Jan Pêt Khorto: January 2010

Sunday 10 January 2010

Groan

He waved
the day he was going rebelling to the mountain,
kissed me on my forehead
surrounded me with his arms
to implant in my back
the finger's pain over the years.
We were alone
killing time
making time's hands drunk
writing
singing together
he heard me in an instant
an old symphony
the forefathers were involved in,
inspired the fingers
became a prophet, playing on the strings
a song for Shivan
called in Kurdish
"Havale bar giranim"
Followed by
"Welat", then "Ciwan Haco"
to thunder the sky upon us
a bridge of tears.
Under olive trees, we were singing
in the land
which my father inherited from a spiteful father
we drew a dream
on red dust
carved our names on an old trunk
to keep the memory
of something missing.
Told me a secretly
to write characters on the chest of a crazy man
to write the story of spite
to a kind mother
to write a history
of the land
for people
who know only the language of the graves.
He stands as a blatant fool
"Here I am. Hey land!
Here I am. Hey sky!
I am a bird
accepting to be slaughtered to be humble
I am denying my body, for an unbelieving soul
here I am
releasing the groan of the Ink from my fingers
to write an epic
of blood and tyranny.
This I am, who are you?"
He put the tambur on his shoulder
then he said
"I hand you my pen
If I don't come back
write to my mother about me
and tell her that I found myself..."
and started walking
singing loudly
"Ey Reqip Her"
to leave me silent and alone,
with no words.

The eternal scribbler - Interview with Jan Pêt Khorto

By David

A Kurd of high education, Jan studied Mass Media in Syria where he couldn't complete his degree because he was expelled for political issues and his offensive poetry to the Government.

He has been here in Denmark as an asylum seeker for five months now. Already he is presently editor in chief of ID ZONE, a newspaper dealing with issues of asylum seekers in Center Sigerslev. He is also a member of Dansk Pen (Danish Association of Writers).

He is not new in this business as, at the age of 18, he established a newspaper back in Syria in Arabic - but sadly it was stopped. He was also founder of "KOMA BEJE", whose target was to publish a magazine about the Kurds in Arabic. However, the newspaper never saw the light of day because of members being arrested and detained.

Apart from this, Jan is a fine poet and has published 2 poem books in Arabic called "It's just never ending words" and "The puzzles". A third one which he wrote in Denmark is now in progress and will be published soon. Lately and presently he is working on a novel.

A cultural man, A and is also actively involved in the NEW TIMES newspaper in Copenhagen.

Life experienced

When asked how this young man became such a fine poet, journalist, writer, play producer, he answered: "I am not specially trained in any institutions for this talents, rather it was inspired by the life style, social and political situations of the Kurds living in Syria, and also by their problems in the four parts of Kurdistan in the Middle East. The horrible feeling of everyday killings, arrests, tortures, marginalization and forced displacement. These things had a deep impact on me", he said.

He wrote the first poem when he was 15 and since then his inspirations have been the situations around him. He had many plans and had hoped to achieve a lot in communicating to the people through his talents the idea of love and peace and injustice in the world, but now he is trying to harmonize with his new environment, i.e. Denmark, in terms of the culture, lifestyle and the weather.

New challenges
Asked how he is coping with his new life in Denmark, he said: "I like the lifestyle because the system is working perfectly, i.e. the social system, and there are lots of opportunities to improve oneself if you really look for it in the right places."
In his free time, when not on his busy and hard schedule, he is an ardent reader and painter and listens so much to classical music to help him relax. Asked what he feels about the Danish women, he replied, "I like the Scandinavian women so much that they inspired me to write my latest poem. I dont believe that the women here are as cold as people believe".
Asked what he doesn't like about Denmark so far, he answered, "I find the health care system in Denmark not so good, and I dont like the gap they make between the religions, especially between the Muslims and Christians. I believe that human morals and beliefs should be respected, and I believe in intergrating humans together irrespective of race, colour and religion."
"Overall, though," he continues, "I feel very well here in Denmark because I have been been given the chance to do what I like doing".

Go for it

He has got no regret so far in his life and advises people who already are, or are aspiring to be in this line of work, to feel free and have the will to be what they want to be.
Through and through he thinks he still has a long way to go and when asked about his goal in the future, he said: "In the nearest future, I hope to improve on things I like so much, such as writing and researching, and I am trying to study Film-making here in Denmark or Germany. It all depends on my next situation, but above all I want to be a world acclaimed humanity poet".