RESEARCH NOTES ON THE KURDISH SINGER HAMA JAZA
Ed Emery [SOAS, London]
Kurdish spelling: حەمە
جەزا Heme
Ceza
What follows is a set of notes from my papers, which I am in the process
of ordering into a properly edited article. Together with an Appendix containing lyrics and
translations. Please bear in mind that I have only a limited knowledge of
Kurdish (Sorani).
Some of Hama Jaza’s songs deal with questions of
imprisonment, torture and execution. Today there are particularly pressing
reasons to talk about the oppression and imprisonment of Kurds. There is a mass
hunger strike of Kurdish prisoners taking place at this present time (Spring of
2019), and there are movements of solidarity and support in the UK and
worldwide. [Note 1]
[Please note that the PDF conversion of the Sorani lyrics has jumbled
the text. This will be resolved in a later version.]
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:
Mohammad Jaza (1949-2010), better known as Hama Jaza, was a much
respected singer and songwriter from Suleimaniyah in northern Iraq (Kurdish Regional
Government). In the Çayhane Sha'ab [People's Teahouse] in Suleimaniyah, which
is the gathering place for intellectuals, writers, politicians, poets and
actors, his portrait is one of the largest and occupies pride of place. [Note
2]
Other photographs show him in the mountains, with an assault rifle at
his side. In 1969 Jaza joined Kurdish liberation movement, and he spent many
years in the mountains of Kurdistan as a peshmerga,
the name given to the guerrilla
fighters who fought Saddam Hussein and who laid the basis for the present
Kurdish regional government of northern Iraq. In some photos he is pictured
with his wife, who was also a fighter. Hama Jaza became
famous in the 1970s for his patriotic songs that supported the Kurdish
resistance. He continued his activity as both fighter and artist before
then fleeing with his family to Denmark, as refugees. There he continued
singing. He performed in a number of European countries, and in Canada, and the
USA.
In 1991, after the Kurdish Uprising against Saddam Hussein, Hama Jaza
returned from Denmark to live in his native city, Suleimaniyah. Twenty years
later, in 2010, he died (of cancer), at the age of 61. His funeral was a huge
affair, with thousands lining the streets of his native city.
His songs, dating back to the 1980s, are patriotic songs for the
liberation of Kurdistan. Including one song “Ho kaki peshmerga” which is
an anthem for the Kurdish fighting forces, and another, “Matarezi Sharaf
“, a political song or anthem recorded with the Shahid Karzan Band in 1980-3.
He is also a major exponent of the Kurdish art of song known as
"Maqam", which only a few singers are capable of performing
successfully. [Note 3] He was particularly well-known for his traditional songs
called ‘Lawanawa’
One of his
daughters, Khandan Hama Jaza, went into exile in Germany in 2010 after having
written “An Ocean of Crimes” (2007), an investigation into the lives of scores
of women who were abused in the sex industry with the involvement of Kurdish
officials in the police and security forces.
Suleimaniyah,
the hometown of Hama Jaza, is a place where winds of freedom blow. It is a
place that has fought for its right to exist. It is a place where a Kurd can be
a Kurd. However, that rosy view should be tempered by the knowledge that it is
a rentier economy without the attributes of liberal democracy. It is a
clan-based hierarchical, patriarchal society in which public life is masculine.
Women earned a temporary pride of place as fighters during the liberation
struggle, but, although they are still accorded token respect, they have since
been relegated to the home. The violence of Kurds against the Arab rank and
file soldiers of the central Iraqi state still haunts popular memory. There are
many struggles ahead.
Political-musicological
framing
In 2018 I began working on a concept of “insurgent musical citizenship”.
[Note 4] Hama Jaza is the embodiment of insurgent musical citizenship. Like
many Kurds, he spent years of his life engaged in armed struggle for the national
liberation and self-determination of the Kurds. The early photographs show him
in the mountains, with an assault rifle. In later photographs he still wears
the traditional military dress of the peshmerga. For Kurds, the armed
struggle is inseparable from music, song and dance. The songs of Hama Jaza
cover many thematic areas, but are especially notable for their treatment of
that armed struggle, of the fighters themselves, and for the harshness of what
they had to suffer.
Again, like so many Kurds, his songs are inseparable from forced
migration, internal displacement and exile – an exile that he himself
experienced. His songs provide a necessary framing of the mass migration from
Iraqi Kurdistan that took place after the 1991 Kurdish Uprising, and also of
the global northward flight of refugees and migrants that led to Europe’s
“refugee crisis ”post-2010. The songs help us to understand those movements of
flight; sometimes they also provide the soundtrack of that flight (see “Maro
maro” below).
Crucially, the songs also represent a battle for voice. In all nation
states where the “Four Kurdistans” are represented, the voice of Kurdish
culture is suppressed, often with imprisonment, and sometimes upon pain of
death. This is notable true of Alevi-Kurdish musical culture in Turkey, where
songs, music styles, and dances are banned by the state. The songs which I
examine below all bear witness to the denial of voice for Kurdish culture also
in Europe. The radio and TV channels which originally commissioned the
performances of Hama Jaza’s songs were shut down, one after the other, by the
European authorities, largely at the behest of Turkey (MedTV, RojTV etc). The
Kurds’ struggle for voice continues to the present day.
The study of Kurdish music, song, and dance is unavoidably a study of a
people in search of liberation. That liberation also expresses itself through
the means of music, song, and dance. As such it is a worthy area of research,
that points to possibilities of a better world for all.
__________________________________
In developing this study of Hama Jaza’s songs, I begin by presenting
four video clips which shed light on various aspects of his work.
__________________________________
Lyrics: Hama Jaza
Music: Goran Ibrahim and Dana
Salih
[A] DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST VIDEO OF “ZHURI SEDARA”
A
video clip posted by sozm aram, whose logo is an armed woman fighter. Published on 10 Sep 2011
Video clip of “Zhuri sedara” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/gjWQtxbZjNo
The video begins with a scene of blindfolded
prisoners, overseen by armed guards. This leads into a powerful lyrical interlude
on violin, later accompanied by accordeon. Scenes of prison cells, with
prisoners’ graffiti on the walls, and then an artist’s representations of a
prisoner being tortured – hung from a wooden roof-beam, naked, blindfolded and
screaming. Other depictions follow – of handcuffed prisoners in cells, and of
the full moon viewed through prison bars.
When the singing begins, it is the voice of Hama Jaza.
We see him in a prison cell, at first seated, and then pacing to and fro
barefoot as he sings. The cell is partly lit in red, presumably in reference to
the Red Prison (Amna Suraka), which was Saddam Hussein’s murderous security
headquarters in Suleimaniyah until it was taken and destroyed by Kurdish armed
forces in the Kurdish Uprising of 1991. In that prison thousands of Kurds were
imprisoned, tortured and executed.
[B] DESCRIPTION OF THE SECOND VIDEO
OF “ZHURI SEDARA”
Another video clip of “Zhuri sedara” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/L0oVRGCM0Pw
Published by Hallow H. Salih on 13 Jul 2013
Originally broadcast by MEDTV in 1997
This 7-minute video begins with a picture of two
hangman’s nooses, next to a portrait photo of Hama Jaza., and then moves to a photo
and video montage of Suleimaniyah in 1996-7. Against this backdrop, Hama Jaza
appears, and he sings.
Behind him another image appears – the Red Prison –
the Amna Suraka
And the lighted flames of candles of remembrance.
At the two-thirds point the verse lyrics give way to
an improvised lyric in the manner of a lament. In this recording the principal
interest is the violin, playing lyrical accompaniment, and what appears to be
digital percussion and choral voice accompaniment.
Lyrics of “Zhuri sedara” –
“The Hanging Room” [Translation]
Away from my brothers and my family,
Unknowingly, age takes me with it.
But clearly it is towards the hangman’s noose.
My blood would colour the flag red.
Towards the room, towards the hanging room.
I am tired and my place is steamy.
My face shows the signs of weariness,
Along with the wound marks inflicted by torture.
Even though I am coming close to my final
resting place,
I can see the first home of not dying.
I am glad because my death won’t be in a bed.
I am happy that I shall be on my feet until my
last breath.
I would not exchange such a death for 100 lives,
A life in which my head becomes the shield for
the enemy.
I am proud to see my shoes
Above the heads of enemies.
Don’t don't say that he is dying and turned pale
with fear.
If I am a Peshmerga* my death is inevitable.
I am happy to die before you.
There is still a smile on my face
Here, if I could not continue fighting,
There, [in heaven] my rifle would be in the
hands of a cloud.
Here, if I may be left behind from the caravan,
But there I will lead the caravan.
* Peshmerga means one who faces death.
SONG No 2. HAMA JAZA – “SHEHID”
Video of “Shehid” on YouTube:
In 2012, two years after the singer’s death, the composer Adil Mohammad made a
musical homage to Hama Jaza.
This was a fully staged and elegantly filmed musical orchestration combined
with rural on-location footage of musicians playing both traditional Kurdish
and western instruments. The title of the piece was “Shehid” (martyr or
witness).
DESCRIPTION:
The film footage contains scenes of the initiation of a Peshmerga
(Kurdish) fighter, and a subsequent gun battle in the mountains, with fighters
being killed. The musical passages are interspersed with summertime images of
two musicians walking in meadowlands in the mountains. They carry santur
(hammer dulcimer) and joza (vertical bowed traditional violin).
During the film we see young men in the streets of a town at night. They
are spray-painting slogans on houses, and clandestinely dropping leaflets into
the courtyards of houses. In a later sequence, a platoon of military police arrive
at a typical Kurdish teahouse where men are playing dominoes. They are
searching for someone. They find a young intellectual reading at a table. They
arrest him and take him away. The same young man that we then see sitting on a
stone grave in a field, dressed in white and playing a joza.
Hama Jaza is a constant presence in the film, appearing occasionally in
historical footage in which he is singing. But the singing for the orchestral
performance is done by someone else, a young man
dressed in the traditional dress of the Hawraman region that borders onto Iran
to the east of Suleimaniyah.
The film ends with a sequence in which men, possibly
the members of the orchestra, place roses on a grave (red, white, green and
yellow, the colours of the Kurdish national flag).
The ensemble is a remarkable gathering of instrumental
skills: Violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet,
bassoon, trumpet, timpani, joza, santur, tar, daf.
The video was posted on
YouTube on 23 Sep 2012 with a note explaining that “This
video belongs to kurdan, but the editing have been done by zirak93”. The user
zirak93 (names after the famous historical Kurdish singer Hassan Zirak) is a prolific
archivist of (mostly Sorani) Kurdish song, with over 1,500 YouTube postings to
date. This is a testament to the power of social media for the archiving and
diffusion of Kurdish song performances that otherwise would be lost to
oblivion.
[Note: The original video appears to have been made
for Kurdan TV, a local independent Kurdish TV
channel operating out of Copenhagen in Denmark. Founded in 2003, KurdanTV aims to work to create a balance between Kurdish culture
and Northern European culture. On their YouTube channel they post high quality
clips of both old and new Kurdish music videos.]
_____________________________________________
SONG No 3 – Hama Jaza – “Maro Maro”
Published by the Kurdish Songbook Project @ SOAS
on 26 March 2016
YouTube: https://youtu.be/s2Z0ksvJYlc
A peshmerga song from Iraqi Kurdistan.
I recorded this as it was performed by a singer from the Kurdish
community in the tea tent of the "jungle" refugee camp in Dunkerque,
Northern France. Part of a two-hour recording session held on 2 January 2016. A
Kurdish musician from the camp accompanies on violin.
The song tells of a son’s complaint that his father is leaving to fight
in the mountains as a guerrilla fighter. The song acquires a shift of meanings
and a particular poignancy in the refugee camp, where the departure of the
father takes him into exile in a foreign land. All the Kurdish people in the
tea tent joined in the chorus of the song.
ANOTHER
VERSION
I further recorded the song in Kurdistan, on a trip to the mountains
with a group of Zorostrians in March 2016. There it was performed by a fighter together with
his young son. Again it had a particular poignancy – in fact this particular
father had acceded to his young son’s wish that he should not leave, and now
they sing the song together.
Published by the Kurdish Songbook Project @ SOAS –
YouTube: https://youtu.be/OTWd2_yM82w
ORIGINAL VERSION SUNG BY HAMA JAZA [1]
This version of the song was recorded by Hama Jaza in Erbil (aka Hawler) in 1991. That was the year of the Kurdish Uprising, and also of Saddam Hussein’s violent counterattack, a brutal one-month campaign spearheaded by the Ba’ath government’s Republican Guard, in which tens of thousands of people died, and which sent more than a million Kurds fleeing over the border into Turkey and Iran, leaving Suleimaniyah as a ghost city.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/uwFH0kDNegM
ORIGINAL VERSION SUNG BY HAMA JAZA [2]
Here is a more recent version, archived in 2013 on the channel
maintained by Kurdish activist Ewara Ahmed. This is a particularly powerful
version, sung a capella with no instrumentation.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/wTmra5VsqZ4
Translation:
"MARO MARO" – “Don’t go, don’t go”
Lyrics and music: Hama Jaza
The son says to the father:
"Don't go away, dad, don't leave! For how much longer do you have
to take on all the problems of our people all on your own? For how much longer
do you have to deprive us of a father's love?"
The father replies to the son:
"I am going. I am leaving. Don't by angry with me, my little ones.
Be sure, my children, I am not coming back until we get the freedom of my
Kurdistan. Until we change the map of this country back to what it was [i.e.
united]."
The son says to the father:
"Don't go away, dad, don't leave... We shall come with you on the same
path. We shall carry your water bottles and bread bags. We have no life in this
city any more, because of having to move from house to house. Our life is full
of fleeing, torment and bitter poison.
"Don't go away dad, don't leave...Why are you leaving us? For how
much longer shall we be forced to live like this, like a people lost and
disoriented? For how much longer do you have to take on all the problems of our
people all on your own? For how much longer do you have to deprive us of a
father's love?"
Translation: Arazu and Baxi [Rojava refugee camp, Arbat, Kurdistan
Region, Iraq, 30 March 2016]
___________________________________________
Personal note: My first
encounter with the songs of Hama Jaza was in the refugee camps of Calais and Dunkerque
in Northern France. As a musicologist, I have a methodology, which is “the
methodology of the drum”. Arriving at the camps, we brought Kurdish ethnic
instruments which we had purchased in London. As soon as we arrived, those
drums sparked moments of musical encounter, in which the many hundreds of
Kurdish refugees and migrants sang the songs of their homeland. The singing
sessions were powerful and emotional.
Since the “humanitarian police” were intent on barring us from the
camps, and prohibited any filming of Kurdish song, the sessions took place in
locations that could not be accessed readily by the authorities – notably in
the tea tents. I filmed and sound-recorded in the camps. Later I travelled to
Iraqi Kurdistan, where I was able to record the same songs in their country of
origin. These experiences left me with a solid conviction that music, song and
dance are important forces for the empowerment of refugees and migrants – in
the alien situations of racism, hostility and exclusion in which they find
themselves. In short, that music, song and dance should be recognised as a
fundamental human right
Our “Kurdish Songbook Project” at SOAS is committed to the recording,
archiving and further development of Kurdish music, song and dance in “the four
Kurdistans” and in the diaspora.
See: Kurdish Songbook Project
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaZTz1AnY7co2fhBHFXY4TA/videos
___________________________________________
APPENDIX
– SONG LYRICS
“Zhûrî Sêdare” – The Hanging
Room
as sung by Hama Jaza
[NOTE: A note on the question of Kurdish media: The video of this
very moving song was posted in two separate YouTube clips, one of which, dated
1997, is from MedTV, the world’s first
Kurdish satellite TV channel. In Turkey it was forbidden to watch Med TV, and
people were arrested for having been caught watching its programmes. Turkey saw
MED TV as a part of the PKK. In 1999 the British government’s ITC revoked
MedTV’s broadcasting licence, at the request of Turkey. This came just after
the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The closure of MedTV was part of the continuing
suppression of Kurdish culture in the world. MedTV’s successor RojTV, operating
from Denmark, was also shut down, in 2013. This move was apparently the result of an
agreement with Turkey, in exchange for Turkish approval of Denmark’s former PM
Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO Secretary General.]
Another video
clip of “Zhuri sedara”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0oVRGCM0Pw
Translation:
Away from my brothers and my family,
Unknowingly, age takes me with it.
But clearly it is towards the hangman’s noose.
My blood would colour the flag red.
Towards the room, towards the hanging room.
I am tired and my place is steamy.
My face shows the signs of weariness,
Along with the wound marks inflicted by torture.
Even though I am coming close to my final
resting place,
I can see the first home of not dying.
I am glad because my death won’t be in a bed.
I am happy that I shall be on my feet until my
last breath.
I would not exchange such a death for 100 lives,
A life in which my head becomes the shield for
the enemy.
I am proud to see my shoes
Above the heads of enemies.
Don’t don't say that he is dying and turned pale
with fear.
If I am a Peshmerga* my death is inevitable.
I am happy to die before you.
There is still a smile on my face
Here, if I could not continue fighting,
There, [in heaven] my rifle would be in the
hands of a cloud.
Here, if I may be left behind from the caravan,
But there I will lead the caravan.
* Peshmerga means one who faces death.
Translation: Hiwa Qochalli and Ed Emery
Original Kurdish (Sorani) text:
Bira dûr û xizim dûr û kesim dûr
Bena belled temen emba berew jûr
Bellam rûne berew sêdare çûne
Xeney xiwênim lepê egrê allay sûr
Berew jûrî berew jûrî sêdare
Mandûy kirdûm û şiwênekem şêdare
Kenîşaney peşêwî pêwe şêwem
Ewa bînî eşkenceye û cê dare
Gerçî ta diwa mallî jîn berêwem
Yekem mallî nemirdinim diyare lêwim
Dillxoşim çunke mirdinî naw cê nîye
Şadim ke ta diwahenaseş be pêwem
Mergî awa nagorrmewe besed jîn
Jînêk serim bo dujmin bê be perjîn
Serberzîye ke pêllawm ebînin
Beser serî dujimnewe leberzîn
Nellên emrê û bo mirdin peşêwe
Pêşmerge bim her ekewme pêş êwe
Bemergî pêş mergî êwe asûdem
Rûşim bizey pêkenînî herpêwe
Eger lêre nemtiwanî bêt bicengim
Lewê bedest hawrêyekeweye tifengim
Eger lêre becê mabim le kariwan
Lewê lepêş kariwanewe pêşengim
Lyrics: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/hama-jaza-j%C3%BBr%C3%AE-s%C3%AAdare-lyrics.html
Translation:
"MARO MARO" – “Don’t go, don’t go”
Lyrics and music: Hama Jaza
The son says to the father:
"Don't go away, dad, don't leave! For how much longer do you have to
take on all the problems of our people all on your own? For how much longer do
you have to deprive us of a father's love?"
The father replies to the son:
"I am going. I am leaving. Don't by angry with me, my little ones.
Be sure, my children, I am not coming back until we get the freedom of my
Kurdistan. Until we change the map of this country back to what it was [i.e.
united]."
The son says to the father:
"Don't go away, dad, don't leave... We shall come with you on the
same path. We shall carry your water bottles and bread bags. We have no life in
this city any more, because of having to move from house to house. Our life is
full of fleeing, torment and bitter poison.
"Don't go away dad, don't leave...Why are you leaving us? For how
much longer shall we be forced to live like this, like a people lost and
disoriented? For how much longer do you have to take on all the problems of our
people all on your own? For how much longer do you have to deprive us of a
father's love?"
Translation: Arazu and
Baxi [Rojava refugee camp, Arbat, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, 30 March 2016]
Original Kurdish (Sorani) text:
YouTube:
Posted to YouTube on 16 August 2014. Original broadcast
on Kurdsat, and presumably produced for them.
[WIKI NOTE: Kurdsat Broadcasting Corporation
(Kurdish: کوردسات Kurdsat) is the second Kurdish language satellite
television station in Iraqi Kurdistan, broadcasting since 2000. It belongs to
the local ruling party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and is based in
Suleiymaniyah.]
The video clip is a patriotic film, of Kurdish peshmerga armed forces.
Filmed with full orchestra of strings etc, interspersed with images of tanks,
trenches, and soldiers fighting at the war front. Sandbags, rocket launchers,
mortars, and an ‘ud player. An extraordinary shot [at 2.44] in which the
loading of a howitzer shell morphs into the vigorous bowing of a violin.
Hama Jaza sings in peshmerga dress..
This song is also available in another recording, made in 2011, with
full production values. Orchestra has strings, santur, ‘ud and male-female
chorus.
See YouTube: https://youtu.be/1jqLDRq4iKo
[A note on instrumentation: The commitment to full string orchestras in
Hama Jaza’s later recordings is notable. One video clip from Kurdsat feature a
dozen violin players, plus three cellos, a double bass and clarinets. These are
joined by traditional instruments – two daf, a tar and two saz. Plus two small
choral groups, one male and one female, who sings the choral refrains. All
musicians wear traditional Kurdish dress.]
Lyrics – HO KAKI PESHMERGA –
“Hey, brother peshmerga”
Translation:
Hey brother Peshmerga, oh you brave revolutionary
Yours is the sacred name that's on everyone’s lips.
You exist inside the souls and selves of the oppressed
You're always a friend of weapon, belief and hills
Hey brother Peshmerga, oh you brave revolutionary
Yours is the sacred name that's on everyone’s lips.
Your hanger and struggle have become your occupation for years
You should tolerate and strive against this bitter life
Hey brother Peshmerga, oh you brave revolutionary
Yours is the sacred name that's on everyone’s lips.
Your weapon and belief denote your firmness
Your continual on struggle is a sign of victory
Hey brother Peshmerga, oh you brave revolutionary
Yours is the sacred name that's on everyone’s lips.
Your life, palace and mansions are beneath the rocks and in the
mountains
You'll never ever possess any of a so-called property in this world
Hey brother Peshmerga, oh you brave revolutionary
Yours is the sacred name that's on everyone’s lips.
Original Kurdish (Sorani) text:
هۆ کاکی
پێشمەرگە
شۆڕشگێڕی
قارەمان
ناوی
پیرۆزی تۆیە
بۆتە وێردی
سەر زوبان
لە گەڵ
گیان و
دەروونی
چەوساوەکانا
دەژی
هەمیشە
هاورێی چەک و
بڕوا و سەنگەر
و کەژی
هۆ کاکی
پێشمەرگە
شۆڕشگێڕی
قارەمان
ناوی
پیرۆزی تۆیە
بۆتە وێردی
سەر زوبان
برسیەتی
و رەنج کێشانت
بوەتە پیشەی
چەند ساڵە
ئەبێ
هەڵکەی خەبات
کەی دژی ئەم
ژینە تاڵە
هۆ کاکی
پێشمەرگە
شۆڕشگێڕی
قارەمان
ناوی
پیرۆزی تۆیە
بۆتە وێردی
سەر زوبان
بیر و
بڕوا تفەنگت
مایەی خۆ
راگرتنە
بەردەوامیت
لە خەبات
نیشانەی
سەرکەوتنە
هۆ کاکی
پێشمەرگە
شۆڕشگێڕی
قارەمان
ناوی
پیرۆزی تۆیە
بۆتە وێردی
سەر زوبان
ژینی
کۆشک وتەلارت
بن بەرد و ناو
چیایە
هەرچی
ناوی سامانە
شک نابەی لەم
دونیەی
هۆ کاکی
پێشمەرگە
شۆڕشگێڕی
قارەمان
ناوی
پیرۆزی تۆیە
بۆتە وێردی
سەر زوبان
Lyrics – Transliteration:
Ho kakî pêşmerge, şorrişgêrî qareman
Nawî pîrozî toye, bote wêrdî ser zuban
Legel giyan û derûnî, çewsawekana dejî
Hemîşe hawrêy çek û birwa û senger û kejî
Ho kakî pêşmerge, şorrişgêrî qareman
Nawî pîrozî toye, bote wêrdî ser zuban
Birsiyetî û renc kêşanit bote pîşey çend sale
Ebê helkey xebat key dijî em jîne tale
Ho kakî pêşmerge, şorrişgêrî qareman
Nawî pîrozî toye, bote wêrdî ser zuban
Bîr û birwa û tifengit, mayey xo ragirtine
Berdewamît le xebat, nîşaney serkewtine
Ho kakî pêşmerge, şorrişgêrî qareman
Nawî pîrozî toye, bote wêrdî ser zuban
Jînî koşik û telarit, bin berd û naw çiyaye
Herçî nawî samane, şik nabey lem dunyaye
Ho kakî pêşmerge, şorrişgêrî qareman
Nawî pîrozî toye, bote wêrdî ser zuban
Source: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/
[…] -ho-kaki-peshmarga-hey-brother-peshmerga.html
_______________________________________________
ADDITIONAL SONGS
SONG No 5:
La dostam di – له دهستم
دێ
YouTube:
Amazing solo voice performance of maqam piece with
solo ‘ud and santur
A romantic song, not political. The story of a heartbroken man,
after he finds that his girlfriend is engaged to someone else. The man in the
story sings about how he can destroy her life and end her good moments with her
new man.
A lyrical song, with verses by the famous Kurdish poet
Abdullah Peshew [Ebdulla Peşêw], “one of the few great Kurdish poets of our time”.
Performance dated to 21 January 1970 [Check]
Original Kurdish (Sorani) text:
له دهستم
دێ
كاتژمێری
كامهرانیت
بوهستێنم.
له دهستم
دێ
ئهڵقهی
پهنجهت پێ
فڕێ دهم،
نامهی
بهختت
بسووتێنم.
له دهستم
دێ
ههموو
شتێك ئاشكرا
كهم.
كام شهوت
گهش و
ڕووناكه،
ئهو شهوی
پف له چرا كهم.
له دهستم
دێ، به دوو
وشه،
دڵی
زاوای
نووستووت ڕهش
كهم،
له
خۆشاوی شهوی
پهردهتان
بێبهش كهم.
نامهكانت
یهك یهك
ماون.
دیارییه
سادهكانت یهك
یهك ماون.
چاویان
شۆڕه،
دهست
لهسهرسنگ
بۆم وهستاون.
لهتاوی
ئهو كارهساتهم
ئارهقهی
شهرم دهتكێنن.
مۆری حهزێكی
ئاگرین
به ناو
چاوتهوه دهلكێنن.
تاڵێكی
پرچت نهماوه
تێرتێر
بۆنم نهكردبێ.
جێی دهرزییهك
له
سنگی برسیت نهماوه
پهنجهم
پهی پێ نهبردبێ.
گهواهی
دهدهن لهسهرت
دارتێلهكانی
سهر شهقام.
گهواهی
دهدهن ئهوانهی
نامهی
تۆیان بۆ دههێنام.
بهڵێ،
گیانه
گهر
بمهوێ
كاتژمێری
كامهرانیت
بوهستێنم
گهر
بمهوێ
ئهڵقهی
پهنجهت پێ
فڕێ دهم
نامهی
بهختت بسووتێنم
بهڵگهم
پێیه
ههزار
بهڵگهی
ئاشكرا و ڕوون
بهڵگهی
چوار ساڵ پێكهوهبوون
بهڵام
چبكهم
خۆشهویستیت
نهههنگێكه
خوێنی
ههڵچووم دهخواتهوه
خۆشهویستیت
ڕووبارێكه
قینی ڕهشم
دهشواتهوه
Transliteration:
Le destim dê
Katjmêrî kameranît biwestênim
Le destim dê
Ellqey pencet pê firrê dem,
Namey bextit bisûtênim.
Le destim dê
Hemû şitêk aşkira kem.
Kam şewit geş û rûnake,
Ew şewî pif le çira kem.
Le destim dê, be dû wişe,
Dillî zaway nûstût reş kem,
Le xoşawî şewî perdetan bêbeş kem.
Namekanit yek yek mawin.
Diyarîye sadekanit yek yek mawin.
Çawyan şorre,
Dest leser sing bom westawin.
Le tawî ew karesatem
Areqey şerm detkênin.
Morî hezêkî agirîn
Be naw çawtewe delkênin.
Tallêkî pirçit nemawe
Têr têr bonim nekirdbê.
Cêyi derzîyek
Le singî birsît nemawe
Pencem pey pê nebirdbê.
Gewahî deden leserit
Dartêlekanî ser şeqam.
Gewahî deden ewaney
Namey toyan bo dehênam.
Bellê, giyan e
Ger bimewê
Katjimêrî kameranît biwestênim
Ger bimewê
Ellqey pencet pê firrê dem
Namey bextit bisûtênim
Bellgem pêye
Hezar bellgey aşkira û rûn
Bellgey çiwar sall pêkewebûn
Bellam çi bikem
Xoşewîstît nehengêke
Xwênî hellçûm dexwatewe
Xoşewîstît rûbarêke
Qînî reşim deşwatewe
Honrawe: Ebdulla Peşêw
____________________________
Song No. 6
A song in honour of Mama Risha.
WIKI: Mama Risha (19571985
), was a prominent
member of the armed Kurdish fighters, also
known as peshmarga,
in northern Iraq
during the Kurdish
prolonged warfare with
the Iraqi Government
armed forces in their struggle for self-ruled northern Iraq.
Born in village of Talaban near Kirkuk into a poor family, he enjoys near mythical status in Kurdish society.
His real name was Najmadin Shukur Rauf , nicknamed Mama Risha which in Kurdish means the (Bearded Uncle). According
to some Kurdish sources he chose that nickname because he swore that he would never shave his beard until Kurdistan was totally free from Ba'ath Party 's control. He was also nicknamed the (Iron Man) for his legendary furious and well organized battles and ambushes against the Iraqi forces near Kirkuk area.
In mid 1970s, he joined the peshmarga forces of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani. He is considered by most Kurds as a role model and a legendary fighter. Mama Risha was killed on 25 January 1985
in an ambush organized by Tahsin Shawais who was the leader of a group of Kurdish fighters affiliated
with Saddam Hussein's regime (Jash).
________________________
A POEM – SUDDEN SORROW
Oh, how tired, how exhausted I am from the day’s sorrows
I am so weary of my body with the sudden sorrows of the night
There is not a night I don’t dream of punishments and executions
There is not a day I don’t catch sorrow from the hands of my enemies
Sorrow becomes my guest, in the square frame of my room
So now, I bemoan my life and my existence
Yet in this strange country, they won’t let me settle
There will be a day I will be free from this lucklessness
I have decided not to listen to any news
Every wire that transfers news to my home, I will cut
Translation © 2014 by Hakar Dlshad.
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/sudden-sorrow
___________________________
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
The Kurdish uprising against
Saddam Hussein in Suleimaniyah started on 7 March 1991 as lightly armed
Peshmerga entered the city and ousted government forces. The Peshmerga were
joined by local civilians, who took the streets and helped the Peshmerga launch
a mass assault on all government buildings and detention centers, freeing
hundreds of political prisoners.
The last and biggest point of
resistance by the Iraqi security forces was the heavily fortified Security
Directorate. Ba'athist forces
fought off the Kurds for over 2 hours, after which Kurdish Peshmerga and
rioters entered the building. By 8 March, the entire city was under Peshmerga
control. Many captured Ba'athists were torn to pieces, alive, by the angry
crowds; others were burned or cut to pieces with saws.
According to Human Rights Watch, an estimated 700
Ba'athists security personnel were killed in such executions by the people, but
regular soldiers were mostly pardoned and allowed to return home. Other accounts say
that people stuffed the mouths of the dead security personnel with Iraqi dinar
coins and took them and hanged them in the town square.
___________________________
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
_______________________
A 9-minute musical “Maqam”, vocal improvisation with violin accompaniment.
Possibly also tar.
The video includes historic photographs.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/CqPHLAhb4JA
_______________________
“Matarezi Sharaf “, a political song or anthem recorded with the
Shahid Karzan Band in 1980-3
A semi-dramatised 7-minute video
version made for Khak TV in 2017, including live footage from a Hama Jaza
recording session in 1981
YouTube: https://youtu.be/VUeDnDus9uU
_______________________
NOTES:
1. Kurdish hunger strikers:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/12/support-for-ocalan-hunger-strikers
2. The Suleimaniyah “People’s Teahouse” (2011): https://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/6/state5157.htm
[Additional note: Film about Leila Qasem,
a young Kurdish woman executed by
the Ba’ath regime in 1974: https://youtu.be/LYhd04IMmr4.]
(e) “Maqam Namard” (7 mins) https://youtu.be/oJwNcM2u2BU
4. Insurgent musical citizenship. https://www.academia.edu/34045376/RADICAL_ETHNOMUSICOLOGY_Towards_a_politics_of_No_Borders_and_insurgent_musical_citizenship_Calais_Dunkerque_and_Kurdistan
__________________
“ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO”
Ed Emery – SOAS / Universitas adversitatis
9.iv.2019