Kurdish poet Abdullah Goran on mural in one of Baghdad's squares

The Municipality of Baghdad installed a mural in one of the squares of the Iraqi capital which has the photo of the Kurdish poet Abdullah Goran.

The mural was made by Arab artist Wejdan Al-Majed.

Abdulla Goran was a leading Kurdish poet and translator of the 20th century.

He was born in Halabja in 1904 and received education in local schools and the pedagogical institute in Kirkuk. He studied at Al-Ilm school in Kirkuk in 1921 but left after his brother was martyred.

Goran continued his self-education by learning new languages and studying Turkish and Western literature. He returned to his city to take care of his mother and worked as a teacher between 1925-1937 in primary schools in Halabja and Hawraman. 

He also took part in 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 Slemani.

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



Reported by Maad Adel
PUKmedia