Book Review:

Unrepeatable songs

Malihe Kamaledin
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2020-12-15

Unrepeatable Songs is the title of a book which contains the memories of the revolutionary poets of Kurdistan. It was written by Shilan Oyhangi in 2019 and published by Surah Mehr Publications.

This book was compiled in two chapters of "Poets’ Memoirs of the Kurdistan Resistance" and "A Brief Essays of the Lives of the Late Kurdish Revolutionary Poets". In his note at the preface of the book, the author introduces Kurdistan as the land of culture and art and shows the presence of poetry as the most original and purest cultural aspects of that land in different layers of Kurdish life and habitat.

On the other hand, in the days of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Kurdish poets, many of whom have been composing poetry since childhood, joined the revolution with their protest poems, following their predecessors, and called for support for the oppressed. The atmosphere of war was another factor influencing the morale of these poets, which caused them to write poetry in various and diverse formats on various mystical, political, social and epic themes.

The book begins with an introduction to the poetry of Kurdistan Resistance and examines the characteristics of the poetry of resistance among Kurdish poets, the subjects of these poems as well as their languages and poetic forms. The selected poets in this book have either understood the era of revolution and sacred defense themselves, or are poets who have written poetry in the field of resistance and defense, or are also prominent at the national level and are considered among the famous poets of the country.

Following this part of the book, the author first examines the poetry of Kurdistan before and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution and then deals with the current of the poetry of the revolution in Kurdistan. Then the capacities and delicacies of the poetry of the Kurdistan resistance, including preserving the Islamic Revolution, educating the new generation and introducing the revolution to the next generations, keeping alive the memory of the revolutionaries, as well as innovating in themes, paying attention to Persian as the official and expressive language, as well as performing artistic works in classical styles are stated.

In the first chapter, the memoirs of thirteen poets of Kurdistan resistance, including Akram Bahramchi, Tahere Takhti (Nasim), Behrouz Kheirieh, Mansour Dolati, Mohammad Rahimi Rezvan, Salar Shariati, Mehdi Safiyyari, Ali Ehsan Fereydoni, Masoud Motahari, Abolghasem Memar, Mansour Molavali and Omar Saleh were reviewed. These memoirs are the product of about fifty hours of interviews, and their order is based on the profession, position, and policies, as well as the compiler's tastes and strengths of the interviews. After each poet's memoirs, one or two poems by her /him are brought, in order the reader to be acquainted with the poet's pen and words.

In the second chapter, the biography of six deceased Kurdish poets, including Shahrokh Orami, Sheikh Hossein Ali Rahmani Garousi, Seyyed Ebrahim Sotoudeh, Golshan Kurdistani, Sheikh Ali Akbar Komasian and Abdul Ghaffar Varstegan (Nazokbin) are written, and according to the first chapter, one or two poems of these artists are also mentioned at the end of the introduction of each poet.

Unrepeatable Songs has been made available to those interested in 310 pages, trim size, and a price of 45,000 Tomans.