Jila (Zhila) Hosseini (1964–1996), poet, writer, researcher and radio announcer, was born on September 22, 1964, in Saqqez, Iran and was the first Kurdish woman to compose modern poems instead of classical poetry.Biography of Kurdish poets: Jila Hosseini, Voice of Kurdish-American Radio for Democracy, Peace, and Freedom, 2010Biography of Kurdish poets Jila Hosseini, Sher e Nab, 2017
Short biography
Jila was born in Saqqez in Iran. She had a supporting family and Sheikh Abdul Qadir, her father's grandfather, was a calligrapher and poet. Zhila's father, Sheikh Mehran Hosseini, was a judge of justice and an intellectual. She was born into a traditional culture with cumbersome rules and liked to change those old traditions. Under the situation that all educational Centers including universities and Schools were closed caused by Iranian Cultural Revolution, She got married at a young age but her tendency towards modernity influenced her private life and she divorced once. At the age of 32 while going to visit the great poet of Kurdistan, Sherko Bekas, she died in a car accident.Mirina rojê, The Kurdish digital library, 2006 After the death of Zhila, Sherko Bekas composed a poem for her:
I dreamed of a fairy angel I have seen it myself Jila is now among the clouds She is sitting on a purple chair And writes poetry She is wearing a moonlit skirt
Poems New Kurdish poetry began its evolution several decades ago and naturally progressed to the advanced stages in Kurdish language literature.The beginning of modern Kurdish poetry and the evolution of its forms, Marefat Anvar, Gotar Publication, Saqqez, 2016 Zhila's poems in Kurdish literature helped to open new windows in modern poem.The World of Kurdish Women's Novels, Hashem Ahmadzadeh, journal article, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 719-738 (20 pages), Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 2008 She was the first Kurdish woman poet to compose modern Kurdish poems.Kurdistan's Poem Avangardha Website, translated by Khaled Baizidi Dalir, 2015 She was a pioneer in composing poetry in a modern style among female poets in Kurdistan. She was inspired by Sherko Bekas. There were two different stages in the evolution of her poems. First she didn't has her own language and style but in the second stage she found her own style of composing poems.Kurdish Modern poem Conference in Sanandaj IRNA News Agancy, 2016 Books Some of Jila's poems are published as follows:
Poetry book (Kurdish) گه شه ی ئه وین (The joy of love), first edition of Sanandaj, 1995.The Joy of Love, Zhyar Publications, Tehran, 1995The Joy of Love Vejin Books Website، Ketab Online Poetry book (Kurdish) قهلای راز (Secret Castle), first edition of Tehran, 1998. This book was published in three parts.Secret Castle Poem Book, Borekeei Publications, Tehran, 1999Secret Casle Poem Book Vejin Books, Ketab Online Part 1: Zhila's remaining Kurdish poems Part 2: A selection of her Kurdish short stories Part 3: The Persian poems of Zhila (she had chosen the title of Rain for this collection)
English Translation Jila (Zhila) Hosseini's poems "Night Story", "Question" and "Bliss" have been translated into English by Haidar Khezri and Tyler Fisher for Y’alla (University of Texas at Austin) Y’alla (Journal of Middle Eastern Literature in translation, Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin). and Poet Lore. “Bliss,” translation of a poem by Jhila Hosseini, Poet Lore, vol. 120, Winter/Spring 2024,
References
External links A documentary TV program from Tishk TV about Zhila Hoseini Life in Kurdish Kurdistan Poets Biography IRIB website A Poet for Poems, Rozhan Noori 24 years after the death, Hawlati News Agency About Jila, Iran's Poem Website، Saeid Fallahi in Kurdish and Persian About Kurdish Modern Poem , Negah Website Kurdistan Poem Forough, Mukryan Zaryan Website A library named after Jila Hosseini, an artist from East Kurdistan, was opened, BasNews, 2019 Inauguration of "Jila Hosseini" library in Saqqez, Kurdpa, 2019