Northern Kurdish Poetic Features with an Application to Translation
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Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Thesis Approval Sheet This thesis, entitled Northern Kurdish poetic features with an application to translation written by Edward Harry Magin Jr. and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics has been read and approved by the undersigned members of the faculty of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. __________________________________________ Dr. Brenda H. Boerger (Mentor) __________________________________________ Dr. Peter Unseth (Mentor) __________________________________________ Dr. Arden G. Sanders __________________________________________ [date signed] Northern Kurdish poetic features with an application to translation by Edward Harry Magin Jr. Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics December 2012 © 2012 Edward Harry Magin Jr. All Rights Reserved CERTIFICATE I acknowledge that the use of copyrighted material in my thesis may place me under an obligation to the copyright owner, especially when use of such material exceeds usual fair use provisions. I hereby certify that I have obtained the written permission of the copyright owner for any and all such occurrences and that no portion of my thesis has been copyrighted previously unless properly referenced. I hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics from any and all claims that may be asserted or that may arise from any copyright violation. ___________________________________ Signature ___________________________________ Date THESIS DUPLICATION RELEASE I hereby authorize the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Library to duplicate this thesis when needed for research and/or scholarship. Agreed: _________________________________________ (student signature) Refused: ________________________________________ (student signature) ABSTRACT Northern Kurdish poetic features with an application to translation Edward Harry Magin Jr. Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, December 2012 Supervising Professors: Dr. Brenda H. Boerger and Dr. Peter Unseth This thesis is a study of poetic features in Northern Kurdish poetry. The corpus, which represents three periods of Northern Kurdish poetry: Neo-classical, New, and Modern, was gathered in Iraq during the Fall of 2009. While some studies of Northern Kurdish poetry exist in Northern Kurdish, this study is the first of its kind in English. The first part of the analysis is on the phonological level, where I identify verse forms and rhyme schemes found in the corpus. Much of the information concerning verse forms in Northern Kurdish poetry was obtained by means of interviews with poets and an editor of poetry. The second part of the analysis is on the syntactic level, where I identify deviations from common speech and variations in language that poets capitalize on to write their lines of poetry. In the final chapter, I apply these insights to the translation of an English poem into Northern Kurdish. I also analyze a translation of the same poem by a native speaker, identifying the poetic devices employed. DEDICATION to my Naphtili, who has been my support throughout this long endeavor xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my committee members, Brenda Boerger, Pete Unseth, and Arden Sanders, for their much needed guidance and encouragement. I am also deeply grateful to Shivan Tovi and Perwer Shushi for the many hours they selflessly gave me, answering my many questions concerning the poems in the corpus and Northern Kurdish in general. I am also very thankful for the contributions of Nicholas and Denise Bailey, whose input in the grammar sketch was invaluable. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Kurdish poets, scholars, and translators mentioned throughout this study, for it is their people and their culture that inspired me to take on this project in the first place. July 12, 2012 xv Table of Contents Table of Contents.......................................................................................................xvii List of Tables .............................................................................................................xxii List of Figures.......................................................................................................... xxiii Abbreviations and Other Conventions ....................................................................xxiv Pronouns in Northern Kurdish................................................................................xxiv Prefixes, infixes, suffixes, particles: ..........................................................................xxv 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................1 1.1 General ................................................................................................................1 1.2 Historical overview..............................................................................................2 1.3 The people and the language ................................................................................3 1.4 The sociolinguistic situation.................................................................................3 2. Literature review .....................................................................................................5 2.1 History of Kurdish and Kurdish-related poetry, with historical context.................5 2.1.1 Before 1920..................................................................................................7 2.1.1.1 The Botan school....................................................................................7 2.1.1.2 The Goran school .................................................................................10 2.1.1.3 The Nali school ....................................................................................11 2.1.1.4 Early publication ..................................................................................13 2.1.2 1920-1960..................................................................................................13 2.1.3 1960-1980..................................................................................................17 2.1.4 1980 to present day ....................................................................................18 2.2 On translating poetry..........................................................................................19 2.2.1 The translator as reader ..............................................................................21 2.2.2 Qualifications of a metapoet.......................................................................23 2.2.3 Non-ordinary language of poetry................................................................24 2.2.4 Models for making translation decisions.....................................................26 2.2.4.1 Holmes’ meta-literature model ―types of interpretation and types of poetry...................................................................................................26 2.2.4.1.1 Prose translation of a poem...........................................................28 2.2.4.1.2 Translation into a verse form.........................................................29 2.2.4.1.3 Re-creative translation ..................................................................30 2.2.4.1.4 Apter on Ezra Pound’s “creative” translations...............................33 2.2.4.2 Holmes’ “retention versus modernization” model .................................35 2.2.4.3 Boerger’s principles for translating poetry ............................................38 xvii 3. Interviews .............................................................................................................. 40 3.1 On the development of Northern Kurdish poetry................................................ 40 3.1.1 Neo-classical period................................................................................... 41 3.1.2 New period................................................................................................ 42 3.1.3 Modern period ........................................................................................... 44 3.2 Sindî on present day poetry................................................................................ 46 3.3 Quçan on poetry and life in the village............................................................... 46 3.4 On themes in Northern Kurdish poetry .............................................................. 47 3.5 Sindî on the use of other Northern Kurdish subdialects...................................... 51 3.6 Sindî on use of end rhyme ................................................................................. 52 3.7 Quçan on imagery in his poetry ......................................................................... 53 4. A grammatical sketch of Northern Kurdish ........................................................ 54 4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 54 4.2 Orthography and phonetics ................................................................................ 54 4.2.1 Vowels .....................................................................................................