Abdullah Goran

Abdulla Goran (Kurdish: عەبدوڵڵا گۆران, b. in 1904 in Halabja, Mandate for Mesopotamia, d. 1962 in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region) was a leading Kurdish poet and translator of the 20th century.

Biography

Abdulla was born in Halabja in 1904 and received his education in local schools and the pedagogical institute in Kirkuk. As a teacher in Kirkuk, he continued his self-education by learning new languages and studying Turkish and Western literature. He took part in radical political and social causes in the 1930s and was frequently arrested until the 14 July Revolution in 1958. He spent much effort on creating a single Kurdish literary language by merging the two Kurdish dialects Kurmanji and Sorani. He was moreover a skilled translator and translated texts from English, French, Persian and Turkish to Kurdish. He died in 1962 in Sulaymaniyah.

Poetry

Goran combined traditional Kurdish classical and folk verses with contemporary lyricism and diversified the subject matter. He introduced blank verse, prose poem, and new rhyme schemes and abandoned the aruz.