Dildar, the poet of Ey Reqîb
Dildar is the pen name of Yûnis Reûf, a law student and poet from Koye (Başûr) who wrote the Kurdish national anthem in a prison cell at twenty and died at thirty, before he could hear what his poem would become.
The facts
| Name | Yûnis Reûf (Yûnis Mele Reûf), pen name Dildar verified |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 February 1918 in Koye (Başûr); some sources give 1917 disputed |
| Education | Law; graduated in 1945, then worked as a lawyer verified |
| Died | 1948 in Hewlêr, aged 30, of a heart condition; sources differ on the exact day disputed |
| Resting place | Koye or Hewlêr; sources differ disputed |
| First poem | 1935, in the journal Ronakî (Hewlêr) verified |
| Collected poems | Published posthumously in 1948; republished in 2023 verified |
A short life
Yûnis Reûf was born in Koye in 1918. He went to school in Ranya, Koye and Kerkûk, studied law and graduated in 1945, and worked as a lawyer. As a young man he joined Hîwa (Hope), an early Kurdish political organisation; his political engagement and his poetry were never separate things.
In 1938, imprisoned for his political convictions, he wrote the poem that would become Ey Reqîb. Sources disagree on where he was held: the dominant account speaks of a cell in Rojhilat, others of a government prison in Başûr. He chose the pen name Dildar, the one with a heart, the lover.
He died of a heart condition in Hewlêr in the autumn of 1948, thirty years old. Two years earlier the Republic of Mahabad had made his poem its anthem; he did not live to see it become the official anthem of the Kurdistan Region.
Work and legacy
Dildar published his first poem at seventeen in the journal Ronakî, and later work in Gelawêj. His poetry keeps the classical Kurdish forms while bringing in the romantic and social themes of his generation; many of his poems have been set to music.
His collected poems appeared posthumously in 1948 and were republished in 2023 with thirty six poems. His name is carried today by schools and cultural institutions across Kurdistan, and above all by the anthem itself: no Kurdish gathering sings his words without, in that moment, remembering the young lawyer who wrote them behind bars.