Aziz Gardi: Jewel of
Kurdish Literary Translation

Hailing from a small town near Hewlêr (Erbil), Gardi began his literary career at an early age while writing a book on rhetoric in Kurdish literature—the first of its kind—in 1968; it was published in 1970. His first published translation appeared in 1976 by the Kurdish Academy Center in Baghdad. It was a novella titled Three Drawings by Alexei Balakayev, which he translated from English (Rasul 2021, 1556).  

After that, he translated many world masterpieces and mastered five languages: Kurdish (both Sorani and Kurmanci), English, French, Arabic, and Persian. Among his notable literary translations are Rasul Gamzatov’s My Dagestan, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Aristotle’s Poetics, M. B. Rudenko’s Kurdish Mythology, and the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Gardi introduced many renowned literary figures to Kurdish readers—such as those mentioned above—at a time when books in the Kurdish language were rare and no Kurdish institute or college existed. He faced numerous challenges in his early works, including the absence of a proper Kurdish dictionary and a shortage of books translated into Kurdish, particularly from Western languages. He essentially started from scratch.

His translations are known for their poetic language combined with everyday expressions, a result of his extensive reading and deep understanding of literature, as well as his meticulous attention to language. For example, in an interview with a friend, he mentioned that he reviewed his translation of My Dagestan more than ten times and still was not satisfied with it (Qaraman 2023, 100). On one occasion in 1982, he traveled 46 km just to find the right words while translating The Kurdish Woman’s Life by Henny Harald Hansen (Rashid 2023, 14). He made many sacrifices during his career; once he told a friend, “If you want your work to be immortal, you have to sacrifice your life for it” (Dashti 2023, 21).

For Gardi, translation was more akin to rewriting or even inventing a new work. “Knowing a language does not mean you can translate it. Translating is inventing a new work, like any piece of literature,” he noted (Qaraman 2023, 74). Once he narrowly escaped assassination by radical Islamists due to his translation of The Kurdish Women, a component of The Women of Turkey and Their Folk-Lore, by Lucy Garnett. The book includes a story about mullahs that highlights the greed of some mullahs—which incited extremist mullahs to plot his assassination. Fortunately, a friend of Gardi, aware of the plot, warned him and saved his life (Qaraman 2023, 81). These episodes illustrate Gardi’s dedication to the art of translation; he put his heart and soul into it, a level of commitment that is rarely seen.

Gardi coined many words in Sorani through his translations. Some of the words he coined are: پێشخزمەت  for garçon, وارخان for apartment, هازی for energy, خێراکار for computer, کۆڕی زانیاری for academy, زانستگایی for academic, تەکووز for perfection, کەتوار for reality, بەرژەنامە for form, ڕۆنڤیسین for copy, شابەندەر for consulate, بەرزەفت for control, and گژنێ for challenge.

Throughout his career, Gardi influenced many individuals to pursue the path of translation. Azad Berzinji once revealed that he had been inspired to consider a translation career after reading My Dagestan, which impressed him with its poetic language (Berzinji 2023, 9). Atta Qaradaghi recounted how Gardi encouraged him to embrace the art of translation during his early college days in the English department: “One day Azizi Gardi came to me, opened his bag, and gave me an English book to translate. I told him, ‘I can’t do it. I’m just a freshman.’ He insisted that I should translate it and that he would revise it. So I translated the book, and Gardi showed me what was wrong with my translation. This is how I became a translator” (Qaradaghi 2023, 27). Adeeb Nader, another prominent Kurdish translator, acknowledged that Gardi’s translations played a significant role in his decision to start his career (Nader 2023, 64). Gardi himself was notably inspired by Masoud Muhammed, Hazhar Mukriyani, and Alaaddin Sajadi, all of whom are esteemed Kurdish writers.