Planet Literature

About the Kurdish Folk Song Lo Şivano (The Shepherd)

The Kurdish folk song Lo Şivano (The Shepherd) is a poetic expression of the Kurdish people’s desire for cultural self-determination. A particularly beautiful version is by Mehmet Atlı and the string quartet Anadolu.

The Shepherd

Shepherd, oh shepherd,
I adore you, guardian of the living!
Even if the sheep are scattered over the mountains –
with you on their side, they do not have to fear any wolves.

Shepherd, oh shepherd,
play your flute with all your heart!
Oblivious, the sheep are grazing –
accompany them with your tunes!

Shepherd, oh shepherd,
wind is rising, rain is falling.
May your gaze and your magic flute
always embrace the flock!

Lo Şivano: Lyrics with Turkish translation

Little Song, Big Meaning

Lo Şivano – performed here by Mehmet Atlı and the Anadolu Quartet in a version for string quartet – is a traditional Kurdish folk song. As inconspicuous as it may seem at first glance, on closer inspection it opens up a complex horizon of meaning.

First of all, the song can, of course, be related to the shepherd boys who the flocks in the mountains. Given the fact that the products of livestock farming have long been essential for the survival of people in the barren highlands, and still are today in remote regions, this task entails a great responsibility. Every lost sheep can weaken the livelihood of families.

The Good Shepherd and the Kurdish People

Beyond that, the veneration of the shepherd also recalls the biblical story of the good shepherd. From this perspective, the fact that no sheep should be lost points to the importance of every single human life – to the fact that before God, every human being is equally significant and worth protecting.

This thought is particularly consoling in the Kurdish context. For a very long time, the Kurdish people have been denied what other peoples take for granted: the right to cultivate their own language and culture and to determine their fate themselves. In Turkey, this goes hand in hand with a more or less strong suppression of the Kurdish culture and language.

Against this background, there is a third perspective of interpretation for the shepherd in the song: he can also be seen as the guardian of the community – as the one who watches over the people preserving their identity and asserting themselves in their cultural identity against the assimilation pressure of the majority society. This is also indicated by the fact that „Şivan“ is used as a male first name.

Utopian Flute Playing

The utopian character resulting from this image of the shepherd is additionally emphasised in the song by the allusion to the Greek shepherd god Pan. This association arises in particular from the reference to the shepherd boy’s flute playing. For it is precisely for this instrument that Pan, with the „pan flute“ named after him, is famous.

Just as Pan enchants the nymphs with his pan pipe, the shepherd boy playing the flute as the guardian of the community evokes the utopia of protected freedom – understood as life in a community in which spiritual development is not the privilege of a minority, but a right to which every individual is naturally entitled.

About Mehmet Atlı

The musician was born in 1975 in the Kurdish-Anatolian city of Diyarbakır to a family of railway workers. He studied architecture in Istanbul and also worked there as an architect for ten years. In 2010, he moved back to his hometown of Diyarbakır and started working there as a university lecturer in architecture.

After participating in various music projects during his studies in Istanbul, Atlı started a solo career after graduation, parallel to his work as an architect. His first two albums were released in 2003 and 2008.

With his third album Birîn, released in 2014, Atlı made a break with his previous musical projects in several respects. On the one hand, he turned explicitly to Kurdish folk music and poetry. On the other hand, it was on this very album that he sang in Turkish for the first time. Obviously, the more intensive commitment to his own Kurdish identity was the prerequisite for him to use the majority language in his music as well.

Atlı himself provides a revealing justification for his reservation towards Turkish in his music:

„I have no (…) problems with the Turkish language. Actually, I love Turkish (…). But I am totally against the role assigned to the Turkish language to make me forget my Kurdish identity. For this reason, I created and performed a repertoire exclusively in Kurmanji and Zazaki [languages spoken in the Kurdish settlement areas] for twenty years, as if I knew no Turkish at all. Because here it was a matter of resistance, of life and death. Thousands of people died, tens of thousands were imprisoned and exiled for defending this language. It would be good for Turks and for Turkish if Turkish were freed from this cursed role that has been assigned to it.“

Quotation taken from: Ana Sayfa: Mehmet Atlı: Ben asimile olmaktayken anadilime tutundum („I held on to my mother tongue even when I was assimilated“; interview with Mehmet Atlı, Turkish); Ilke Haber, August 17, 2014.

Another Kurdish song with English translation can be found as part of a post on rotherbaron: Erdoğan Emir: To Şiya (You went away).

Image: Emrahgul62: Munzur Dağları, 2019 (Wikimedia commons)