Heraclitus
M. Malmîsanij
Translated from the Kirmanjki by Jiyar Homer & Shook
I swear on your head, Heraclitus,
what you said
  remains the same.
Panta rei, panta rei.
Everything flows, passes.
Polemos, which we call Lej,
  never ends.
  War is eternal, unstopping...
Are you conscious, Heraclitus?
  Do you know what they tell us?
They're trying
  to wash us
  in the same old river again.

Come on, tell me,
  is this wise, Heraclitus?
Even with Ghengis Khan as an ancestor
  can one wash themselves twice
  in the same river?

     Stockholm, 1983


Herakleîtos

Bi çareyê to Herakleîtos,
ay hewawo ki to va
  hima ay hewa.
"Panta rei, panta rei":
heme çî herrikîyêno, şono.
"Polemos" ki ma lej vanîm
  hima nêvindert.
  Lej bêvernî, bêpeynî...
Labelê haya to pey esta Herakleîtos,
  ti zanî se vanê ma ra?
Kenê ki
  ma rayna
  royo verîn di bişuwê.

De ti vaje,
  no aqil o Herakleîtos?
Wazena wa bawkalê yînî Cengîz bêro,
  yew ro di caran
  di finî şuwîyêno kes?

     Stockholm, 1983
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“Heraclitus” occupies a special place in the history of the Kirmanjki variant of Kurdish language and its poetry, as the title poem of the first-ever collection of contemporary Kirmanjki poetry, whose publication by M. Malmîsanij in 1988 stood in proud defiance of centuries of state-sanctioned repression and displacement. While some 60 books of poetry have since been published, "My Name Is a Sin" (Kashkul Books, 2023) represents the first-ever translations to appear in English.
 
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