II A Southern Kurdish Folksong in Kermanshahi Dialect

E. B. Soane

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00038351

II A Southern Kurdish Folksong in Kermanshahi Dialect

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

E. B. Soane

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The Kurdish dialect of Persian has so far received very little attention from Oriental students, though it fully merits study, for while actually nothing more than a Persian dialect it has not submitted to the erosion which time brings about in every language, and which is so marked a feature in the development of modern Persian. Nor has it been subject to that admixture of Arabic words which has become so great a part of Persian since the invasion of the early Muhammadan Arabs. As a consequence it has preserved intact many words now obsolete in the mother language.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 1909 , pp. 35 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00038351 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1909

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^{page 37 note 1} parkanda, equivalent of Persian parāganda, parākanda, “scattered,” “dispersed.”

^{page 37 note 2} tarfītün (ü pronounced as German ü), “distressed,” from the Kurdish verb tarfitünin, “to be distressed;” am is the 1st singular present indicative of the verb “to be”.

^{page 37 note 3} shāhid, signifying a martyr, from the usage of shāhid in connection with the Shi'ah martyrs Husain and Hasan, commonly termed shāhid in colloquial Persian.

The last line refers to the well-known tradition of Farhad, who attempted the demolition of the Bisītūn Mountain near Kermanshah in order to gain the hand of Shīrīn.

^{page 37 note 1} makai, Persian makun, “do not.”

^{page 37 note 2} la, Persian az, “from.”

^{page 37 note 3} mar, magar, “unless.”

^{page 37 note 4} mirdin, Persian murdan, “to die,” or verbal noun, “dying.”

^{page 37 note 5} buwait, Persian bibarad, “that it take.” Kurdish infinitive birdin, the root bir having been corrupted to wa, as with the same verb in Luri and southern mountain dialects.

^{page 37 note 6} wīram = wīr + am, “my memory.” Cf. Ar. wīr, “the mind.”

^{page 38 note 1} wa, Persian bi, the bāyi qasam, “preceding an oath.”

^{page 38 note 2} giān, Persian jān, “the soul.” Giān i Kishbar, “soul of Kishbar,” which is a common Kurdish name for a woman.

^{page 38 note 3} Sāmeranīsh = Sāmera + n + īsh. Sāmera, the allusion to a beauty of Samera of Turkestan; -īsh, a possessive termination not necessary to the sense. The medial –n– is purely euphonic.

^{page 38 note 1} wārān, Persian bārān, “rain.”

^{page 38 note 2} buwārit, Persian bibārad, “let it rain.”

^{page 38 note 3} batīa, “a cloak.”

^{page 38 note 4} bakai, Persian bikunad, “let it make.”

^{page 38 note 5} chīm, “I go,” from Kermanshahi chīan, “to go,” a survival of the ancient chīū, “going.”

^{page 38 note 6} māl, the Kurdish use for a house.

^{page 39 note *} i. e. in grief for the friend's departure.

^{page 39 note 1} yārī, Persian yār-ash = “his friend.” Kermanshāhī uses -i in place of the Persian genitive termination -ash, “of him, her, it.”

^{page 39 note 2} būt, Persian bāshad, “may he be,” from infinitive bīan, “to be.”

^{page 39 note 1} bichīm, “let us go;” see note 5 to couplet 4.

^{page 39 note 2} jāka = Persian jā, “a place.”

^{page 39 note 3} kihinakan, Persian kūhān kan, the breaker of mountains.

^{page 39 note 4} bidaīm, “let us strike,” from dān, “to strike,” root da.

^{page 39 note 5} sardā, Persian sar, “head,” or “heads”. The affix -da occurs in Kurdish nouns; usually placed in an objective or a noun preceded by a preposition.

^{page 40 note 1} rām, Persian raḥm, “mercy.”

^{page 40 note 2} la, Persian bi, az, dar, “in.”

^{page 40 note 3} jāmita = jām-at-ast, “is in thy garments.”

^{page 40 note 4} zaīfīm = Persian zaīfī-yi-man “my weakness.”

^{page 40 note 5} paī, “for,” “because of.” This is still used as most Persian dialects and in old Persian.

^{page 40 note 6} shamāmita = shamām-at-ast, ”thy delicacy is.”

^{page 40 note 1} yeh = Persian īn, “this.”

^{page 40 note 2} bī, Persian būd, “was;” the past tense used in a present sense, as is common both in Kurdish and vulgar Persian.

^{page 40 note 3} sālār, “swelled.”

^{page 40 note 4} lash, Persian lāsh, “dead,” “a corpse.”

^{page 40 note 5} bām, Persian shudam, “I became.” The Kurds have no proper distinction between the verbs “to be” and “to become”.

^{page 41 note *} The metaphor is that of the lashes and eyebrows being like the lances and bows of an army.

^{page 41 note 1} nīshī, “eyelashes,” Persian muzha.

^{page 41 note 2} zhangit, “thy eyebrows.”

^{page 41 note 3} manīt, Persian mimānad, idiom for “resembles”.

^{page 41 note 4} jarda, “a robber.”

^{page 41 note 1} bikam, Persian bikunam, “may I do.”

^{page 41 note 2} naō namāma, “fresh beauty.”

^{page 41 note 3} shaō, Persian shab, “night.”

^{page 41 note 4} pazhāraī, “prepossession of her,” “thoughts of her.”

^{page 41 note 5} khaō, Persian khwāb, “sleep.”

^{page 41 note 6} l'īm = la + ī + am, Persian az man, “from me.” The junction of the two short a's in la and am usually produces in Kurdish one long ī sound.

^{page 42 note 1} kaft, “fell,” from Kurdish verb kaftin, “to fall.”

^{page 42 note 2} wīram, “my memory.” See note 6, couplet 2.

^{page 42 note 3} khāsī, “goodness,” Arabic The Persian word khūb is seldom used in Kurdish.

^{page 42 note 4} annām, obsolescent Persian andām, “form,” “stature.”

^{page 42 note 5} kulkwat, the Kurdish woman's garment, a kind of tunic, with full pleated skirts, also called kulanja and kamarchīn.

^{page 42 note 1} bān, Persian bām, and bāla, “up,” “above.”

^{page 42 note 2} wa pām mashq makat, a Kurdish idiom for the Persian bā pā mashq mīkunad barāyi man. This occurs but rarely, however, in such an involved phrase. In some Persian dialects the sentence, while preserving the same idea of a possessive pronominal termination instead of a separate pronoun and preposition, would read bā pā mashqam mīkunad.

^{page 42 note 3} chaō, Persian chashm, 201C;eyes.”

^{page 43 note 1} dam, Persian dahan, “mouth.”

^{page 43 note 2} mam, “the breast.” Though no recognized Persian equivalent exists, the words mimeh, mām, and one or two other variants occur in the same sense in the South Persian and Lur dialects.

^{page 43 note 3} pisht i pāshna, Persian pusht i pāshneh, “the heel.”

^{page 43 note 4} masī, Persian mastī, “intoxication.”

^{page 43 note 5} chaōwakat = chaō + ak + at, “thy eyes.” The termination -ak is as common in Kurdish as in vulgar Persian for all nouns.

^{page 43 note 6} min, Persian man, “me,” “I.”

^{page 43 note 1} har chan, Persian har chand, “however much.”

^{page 43 note 2} manīshirn, Persian mīnishīnam, “I sit,” “remain.” The verbal form with initial m is hardly correct Kermanshāhī, which as a rule omits any prefix in present indicative.

^{page 43 note 3} dumātir = Persian dumbāltar, “later,” “more behind.” The word dumbāl is now little used except in the dialects of Yazd and Isfahan.

^{page 43 note 4} khwashīm, Persian khūshī-am, “my pleasure.”

^{page 43 note 5} maü, Persian mīshavad, “becomes.”

^{page 43 note 6} zīātir, Persian zīādtar, “more.”

^{page 44 note *} i.e. quarrelled and run away from the Kalhur.

^{page 44 note 1} Kalhur, a large district and tribe of Kurds west of Kermanshah, noted for their ferocity and power.

^{page 44 note 2} kirdia, Persian karda ast, “has made,” “done.”

^{page 44 note 3} tür, “quarrel.” The verb here inverted is the compound tür kirdin, a parallel to Persian qahr kardan, “to quarrel,” “to take offence at.”

^{page 44 note 4} dinān, Persian dandān, “teeth.”

^{page 44 note 1} tuna, Persian tur, “for the sake of.” Tuna also occurs in Luri and South Persian dialects.

^{page 44 note 2} chomas, Persian chashm-mast, “frenzied.”

^{page 44 note 3} pīchakat, Persian pīcha-at, the small square black horsehair veil worn by the women of Kermanshah and Turkish Arabia out of doors.

^{page 44 note 4} lāwa, “take off,” “remove,” inf. lāwān.

^{page 44 note 5} bünam, Persian bibīnam, “let me see.”

^{page 44 note 6} chaōat, Persian chashmat, “thy eyes.”

^{page 45 note 1} sāf, Persian “smooth,” here used in the sense of “entirely”.

^{page 45 note 2} bī, Persian būdam, “I was.”

^{page 45 note 3} sīmā, Persian sīmāb, “quicksilver” “silver.”

^{page 45 note 4} dīm, Persian dīdam, Kurdish inf. dīan.

^{page 45 note 5} harda bīm, “I was released;”Kurdish harda bīan, “to be released,” “to be free.”

^{page 45 note 1} küshtītam, Persian kushtī marā, vulgar Persian kushtīm, “thou slewest me.”

^{page 45 note 2} khünītam, Persian khūnī-at-am, “am I at blood-feud with thee ?” Khūnī is the usual vulgar equivalent of khūndārī, “a blood-feud.”

^{page 45 note 3} khālakaī, Persian khāl, “a mole.”

^{page 45 note 4} chāl, “a hollow, depression,” obsolescent Persian.

^{page 45 note 5} tanīt, Kermanshāhi tanī, “the neck,” the lower part of the throat.

^{page 46 note 1} naīm, Persian nadīdam, “I saw not.”

^{page 46 note 2} mar, magar, “except.”

^{page 46 note 3} humā, Persian ā. The word is unusual in Kermanshāhī dialect, properly belonging to that of Sina of Kurdistān.

^{page 46 note 4} kūtasaī, Persian kūbīda ast, “is, or has, hammered” (pounded, moulded).

^{page 46 note 1} bikīshīn, Persian bikashīd. Inf. kīshin, “to pull,” “draw.”

^{page 46 note 2} kur, “feebleness.”

^{page 46 note 3} giān, Persian jān, “body,” “soul;” kur giānī, “bodily weakness.”

^{page 46 note 4} māl, Kurdish use of the Arabic word for “house”.

^{page 46 note 5} dūs, Persian dūst, “friend,” “lover.”

^{page 46 note 6} chīm, “let us go;” see note 5, couplet 4.

^{page 46 note 7} shaō, Persian shab, “night.”

^{page 46 note 8} mīmānī, Persian mihmānī, “a feast,” “banquet.”

^{page 47 note 1} Sar-i-Mil, the remains of an old pillar set to mark the road from Harunabad to Kerind (near Kermanshah) and distant from the latter about 5 miles.

^{page 47 note 2} banürī, Persian bi nūrash, “by her light.”

^{page 47 note 3} diyāra, “is apparent.”

^{page 47 note 4} dirit, Persian dārad, “he has.”

^{page 47 note 1} düro, Persian dūr, “afar.”

^{page 47 note 2} hātim, Persian āmadam, Kurdish infin. hātin, “to come,” this form having arisen from the preservation of the older Persian verb āīdan, “to come,” to which h has been prefixed, as often occurs with similar words in Kurdish.

^{page 47 note 3} bishnāsa, Persian bishinās or bishinū, “hear!”

^{page 47 note 4} dangam, Persian bāngam, “my cry.”

^{page 47 note 5} gart Persian gard, “dust.”

^{page 47 note 6} nīshtīa, Persian nishasta ast, “is sitting,” “settled upon,” Kurdish inf. nīshtin.

^{page 47 note 7} rangam, “my colour,” here used for “face”.

^{page 48 note 1} kamarchīn; see note 5, couplet 11.

^{page 48 note 2} mirda, Persian murda, “the dead.”

^{page 48 note 3} tīārat. Persian mīārad or mīāvurad, “she brings.” Kurdish infinitive āwirdin and hāwirdin. This verb, together with hātin, takes prefixial tī in Kermanshāhī in the present indicative, a variant of the similarly used di and da in more northern dialects.

^{page 48 note 1} bām, Persian bāsham, “may I be.”

^{page 48 note 2} zwān, Persian zabān, “tongue.”

^{page 48 note 3} pai, Persian barāyi, “for.”

^{page 48 note 4} dānai ferang, a term used in Kurdish to express any small article of great beauty.

^{page 48 note 5} dasta i dāmī, a cluster of nets (for the ensnaring of the enamoured), a common Persian metaphor.

^{page 49 note *} i.e. she made me like Majnūn, mad for love of Laīlī.

^{page 49 note 1} dā, Persian dād, “gave.”

^{page 49 note 1} chan, Persian chand, used in Kurdish indifferently for “how much” and “how many”.

^{page 49 note 2} shwān, Persian shabān, “nights.” This plural for shab is obsolete in Persian.

^{page 49 note 3} muz, Persian muzd, “reward,” “price.”

^{page 49 note 1} sa jwōām ka, Persian pas javābam kun, “then make me my reply,” i.e. “release me”.

^{page 49 note 2} dil nīā, “with heart at rest.”

^{page 49 note 3} būm, Persian bishavam, “that I become.”

^{page 49 note 4} das, Persian dast, “hard.”

^{page 50 note 1} mālakai, “a house,” the termination -akai being quite optional and ruled by no custom.

^{page 50 note 2} Paraōit, “thy, Paraō,” the possessive referring to mālakai in conformity with Persian usage, when a possessive is added to the last of a series of nouns used adjectivally. Paraō is a high range of mountains north-west of Kermanshah.

^{page 50 note 3} bām, Persian bāsham, “may I be.” See note 1, couplet 24.

^{page 50 note 4} dīdakai, Persian dīda, “eyes.”

^{page 50 note 5} khaōit, “thy, sleep,” the possessive qualifying dīdakai.

^{page 50 note 1} har, the same word as in Persian, but possessing in Kurdish a wider meaning, here signifying “incessantly”.

^{page 50 note 2} tīaīt, Persian mīayī. See note 3, couplet 23.

^{page 50 note 3} chīt, Persian mīravī, “thou goest.”

^{page 50 note 4} cham, Persian chashm, “eyes.”

^{page 50 note 5} gilāwa, “tiredness, straining.” The word is gilā with termination -awa or -wa, which is frequently added in Kurdish poetry.

^{page 50 note 6} kaōk, Persian kabk, “partridge.”

^{page 50 note 7} hilāwa, “flying,” “rising.”

^{page 51 note 1} kaft, Persian uftād, “fell,” from Kurdish inf. kaftin, “to fall.”

^{page 51 note 2} zīd u māwān, a Kurdish expression somewhat equivalent to the Persian maqām va makān, “residence and place.”

^{page 51 note 3} anūm, Persian andūh-am, “my grief.”

^{page 51 note 4} hāwird, Persian āvard, “brought.”

^{page 51 note 5} gīriyā, Persian girīā, “tears.”

^{page 51 note 1} shār, Persian shahr, “a town.”

^{page 51 note 2} dīm, Persian dīdam, “I saw.”

^{page 51 note 3} wīrāna, Persian vīrān, “ruin,” a now obsolete word.

^{page 51 note 4} Sar i Pul, or more correctly Sar i Pul i Zohāb, near the Perso-Turkish frontier post of Qasr i Shirin, a Kurdish town.

^{page 51 note 5} bāyaqush, “an owl” (Turkish).

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II A Southern Kurdish Folksong in Kermanshahi Dialect

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