – 2013 CE — Şêrko Faîq Bêkes, a Sorani Kurdish poet born in Slemani, was the son of the poet Faîq Bêkes. He is the most important Kurdish poet of the second half of the twentieth century and the founder of the 'poetic narrative' current that rebelled against the classical form of the poem.

Historical Overview

  • Rise to Power: He grew up in Slemani and joined the Kurdish revolution in the mountains in 1965. He published his first collection, Mahtabê Şi'r ('Moonlight of the Poem'), in 1968. After the Anfal campaign he fled to Sweden, where he became one of the leading Kurdish literary voices of the European exile.
  • Achievements: He published more than thirty collections, translated into English, French, German, Swedish, Arabic, and Turkish. In 1971 he co-founded the Ruwange manifesto that freed Kurdish poetry from classical metrics, and in 1992 he served as Minister of Culture of the Kurdistan Region.
  • Significance to the Kurds and Medes: Şêrko transformed Kurdish pain into a universal poem read as readily in Stockholm as in Slemani. He fused Kurdish mythology with modern poetic form and opened the way for an entire generation of contemporary Kurdish poets.

Timeline

  1. 1940 CE — His Birth: Born in Slemani to the poet Faîq Bêkes.
  2. 1965 CE — To the Mountains: He joined the Kurdish revolution in the mountains of Kurdistan.
  3. 1968 CE — First Collection: He published his first collection, Mahtabê Şi'r.
  4. 1971 CE — The Ruwange Manifesto: He and his companions issued the manifesto of Kurdish poetic modernity.
  5. 1988 CE — Exile: He fled to Sweden after the Anfal campaign.
  6. 1992 CE — Minister of Culture: He took the culture portfolio in the Kurdistan Regional Government.
  7. 1995 CE — The Tucholsky Prize: He received the international Tucholsky Prize for free expression in Sweden.
  8. 2013 CE — His Death: He died in Stockholm and was buried in Azadi Park in Slemani.

Battles & Achievements

  • The Chair: His best-known collection, an emblem of refusal of tyranny and of cleaving to dignity.
  • Rojhelat — Dawn: A poetic epic that recounts Kurdish history from the Medes onward.
  • Butterfly Valley: A collection on Halabja and Anfal, translated into fifteen languages.
  • The Ruwange Manifesto of 1971: The first manifesto of Kurdish poetic modernity.

The Lands of Şêrko

  • Slemani — His birthplace and his burial place in Azadi Park.
  • Qandil Mountain — Refuge of the revolution in the 1960s.
  • Baghdad — Where his earliest collections were published.
  • Hewlêr — Seat of his Ministry of Culture.
  • Stockholm — His European exile for a quarter-century.
  • Halabja — Inspired his most famous collections on Anfal.

Quotes & Legacy

  • If they confiscate my poetry, the mountains will go on writing it. — From the collection The Chair.
  • I am the Kurd whose homeland was lost — and so everything has become his homeland. — From Butterfly Valley.
  • Do not ask me about the war — ask about the butterfly that died in Halabja. — From the poem Halabja.

LEGACY

  • Şêrko is the icon of contemporary Kurdish poetry. He is commemorated each year in Slemani during the 'Şêrko Poetry Days', and a museum has been founded in his name. His works appear on the literature syllabi of the Sorbonne, Cambridge, and Uppsala, and his poems are preserved in his own voice in Sweden's national archives.

SOURCES

  • Şêrko Bêkes · Butterfly Valley (مضيق الفراشات) · 2010 · Arc Publications, UK
  • Choman Hardi · Considering the Women — Kurdish Women Writers · 2011 · Bloodaxe Books
  • PEN International — Tucholsky Prize 1995 · https://pen.se/en/
  • Encyclopædia Iranica — Kurdish Literature · https://iranicaonline.org/articles/kurdish-written-literature