Abdullah Goran (, b. in 1904 in

Halabja Halabja (, ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about northeast of Baghdad and from the Iranian border. The city lies at the base of what is often referred to as the greater Hewraman re ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, d. 1962 in

Sulaymaniyah Sulaymaniyah or Slemani (; ), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and is the capital of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate. It is surrounded by the Azmar (Ezmer), Goizha (Goyje) and Qaiwan (Qeywan) Mountains in the northeast, Bara ...

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...

) was a leading

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

poet and translator of the 20th century.

Biography

Abdullah was born in

in 1904 and received his education in local schools and the pedagogical institute in

Kirkuk Kirkuk (; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Iraqi Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Cit ...

. As a teacher in Kirkuk, he continued his self-education by learning new languages and studying Turkish and

Western literature Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...

. He took part in radical political and social causes in the 1930s and was frequently arrested until the

14 July Revolution The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi military coup, was a ''coup d'état'' that took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, resulting in the toppling of King Faisal II and the overthrow of the Hashemite-led Kingdom of Iraq. The Ira ...

in 1958. He spent much effort on creating a single Kurdish literary language by merging the two

dialects

Kurmanji Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the ...

and

Sorani Central Kurdish, also known as Sorani Kurdish, is a Kurdish dialect or a language spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Central Kurdish is one of the ...

. He was moreover a skilled translator and translated texts from English, French, Persian and Turkish to Kurdish. He died in 1962 in

Poetry

Goran combined traditional Kurdish classical and folk verses with contemporary lyricism and diversified the subject matter. He introduced

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...

, and new rhyme schemes and abandoned the aruz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goran, Abdulla Iraqi Kurdish people People from Halabja Kurdish-language Iraqi poets Kurdish poets 1904 births 1962 deaths Halabja Deaths from cancer in Iraq Academic staff of the University of Baghdad 20th-century Iraqi poets