Yusuf Yaska (Kurdish:یۆسف یاسکە, 1592-1636)[1][2] was aKurdish poet, considered, along withMistefa Bêsaranî, to be one of the early members ofGorani poetry afterMele Perîşan. The content of hisghazals were about love and nature. Little is known about his personal life,[3] yetMinorsky wrote that Yaska was executed byimmurement after his master Khan Ahmad Khan Ardalan ofArdalan suspected him of dallying with his wife, daughter ofShah Abbas.[4]
Yaska is the founder of a literary school that focuses more on local poetic traditions, using adecasyllabic meter and acaesura between two rhyminghemistiches. This composition was common in folk poetry in Ardalan.[1]Khana Qubadi would become a major poet in this school.[5]
A poem by Yaska, translated to English in 2005:[6]
O, my Lord! Let him be free!
Let my beloved one be freed by force
From this prison,
I will leave it to ancient wisdom to rescue him.
O, Lord, let him find refuge withImam Reza
Let there be an answer to his prayers
Let the hand of power be his protector!
O, my Prophet, what inhumanity is this
That my beloved one has to suffer so long in prison?
O my Lord, by your power he will be free,
Your mercy is great!
Let it be no less
Should you free him from prison!
He shall return to his past happiness
And be with the fairest of girls
Tattooed with the Autumn crocus.
Then shall we sit together and tell himOur tales of all that has passed!
— 327, F.41a
