The Slemani UNESCO City of Literature office is participating in a poetry project organized by the Odesa UNESCO City of Literature office. For this literary initiative, which involves several member cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Slemani is represented by the selected works of three Kurdish poets: Ranj Sangawi, Zulaykha Karim, and Rebaz Mahmoud.
The project features video recordings of poetry recitations in the poets’ native languages. The poems are presented in a written brochure, accompanied by unique QR codes. By scanning these codes with a mobile app, viewers can directly access the videos of the participating poets reading their selected works in their mother tongue.
The poems and details of the participating Kurdish poets are available below, and you can watch the video recitations through the provided links.
1- Ranj Sangawi (This City)
How can this age be the age of music?
Where is the poetry written in it?
I’d better gather my words into a will.
Until life knocks upon your door,
a thousand times death comes.
For whom shall I write poetry?
How could a wall ever have ears?
It was a lie.
The era in which those words were spoken
has already drowned.
For years I’ve been living—
neither the village heard a thing, nor the city.
Neither the tree ever grew ears, nor the wall.
Once, we were all springs—
but pond-worshippers made us still.
We were full of beautiful phrases—
but they quieted every thrill.
Many nights, I search for our house
on Google…
When I grew up, I lost it
within my heart.
Now,
we share one root of language,
yet cannot understand one another.
On the same street,
we walk toward each other—
but never meet.
Our hands rest in our pockets,
not for greeting.
We splash stench on one another,
not rosewater.
Link:https://youtu.be/MTYKVYqU1LU
2- Zuleikha Kareem (What Remains Within Your Heart to Surge?)
Not all my journeys back to my roots are melancholic.
Within my heart, a light burns —
Crimson, beyond fire.
In my dreams, happy and simple alleys linger,
And I wish to narrate the glow of these alleys.
I clutch the courage, and forge my own way.
A long path sometimes begins
With only a brief glimpse —
An overlooked charm.
I leave, when all others stand still,
I return, when all others are leaving.
My warrior heart fills me with a ruinous power,
And I long to upend my world.
Standing vigilant and upright, I wait —
Waiting to return from my battles,
To tend my wounds.
Should I fail to heed my typhoons,
I fear I will fall mute!
Should I avert my gaze from the eyes of my storms,
I fear I will surrender, and crumble
Amid both wars and peaces.
I am my own army of a thousand knights.
The clear voice within me
Is the friend of the child within me,
The friend of the woman within me,
The friend of the man within me,
The friend of the forsaking, harsh human within me.
The clear voice within me
Does not shrink from my paradoxical faces within.
This is my kingdom,
This is my home.
Link:https://youtube.com/shorts/AGrkYHAbjYs)
3-Rebaz Mahmud (Time’s Old Carpet)
It is raining
As if water has been poured onto the fire of allurement,
As if autumn itself feels shy to appear
I see you,
Jasmine, spring, and daffodil
Blossom in you…
Wind is blowing
As if war has packed its burdens and belongings
Instead of the reek of burnt flesh, home, and hamlet,
From you:
The scent of wild mint by the stream,
Clove and basil of forbearance,
Reaches my nostrils…
This world of passing cannot be grafted,
Otherwise, from your garden full of talismans
For everlasting permanence,
A branch of peach from your smile would’ve been enough!
Time’s old carpet
Has been gnawed by moths of a thousand flaws and shames.
I must lay a new era on the ground,
Sweep my world clean,
Wash my life clean,
Fill my courtyard garden
With daffodils and daisy flowers
To welcome you,
Who, with grace,
Were born from the same womb.