Flowers and blossoms are signs that natural, free life goes on, and they are two important parts of all human and natural life. But whoever does not understand the idea of the natural, free life of flowers, of people, of animals and so on, and does not work for it, will never attain it, and may not even be able to protect it. The same is true of every other goal in life.
Of course, no book is free of mistakes, but writing is always better than not writing. Before we leave the matter of mistakes, let me take this opportunity to say that I am grateful to everyone who finds the gaps and shortcomings in this glossary and sweeps the dust from the pages of Kurdish flowers.
This glossary of flowers is an effort with several aims. First, through the beauty of flowers, to bring young readers, and others too, some basic knowledge about certain groups of flowers and blossoms. Second, to draw the attention of flower lovers, and above all of the young, to a subject that our people have largely not been able to care for as they should, because of the harsh conditions our nation has been living through for more than fourteen hundred years. Third, and this is my greatest hope, that this idea will be carried further by our caring people, writers and experts, and that fitting glossaries of every kind will go on being made in Kurdish, in every field, for our young people: glossaries of birds, trees, animals, tools, music and more. Fourth: in life, and in the Middle East above all, many people know the truth, but very few speak it, because it is bitter; so much so that some thinkers pay the truth this compliment: the ugliest thing humankind ever invented is the truth. For example, we can all see how the true history of our homeland’s flowers has lain under the dust through neglect, waiting for the devoted people of our homeland to bring it out from under that dust. The Kurdish names of everything, be they flowers and blossoms or trees and shrubs, are part of our historical heritage. So I hope our young people will take more pride in this heritage, because these are the sacred values of the culture of every old and ancient nation, like ours. It is worth saying here that any nation that, among the nations, loses the values of its existence, such as its language, its history, its names and its traditions, will become an orphan; and in the Middle East, the best respect shown to an orphan is a little food, with conditions attached.
Any nation that loses its language, its history, its names and its traditions will become an orphan.
The subject of flowers is very large and wide. No single person, and no single book, can shed light on a subject with so many names and so many kinds. Officially, this work is done by specialised scientific institutions and bodies, which can write about flowers fully and properly, as the subject deserves, and bring it to light. That is one side of it. On the other side, this by no means means that we should all sit on our hands and do nothing until our institutions decide. Here I would like to give an example: the Dutch book Flora Batava. Flora Batava is a botanical masterpiece. It was written between 1800 and 1934 and printed in 28 volumes, with no fewer than 2,240 hand-drawn, hand-coloured plates and 5,000 pages of text. It shows more than 2,630 kinds of wild trees and shrubs, flowers, fungi, mosses and water plants. The book was begun by two people and finished 134 years later, after dozens of experts and enthusiasts had carried this sacred work forward.
According to the latest scientific findings, there are more than four hundred thousand kinds of flowering plants in the world. Of course, this great number live at different times and in different places, but every nation has kept the names of its own flowers. It is truly a pity that fifteen hundred years ago our nation had more than forty thousand names for plants (flowers, trees and shrubs), yet in 2024 the list of Kurdish flower names lies so bare that not even a fly lands on it. Most of the names that were Kurdish have been plundered and stolen. As a result, each flower goes by several names, which change from region to region, and Kurds call them by the names in their rulers’ languages, and that is the end of it.
Any work that has been done, or is being done, in this direction is cause for joy. But the work of one person cannot be the measure for national work; at the very least, work like this should be carried out by a specialised company, an institute, a university, a municipality and so on. In this field I am one of those who know little, but no one is born a goldsmith.
There is a story in our culture. A flood swept through a village and carried off all the villagers’ livestock. Late one evening a man came back, and at the foot of the village he cried out: “Where is the red ox? Has anyone seen it?” True, the red ox and all the rest were carried off by the water, but our village, our language, our culture, our humanity, our flowers and blossoms and so on are all still here! They have every right to ask about everything the water carried off, not only the red ox! We must never forget that we, the flowers and the red ox exist because the village exists. However much one talks about flowers, or about any other problem, in the end all those words are only half of the problem; the other half is solving it. I write these lines so that the devoted people of our nation will turn their attention to this subject and take ownership of these precious values, which our grandmothers and grandfathers protected for thousands of years. Thanks to the internet and technological progress, this work is easier today than it has ever been. So let every devoted person, wherever they are and with whatever means they have, make the effort, so that together we fill this great gap in the Kurdish library.
Weysî Silêman ElîMay 2024
