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September 4, 2009
News
Launch in Sulaymaniyah of the first literary translation of Mam u Zin into Standard (South Kurmanji) Kurdish
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Ranj Press, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region- On 25th August 2009, the privately-owned Ranj Press in Sulaymnaiyah organised a ceremony to celebrate the printing and publication of Dr Kamal Mirawdeli’s first ever literary translation of Mam u Zin of Ahmadi Khani from its original North Kurmanji dialect to the modern standard South Kurmanji (wrongly labeled Sorani) Kurdish. A large number of Kurdish intellectuals in Sulaymaniya attended the ceremony and eagerly listened to Mirawdeli’s introduction of the book and his highly intellectual academic reading of Khani’s epochal epic.
Dr Mirawdeli started the introduction by paying tribute to the great Kurdish poet and scholar Hajar Mukryani who first published a Mukryani version of Mam u Zin in verse in 1960 and then published the original text with in-depth research and interpretation in the 1990s. But the full text of Mam u Zin, though the most important Kurdish historical literary text and national heritage, has remained out of reach of the ordinary Kurdish students and readers. Mirawdeli’s scholarly work fills this gap. He said he was careful to work as meticulously as possible to keep the spirit and form of the work and be as responsive as possible in keeping the style of the original text using verse when it comes naturally or prose when it serves the purpose better keeping most of the original Kurdish (North Kurmanji) words as well as religious and Sufist Arabic words and terms. Then he gave a summary of his academic reading of the drama. Dr Mirawdeli said that this is the first of four works on Khani. The other works include a Khani dictionary, a comprehensive academic study of the form and content of the work, a play version of the drama in English and Kurdish and the translation of the text with a study into English.
After the ceremony Mirawdeli received the members of the audience and signed the books for them. Some writers and friends of Dr Mirawdeli informed him later that they could not attend the ceremony because they were afraid that PUK authorities in Sulaymaniyah would punish them by sacking them, transferring them or demoting them.
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