Nali

Translators: Tyler Fisher, Haidar Khezri, Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse, and Shene Mohammed

Genre: Poetry

Introduction:

While compiling the translations featured in this volume, the first in Kashkul Book’s new series of bilingual introductions to the work of Kurdistan’s Classical poets, I was delighted to encounter several of Tyler Fisher and Haidar Khezri’s translations of Nali’s ghazals in The Brooklyn Rail InTranslation. I wrote to the professors to inquire if they might consider allowing their ghazals to be published in this volume, an invitation I am grateful they accepted. Nali, I believe, is a poet whose work can support multiple translations—indeed, like much of Classical Kurdish poetry, multiple, diverse approaches to the art of literary translation will enable English-language readers to more fully comprehend the richness of this poetry, whose literary techniques and effects are so complex to reproduce in other languages, whose demands and limitations often force the translator to prioritize some over others. During the past several years, Kashkul has pioneered a collaborative approach to translation that includes what organization founder Dr. Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse has termed “dissenting translations,”  rendering multiple versions of a single poem, documenting disagreements between translators, and preserving the conversations so essential to the translation process. It is my hope that future volumes in this series cast ever greater light on the art of literary translation, and that this and future titles encourage translators and multilingual Kurds, whether at home or in the diaspora, to shepherd their beloved literature into the many languages of the world. 

As will be the case with future books in this series, the poems to follow serve as but an introduction to the work of a great master. The selection is not intended to be definitive in its representation of the poet and his work, nor does it intentionally exclude other iconic or representative poems. At this stage in the dissemination of Kurdish poetry in translation, I believe such samplings are an important first step in what I hope will become a fuller and more fully representative international presence for Kurdish literature, whose vast riches are still relatively unknown outside the borders of Kurdistan. I am heartened by the knowledge that Fisher and Khezri continue their labor to bring Nali’s poetry into English, and that Levinson-LaBrosse and Mahmood are finalizing the contents of their anthology of Classical Kurdish poetry, forthcoming from Deep Vellum Publishing/Phoneme Media in 2023. 

It brings me great pleasure that this inaugural volume has been published on the occasion of International Translation Day, particularly given Slemani City of Literature’s role in spearheading the UNESCO Creative Cities Network’s annual activities, and I’m grateful to the office of Slemani governor Dr. Haval Abubaker for its support of this publication. I’d also like to express my gratitude to the distinguished Bushra Kasnazani for her introduction, as well as to outgoing Slemani City of Literature International Projects Manager Sarwar Taha, whose project management was essential to the book’s timely publication, and to Kashkul Books Deputy Editor Jiyar Homer, for his ever diligent proofreading and fact-checking. As the distinguished Kasnazani so eloquently suggests in her introduction, it is high time to share the secret treasures of Nali’s poetry with the world. Now, across the centuries, “Nali, longing, sends you his greetings from afar…”