Remazan Bakur: The Kurds and World Literature

Rastinews — In the world, whether in old literature or in the literature of our time, classical or modern, scientific literature, ideological literature, the literature of thought and philosophy, the literature of history and culture — this vast field belongs above all to European and Russian literature. This powerful European and Russian tradition took shape after the Renaissance and the Reformation and then spread across the globe. (Our ancestors always called Russia "Uris.") After European and Russian literature comes that of the Middle East, and within it, Kurdish literature stands out as one of the strongest. Yet unfortunately, on the world stage, Kurdish literature remains voiceless, without influence, and weak.

Literature, and the habit of reading books, has a profound effect on human awareness and understanding. People who read widely grow in comprehension, in speech and in the ability to respond. They develop a deep, wide-ranging capacity for thought, perspective and interpretation. They gain knowledge of the cultures of different nations of the world. Through reading, they come to know geography, the map of the world, its continents. Through reading, a rich vocabulary takes root in the mind. For this reason, everyone should value literature, and should read the literature of their own homeland as well as that of the world.

We Kurds know European and Russian culture well. That knowledge comes, without question, mainly through their literature. Knowing the literature and culture of other regions of the world is necessary and important. But on this very point, a deep and silent danger has settled into our people and into their minds: a kind of self-assimilation. Because we read the works of world literature not in our own language, but in the language of those who occupy our homeland. Through this hidden process, the language of the occupiers takes firmer root in our minds than our own language does. Their language advances in our minds, our own language slips away, and we find it hard to read in our own tongue. Once we are able to translate from foreign languages into our own, that will close off this path to self-assimilation.

This is where the importance of book translation becomes clear. Unfortunately, we fall short here. Kurdish works are not translated into foreign languages, nor are foreign works translated into Kurdish. The situation is the same across all four parts of Kurdistan. What translation does take place can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and even that, unfortunately, is scattered across different regional dialects and varieties. This is why official status for the Kurdish language matters as much as the freedom of the Kurds and Kurdistan. Until Kurdish becomes an official language, this work cannot succeed.

Today the world knows us through our revolution for freedom and our revolution against religious fundamentalism and conservatism. But that is not enough. Just as we come to know the cultures of the world's nations through their literature, the world must come to know us and our culture through ours. Unfortunately, we must say plainly: Kurdish literature has no place on the world stage, in the international arena. It is a source of sorrow that this absence cuts us off from the world and the international arena, and renders us invisible.

As Kurdish writers, we work without support. Writing and creating any work demands enormous labor. The burden of literature falls on the shoulders of devoted, self-sacrificing writers, and economically, that burden is heavy for them. The reason for this lack of support has a name: the non-official status of the Kurdish language, and statelessness.

Among ourselves, we are not weak in literature. Kurdish literature — old or contemporary, classical or modern — is strong. The obstacle is the absence of translation. I believe that once translation takes hold, Kurdish literature will win a good and influential place on the world stage and in the international arena. Because, whether through our geography or the distinctiveness of our culture, we hold an ancient and rich culture, one that differs from the cultures of every other nation in the world. To this day, I have not heard of a single work of Kurdish literature translated into a European language or any other language of the world's nations, and I know that the number of world-literature books translated from foreign languages into Kurdish can be counted on one hand.

Today, in our libraries, books of world literature take up a great deal of space — but unfortunately, in the language of those who occupy our homeland. I keep asking myself the same question: how will Kurdish literature find its way onto the world stage? And my answer is always the same: through official status for the Kurdish language. I hope every Kurd will demand official status for Kurdish, from political organizations at home and from organizations abroad. I say it again: official status for the Kurdish language matters as much as the freedom of the Kurds and Kurdistan, and I believe that official status for Kurdish will, in the future, become the foundation of that freedom.