ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The translator of a new edition of the classic Kurdish love story, Mem and Zin, hopes the saga will cement Kurds’ place in world literature.
Mem and Zin is the tragic 17th century tale of lovers from different clans who meet a tragic end after their families deny their love. They were buried next to each other in Cizre, modern day Turkey.
A tale of love and betrayal, it has been dubbed a Kurdish Romeo and Juliet.
Author Ahmad Khani, a beloved Kurdish poet and philosopher, died in 1707.
“A great writer like Ahmad Khani has been treated unfairly. Brits have Shakespeare, Germans have Goethe and Schiller, Persians have Ferdowsi, Jami and Hafiz and Kurds have Khani,” said translator Feryad Fazil Omar.
His goal is to “cause literary history to be revised and Khani’s Mem u Zin shall enter the pages of world literature.”
Omar translated the epic into German for the first time and completed an English version with American poet Mitch Cohen.
It is a project he has wanted to do for 36 years, he told Rudaw. The actual translation took three years to perfect.
Mem and Zin is the tragic 17th century tale of lovers from different clans who meet a tragic end after their families deny their love. They were buried next to each other in Cizre, modern day Turkey.
A tale of love and betrayal, it has been dubbed a Kurdish Romeo and Juliet.
Author Ahmad Khani, a beloved Kurdish poet and philosopher, died in 1707.
“A great writer like Ahmad Khani has been treated unfairly. Brits have Shakespeare, Germans have Goethe and Schiller, Persians have Ferdowsi, Jami and Hafiz and Kurds have Khani,” said translator Feryad Fazil Omar.
His goal is to “cause literary history to be revised and Khani’s Mem u Zin shall enter the pages of world literature.”
Omar translated the epic into German for the first time and completed an English version with American poet Mitch Cohen.
It is a project he has wanted to do for 36 years, he told Rudaw. The actual translation took three years to perfect.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment