Assyrian Poet Yosip Bet Yosip

By Julia Bajone Hallisy

I came to know Yosip Bet Yosip in the most modern of ways — via a Zoom meeting. It was obvious almost immediately that I wasn’t speaking with someone who merely had an interest in preserving Assyrian history. Yosip Bet Yosip is a renowned poet who, among many other laudable accomplishments, wrote the words to Roomrama, the Assyrian national anthem. Yosip also has a musical background and sang in the Nineveh Choir both in Iran and in the United States. His life and work have been influenced by famed Assyrian writers including Rabi Biyamen Arsanos, Shlemon Esho D Salamas, Rabi Adai Alkhas, and John Alkhas. Yosip was also inspired by Assyrian playwriters, composers, and poets including Dr. Fraidon Atoraya, William Daniel, Nebu Issabey, Hannibal Alkhas, and Ninos Aho.

Yosip Bet Yosip’s father, Cyrus Bet Yosip (Rabi Korush) was both a teacher and a poet in Urmia. When Yosip saw the way people responded to his father’s patriotic orations, it inspired him to follow the same path. Yosip recalls, “As a child, I wasn’t sure if people were moved by the words of my father or by the emotion he conveyed when reading his poems. I suspect it was both. I’m sure that some of the listeners didn’t understand every word or some of the literary terms my father used, but I could see how his heartfelt expression helped them understand the meaning of his message. Looking at the faces of the listeners made me wish I could be just like my father.”

Early Memories

“When I was young, I clearly remember an Assyrian civic organization in Urmia selling tickets to a New Year’s party. It was the first time that all the local families would celebrate the New Year together as a community. Before that, people had private family celebrations for the holiday. When members of the civic organization came to our house to sell tickets, my father bought tickets for the four of us in my immediate family and one for my cousin who lived with us while attending school. My father invited the people selling tickets into our house and while drinking tea a conversation ensued about the goals of the organization and how to preserve the culture of our nation. My father read a few of his poems to them and they were fascinated by the deep meaning in each paragraph. The leaders invited my father to read his poems at their next membership meeting, but my father declined because he had previously been imprisoned for expressing his political beliefs.”

Yosip further explains, “The Assyrians were a minority presence in Urmia at the time of the Second World War. The horrifying memories of the genocide against Assyrians committed by the Ottoman regime a quarter century prior still lived in the hearts of our people. As geopolitical events unfolded, the Assyrians found themselves in a difficult position as they had to decide if they would support Jafar Pishevari and his movement to divide Iran by annexing Azerbaijan into an independent province. Pishevari was a revolutionary who had the support of the Russian government. At the time, it was thought that Russia was planning to occupy Northern Iran — which it did some years later. To avoid being victimized by another genocide, our people felt obligated to participate in an uprising by the side seen as having more power. My father was accused of working against the central government and was sent to prison. We lived under the care of my maternal uncles for years with no hope of my father ever being free. Every week we expected to hear that he had been executed. But after 3 ½ years, he was miraculously freed when the Shah ordered the release of all political prisoners.”

Even though Yosip’s father didn’t feel comfortable speaking publicly at political events, he told the leaders, “My children can be part of your youth organization and safely be active in the community to learn from you how to serve their nation.” Youth organizations were not seen as being political and the government had no interest in their activities. Rabi Korush taught Yosip and his sister, Alice, how to recite his poems and how to explain their meaning to the audience. Yosip recalls his first poetry reading, “I was standing in the back of the room, and I wasn’t tall enough to be seen so the organizers had me stand on a chair at the front of the room. After I finished reading my father’s poem the way he had taught me to narrate it, I heard what sounded like thunderous clapping. I felt like I was flying!”

Yosip later began to write Assyrian songs, which came to him easily because he could include a melody. Eventually, he realized, “With the experience of reading and interpreting my father’s poems, developing old folk melodies, and at the urging of Ninos Aho, I began to feel that I could write my own patriotic poems. So, I challenged myself to create poems with deep meaning. My collaborations with Ninos Aho led to recognition in the Assyrian community and to our shared worldwide travels to read our poetry.” Yosip remembers with fondness, “So many years, so many poems.”

Poetry

Poetry originated as an oral art using both spoken words and songs expressed through public storytelling. Storytellers were our original and enduring historians- the keepers of our most precious verses, songs, and prayers. Music and poetry have been intertwined for centuries and both art forms create deep, visceral reactions. Being skilled in both genres infuses Yosip Bet Yosip’s work with rhythm and flow as it reveals its deeper meaning. Yosip’s poems encourage us to form our own emotional response as we decide what resonates with us and what we choose to hold in our hearts after reading his words.

We often think of poetry as one individual’s expression of his or her own personal thoughts and opinions. But Yosip’s poems are much more than stanzas of lyrical words with an underlying message. Yosip’s poetry helps explain our Mesopotamian heritage and the themes embedded in his poems will always echo through our nation. His poems are the vessels for what we hold sacred in the worldwide Assyrian community. Preserving and sharing his words ensures that new generations will learn our history directly from the people who lived it. Without their personal accounts, our story would likely be told by those who conquered and oppressed us — the people who often alter the facts to diminish or even erase our history.

Yosip’s poetry encourages humility in its readers because it has the courage to show a world eternally impacted by the inherent weaknesses and flaws in human beings. Even when it’s painful, there’s always power in knowing the truths of our past. Yosip’s words make us reflect on issues outside of our small part of the world and remind us that the times we live in are increasingly complex and conflicted. His historical remembrances provide a continuity of message in a world that so easily forgets the lessons of the past.

Yosip calls on us to elevate our voice in the narrative of both ancient and modern Assyrian history. The themes in his poetry address the realities of the past, our ongoing and recurring challenges, and a blueprint for our way forward. The level of introspection required to appreciate Yosip’s poems ultimately leave us to answer for ourselves, “What does it mean to me to be an Assyrian and how does my answer to that question translate into action for my nation?”

Roomrama

The Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA), a leadership council of Assyrian organizations worldwide, was established in 1968. The Alliance was seeking symbols to preserve the Assyrian identity and a national anthem was one of their goals. They asked many Assyrian composers to write an anthem, and Maestro Nebu Issabey wrote a melody for a national anthem using Yosip Bet Yosip’s lyrics and sent a recording to the Assyrian Universal Alliance. The collaborative recorded entry from Nebu Issabey and Yosip Bet Yosip was selected as the winner. In 2013, Tiglat Issabey, the son of Nebu Issabey and current President of the Assyrian Cultural Foundation, rearranged “Roomrama” for a remarkable performance by the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. Nebu Issabey and Yosip Bet Yosip wanted to create an anthem to be used worldwide as a unifying force for the Assyrian nation. Yosip was inspired by Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and how it incorporated Schiller’s poem, Ode to Joy, with its inspiring message of the triumph of brotherhood and peace over conflict and suffering. Yosip wrote the words of Roomrama in commemoration of Mesopotamia, universally known as the cradle of civilization. Yosip states, “Our forefathers helped spread civilization through the world. They openly shared their discoveries of the wheel, mathematics, rules of order and law, the first library, and astronomy, with their neighbors. Modern-day Assyrians can be teachers to the world as we have the knowledge and experience to lead by example. Modern-day Assyrians cannot live in struggle. Living in harmony with a high elevation of thought allows people to see each other and turn away from the differences between them.” Yosip continues, “The future of humanity lies in rejecting conflict. We must embrace this mindset and rise above discord and hatred. Thinking at a high level will let us move mountains. When nations are good to each other and live in harmony, God rewards His people by ensuring their place next to Him. It’s our path to Paradise.” Yosip Bet Yosip’s words of peace expressed in Roomrama:

“In reverence of the exalted name of our Assyrian nation, let us stand.

Salute her, she who became the cradle of civilization.

Give admiration to our forefathers who radiated into the world,

As they directed humanity to live in peace until eternity.”

Roomrama was written to encourage unity, and Yosip explains, “Unification must first come from a deep need within our own hearts.” The Lessons of Gilgamesh

Yosip Bet Yosip was inspired and moved by accounts of Assyrian historical events and feels strongly that one must have a foundation of knowledge of our history to fully understand his poems. He implores us to examine our historical events as the underlying context from which we think, analyze, and then form our own conclusions. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one part of Mesopotamian history that Yosip wants all Assyrians to read because it’s such an important and enduring part of our past.

The story of Gilgamesh first appeared almost 2000 years BC in five short poems first written in the Sumerian language but shared by all Mesopotamians. Yosip feels it’s an important narrative for Assyrians because it’s an account of the universal truths of the human condition. Yosip states, “It’s a timeless story about the meaning of life with valuable lessons for each new generation.”

One of the major themes in the Epic of Gilgamesh is that it’s futile to search for eternal life because death is an inevitable part of being human. Yosip says, “Human bodies are built from earthly elements, minerals, and oxygen. When the time comes that elements and oxygen can no longer sustain our bodies, we will die. It is written in the bible that all of us came from the earth and will return to the ground as dust.”

In a conversation between Utnapishtim (Noah) and Gilgamesh from Yosip Bet Yosip’s poem “Gilgamesh”:

Do not complain of the destiny of mortal men,

Or Gods who are our masters.

Humans are made of natural components,

The body is composed of material elements.

In due time, its composition changes

And turns into dust after death.

Yosip explains, “Once we accept this concept, we will realize that we no longer need to worry as much about our physical bodies or how long we will have on earth because it’s our actions, deeds, and choices that will live on. Ego, brutality, and taking advantage of others will not lead us to eternal life. Friendship, loyalty, and respect for others are what makes our souls sing.”

“Garden of God” Poem

Yosip Bet Yosip’s poem “Garden of God” was inspired by the American-led bombing of Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War and is dedicated to the Christian minority who remain in our ancestral homeland. Writing about any genocide makes a powerful statement that says, ‘This is us. This is our history. It was real and it happened, and no one can deny that reality as long as even one of us remembers.’ The poem addresses the many struggles of Assyrians in the homeland — forced displacement and living as refugees in their own part of the world, the drying of their life-giving lakes and rivers, and a lack of protection from the “evil will” of those who persecute them.

Yosip sees Assyrians living in the Middle East as seedlings rooted in the soil of our homeland. They walk in the footsteps of our forefathers, and they are the foundation upon which a new era of Assyrian history will be written. The sentiments within “Garden of God” help hold a place of sorrow in our hearts, which frees our minds to embrace the feelings of wonder and gratitude it expresses. Assyrians may be forever entwined with international conflict and the unexplainable and endless cruelty of man, but we also possess a remarkable will to connect and survive.

Readers will forever find our past, present, and future Assyrian history embedded in the words of “Garden of God”.

A Message to Young Assyrians

Yosip wants young Assyrians to remember that “a high level of education or power does not necessarily result in a high level of humanity. Any leader can have knowledge and power without having humanity. Politics can result in great power being given to negative people. If you think you are patriotic, first ask yourself if you have reached your highest level of humanity.”

Yosip elaborates, “Our quest for a homeland is a situation that tests our own humanity. Even if we had our land back, we would still have to be neighbors with people who have lived on our lands — and on their own neighboring lands — for centuries. Should we push others off the land they live on to reclaim our own? Should we displace other people as we have experienced? Seeking a homeland is our right, but it brings with it difficult questions that require answers that are compatible with our Christian faith.” Yosip concludes by saying, “Remember that In Christianity there are no nations, only one unifying faith in God.”

Yosip continues, “For 1500 years the Assyrians West of the Euphrates didn’t know of the Eastern Assyrians. We were separated by religion and geography. For over a millennium, we didn’t even know that we were brothers and sisters. The genocide was an atrocity perpetrated against us, but it also made us close. We found our way back to each other even after being forced to flee to almost forty countries of the world. Each generation carries the responsibility to preserve our connection to each other.”

The wisdom and hope contained in our Assyrian poems, songs, and stories connect us to each other and to the world. It’s a bond that can’t be taken away or destroyed by sledgehammers. The words of our writers, composers, and poets have endured through generations — and will continue to do so- because the sentiments they hold within live on in our heads and in our hearts. Yosip’s poems don’t provide all the answers or dictate the actions we should take, but they do contain the power to call us to be living examples of the way to treat our fellow man.

What Gives Him Hope?

Yosip reflects, “It’s true that hope seems harder to find in our world. What I believe and what gives me hope is this: if there was a nuclear war that left only 100 people in the world, those people would look at each other with acceptance and support. Race, religion, cultural differences, and social status would mean nothing. These people would turn to each other for sustenance and survival with unconditional love. This wonderful part of human nature is just as undeniable as the dark side of humanity.”

Hopeful words (indirect quotation) from the Seventh Stanza of Yosip Bet Yosip’s poem, “Garden of God”:

May someday advocates of peace

Rise up strong and step forward

To rescue from destruction not only you,

But all others who have been oppressed.

To bring forth the age of holy peace

And shield humanity from the ruthlessness of evil.

“Garden of God”, “Roomrama”, and “Gilgamesh” were translated from the Assyrian language into English by Susan and Bellos Nisan.