'Poetry is peace and therapy'

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Kurdistan24) – Hamid Sharifi, a former Peshmerga and current assistant nurse, said life without his verses and melodies would be intolerable.

Stockholm-based Sharifi was born in 1972 in Sena (Sanadaj), Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) and started his love affair with words and music in 2000.

His poems had been translated into Swedish and received attention from the Swedish literary community.

His latest work about the rights of homosexuals marked a new era in his songwriting, taboo-breaking, and attention to broader social issues.

Sharifi who had lost a brother in the fight for liberation in Rojhelat joined the Peshmerga forces in 1996.

In 2000, when seeking asylum in Turkey, he started writing poetry as a means to tackle hardships.

“My songs and poems were confessional. My little notebook was the only place where I could be myself. My verses always have melody in my head,” Sharifi told Kurdistan24 over the phone.

When he was arrested in Turkey for being an illegal immigrant, his only possession was the little notebook containing his words.

“I tried to convince the policeman to allow me to hold on to my little diary but he grasped it and threw it in the heater,” he said.

As Sharifi watched the flames devouring his soul’s words, he was not sure if he should scream or shed tears.

“If I had lost a billion dollars, I would not have experienced that level of panic,” he said.

Arrested by the police in Greece and deported to Turkey and later to the Kurdistan Region prison, Sharifi sheltered in poetry to survive physical and psychological agonies.

“We were 80 people in one small room, each with the right to a small space and fighting to hide weakness,” he explained.

“Humiliated and lonely, missing my son Rajan terribly, I looked up at the ceiling so tears would not fall down and betray me,” Sharifi remembered.

He was about to fail the struggle when verses appeared in his head. That was the moment he realized poetry was more than a hobby. It was his saviour, Sharifi added.

Words turned into weapons by which he fought fear and desperation.

When released from prison, Sharifi settled in Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, where he worked at a quarterly called “Metmana” (Assurance) which he said was praised for its design as well as its content.

In 2006, he also worked as a radio presenter and helped create documentaries for Rojhelat TV.

In 2008, Sharifi started a new life in Sweden where he began work as a nursing assistant, mostly helping patients who suffered from Alzheimers. He said the lifestyle was inducive to creativity.

“The peace that I experience now has helped me create quality work,” Sharifi explained. “I now write in Kurdish, Farsi, and Swedish, and I am looking for publishers.”

Since rhythm is a significant part of Sharifi’s lyrics, much is lost in translation, but the following is an example of his work:

Power is the one part of the world

The part that lives in peace and quiet

Those with several million dollars

Buy a picture of a girl with a doll in her arms

Who is struck by a bullet in the forehead

And the photographer got some kind of prize for the picture

We are agents for them

Those who cry sometimes for us on your TV

Those who send the Red Cross there

Where there is already the Red Crescent.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany