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Poems by an Afghan poetess

author:China Poetry Network

Attention, let poetry light up life

Poems by an Afghan poetess

Source: Poetry Journal, March 2022, First Half Of The Monthly Magazine "International Poetry Scene"

Khaledah Forugh (b. 1972) is a poet born in Kabul and graduated from the Department of Languages and Literatures of Darry at Kabul University. After graduation, he worked on National Radio Of Afghanistan. In 1996, he moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, and later became a professor at Kabul University, a member of the Afghan Writers Association, and the editor-in-chief of the famous Afghan literary quarterly magazine Clams. In 2000, he published "Through the Century of Cain", "The Rise of the Sun God", "The Window to the Thunder Season", and "The Fate of the Hand of the Lantern Generation", which produced a great sensation and became the best of the young generation of Afghan poets. She has also published other collections of poems: Streets in Dreams and Memories (2001), Forever Is Five O'Clock in the Afternoon (publication year unknown), and Mary, Your Holiness Is Not Worth a Dollar (2017).

Selected Poems of Hariday Flug

Translated by Mu Hongyan

01

The Sun God Revolts

O slaves! Let yourself bloom like popcorn

Reveal the perfect soul from the family workshop

O girls in the desert! O my fellow travelers!

Revealing "Union" from the "Break" Given by Fate (1)

Be a lover and have Shames' ambitions

Glory is shown in The Masnavi (2) of Love

In order to give birth to a magical Rustam from the East

The white channel means that Zar (3) is on stage

Give up the night (4), from the eyes of the years

Reveal the belief in the dreamy sun

O free man in the garden! O chanters of poetry!

Soar in the Kaaba of Sound (5).

——————

Note: (1) "Disconnection" means that women cannot go out, are isolated from the outside world, and are "disconnected" from the outside world.

(2) "Masnavi": "Masnavi" originally meant "narrative poetry", and it is also the title of a long collection of narrative poems by the famous Persian poet Rumi (1207-1273).

(3) Zar: A warrior in ancient Iranian myths and legends, born with white hair, regarded as a monster by his father, abandoned in the mountains, and raised by a phoenix. The poet repeatedly used "white" in his poems to symbolize the display of women.

(4) Night: Here is a metaphor for the robe worn by Afghan women.

(5) Kaaba: The Kaaba where Muslims worship. Here is a metaphor for the divine.

02 Moonlight Falls

At the moment, I put myself on the pillow of silence

Place under the arms of the night

In the dreamy alleys

I don't hang around anymore

I am always with you in the white truth of love

The earth (1) cannot stand the epic of my voice

I soared to the edge of the cloud of thought

Turn my voice into a moonlight waterfall

Let the thirsty jealousy make his face black

——————

Note: (1) The land here refers to the land of Afghanistan.

Poems by an Afghan poetess

03

Jump over the fire of time

In the first month, when I chanted poetry

I bloomed

The tree was also excited

I felt it

The state of the leaves

I heard that

Breathing in the small garden of the courtyard

Nature rushes through me

The sky became my friend

Extend its star-filled palm toward me

The night I chanted poetry

I discovered the mystery of Lady Oyama (1).

Her firm steps

It's Sawush (2)

For the love of Frances (3).

A raging fire of faith that leaps through time

The night I chanted poetry

I became a martyr

——————

Note: (1) In many places in his poems, the poet uses the "mountain" as a metaphor for himself, describing the imprisoned Afghan women as being shaped into a silent mountain.

(2) (3) Sawush: An Iranian prince in ancient mythology, framed by his father's concubine, who proved his innocence by jumping over the raging fire on his horse. Frances was Savish's wife.

04 Cultural treasures

The cultural flag is only half held high

Countless treasures are on display

What an incurable wound

The bustling palms can't stroke your braids either

Why have you been sitting in silence ever since

The eyes of the nation are already bloody love

The alleys of the colonized years

It's so narrow for us

Waking has not yet reached there

Strong winds blow in all directions

This time, it rained

Hold the branches with both hands

Dragged to the ground without thinking

Reed flute

Playing lonely music

05

Dagger of years

In these years when I could not breathe together, I reached the mountains

From the pamir's loneliness I shouted

Those evenings, the Eastern Star did not wear the "Crown of Glory"

From this old destiny I shouted

The green earth of sound turned to stone

At this moment, from the mythical generation I shouted loudly

Deliver the branches of its memory to the wind, at the moment

From the bird's nest of the image I shouted loudly

More bitter than the dagger of time

I and the language of the transverse flute, I'm going to shout loudly

Poems by an Afghan poetess

06

Gravel pavement

Oh girls! A long night without hope

Oh girls! Countless frustrations without sound

What a charred lamp in the sky

In this lost white

Talk to me about a relationship

Oh girls! Your ID

It is the evening pass of hatred

If the sunset of your eyes continues

If your chastity is with a humble stream

Skin-to-skin matching

It is certain that it will become black

Then, become a stone pavement

07 Myths and stories

He wanted me to be a myth on earth

But in fact I was just a lunatic

A madman who tells a myth

On the other hand, I am a mythical story

I was his architectural marvel, but I saw it

I was nothing more than a mythical story over the years

08

Crying

The corpses of last night's sea tormented the coast

Guess what, this I've cried to where I'm already

I'm not interested in fleeting laughter

If I cry, I cry until I Allah

My whole homeland was empty, and I was alone

I cried, for the endless emptiness

09

Silence and pitch blackness

I went to find myself, to heal myself

But I saw that it didn't work, and in the end I lost my life

I didn't go to fight silence and pitch blackness

For I took the lamp of sound and handed it to the rain

I heard the motherland saying: war, war, war

I sent my Muslim daughter to pagan land

My name has become a lie, a demise, a confusion, so what does it matter?

In this turbulent air, its flames do not believe in Allah

10 Sober in drunkenness

Life is nailed to endless wars

When you encounter deep pain, your heart will explode

I'm not just giving up on the city

At the same time, it is also a country without art and without a country

I am a modern person, and I belong to any era at the same time

Every shadow is me, and my blood is a flame

Wake up from the great altar of wine in this land

Drink the stars and abandon the drunken eyes

Hajar's (1) loyalty and the mirror of time are you

Make a path out of this tribe of idols

——————

Note: (1) In Islam, the concubine of prophet Ibrahim and the mother of Ismaili, is regarded as the mother of the Arab nation and synonymous with "holy daughter".

Poems by an Afghan poetess

11 The Land of Magic

Both of us are the wounds of history

Hopefully, we understand that we ourselves are the healing agent

I have the same fate as you

I cry with you

I and you are Rudaki and Rabee

I am with you in the magical land

Persian, Dari, Tajik

The same cloud of the city we divide into three pieces

We are a strong bond

Murana, Hafez, Mahesti, Haju... ①

——————

Note: (1) Rudaki, Labeye, Murana, Hafez, Mahesti, and Haju are all famous poets in the history of Persian classical literature.

12 Poetry Volcano

Where is peace and tranquility? I want to see through it

I'm a time traveler and how should I live

One evening the woods-like soldiers brought me to all evenings

A tree crossed the window to meet me

My hands, eyes, heart, and forehead are burning

I am the volcano of poetry, and I have no other way to go

Linger in this magical creation of heart and passion

13 It's always five o'clock in the afternoon

They drew strikethroughs in the purple lines of poetry in my eyes

Wasted effort!

They use the pen of dark clouds

Put my poetic words

Cut off one by one

I can't recite the verses of love

They cut off my voice

Despite the blood, despite the scars

But I've recorded it on a tape of heart of love

Despair makes people stronger

They're not used to seeing me move forward

Going out is an unforgivable sin

You can only sit, frustrated, and silent forever

They advised me in the mirror

Our years are always at five o'clock in the afternoon (1)

It's not five o'clock in the morning at any time

At no time will I leave my pool of memory

Going out is an unforgivable sin of the years

The breath of dusk is always haunting my nose

I have been shaped into a statue of a mountain

Spend each night in long cries

The roar of the city has grown rusty

Tired

Our twitter at home is our word

Pour your heart out to the wall

——————

Note: (1) During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, women were forbidden to go out after 5 p.m. If you wish to go out, you must have a special pass.

14 Depict the image

A tree cannot answer the greeting of rain

They handed my bloody coffin to the moon

In these years when there was no common breathing I arrived at the mountains

I was dumb and thirsty, and countless wounds of shame were inflicted upon us

The argument of poetry, for 1 and 2, is

Freedom, sound, light, action, escape from the night

The argument of poetry, for 1 and 2, is

We become the calendar in the prison of this fact

We become graves in the past we deserve

Poems by an Afghan poetess

15 Black Dark

"Who are those who think about the sun, and who are they?!"

That's right, their eyes are here in the evening, it's the evening

At night, its words are too long

It calls itself the body of the morning

Lanterns can be lit at night

If you don't know how to read sentences, just read it

Shooting stars are also stars at night

Despite burning eyes, he is also the host of the night

"If you have freedom,

We are not lights! ”

In the dark night of the years, from beginning to end

On these nights, moonlight became the most displaced sound

It is indeed night, but arrogance is not a lamp in the end

16

Good news

Let go of the darkness from the eyes of the years

Shine the faith of the brilliant sun

(Voice and Silence)

"You don't have stars, talk about what light!"

We are us, we are a country of great prestige! ”

If the star of my poetry reached his eyes

You know, in the evening it will be defeated, and the dawn will replace it

The blood of life dripped from the hot veins of the earth

I used every drop of my blood to cultivate a young tree

Jiayin, Jasmine and Effort blend happily

Don't you see that my poetic hand has shaken this high wall

Talk to me

This time, I have escaped from the holocaust of love and sanity

Excerpted from the first half of the March 2022 issue of Poetry Journal

Column Editor Zhao Zhifang

Poems by an Afghan poetess

Editor: Wang Aofei, Second Instance: Man Man, Final Trial: Jin Shikai

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