Berîvanê
The song of the milkmaid, sung across the pastures of Kurdistan.
- Type
- Kilam / stran
- ✦
- Traditional (folk repertoire)
Berîvanê is the song of the berîvan, the young woman who milks the flocks: one of the emblematic figures of Kurdish pastoral life. Around her name the tradition has gathered songs of work, courtship and longing, sung in the high pastures and carried into the repertoire of the great voices. Lyric searches for Berîvanê run over five thousand a month, almost entirely from Bakur. The song preserves a world of transhumance and tents that is disappearing, which is exactly why it keeps being sung.
Lyrics and translations for this song are being prepared. We publish texts only after editorial verification and a copyright check: traditional and public-domain works in full, modern protected works as context and meaning only.