Heyranok
The love-song form of the mountains: admiration sung in couplets.
The heyranok is a lyric song form of the Kurmancî-speaking mountain regions: short rhymed declarations of love and admiration, traditionally sung in alternation, voice answering voice, at pastures, weddings and gatherings. The name carries its meaning: heyran, the admirer, the one devoted. Collectors have written down thousands of heyranok couplets, a vast anonymous literature of desire composed largely by women and young shepherds, and the form’s images feed the whole Kurdish love repertoire. Documenting the heyranok is documenting the poetic ground the songs grow from.