اجل گرفته بمیرد نه بیمار سخت.
Transliteration: Ajal gerefta
bemired na bimaar sakht
Translation: That person
will die whose life ends, not the one who is hard sick.
Usage: If a patient is severely sick and
loses hope to live and he thinks he will die, you can tell him this proverb to
make him feel better.
زخم شمشیر میره اما زخم زبان نه.
Transliteration: Zakhm-e-shamsher mira amma zakhm zabaan ne.
Translation: The wounds of
a sword go but not the wounds of the tongue.
Usage: Bad language and bad words cause
even greater injuries than a sword. Avoid bad language and start saying good
things. It is used to give a message to those who get angry and start saying
bad things.
هیچ چوچه مرغی تا آخر زیر تکری نمیمانه.
Transliteration: Hich choocha murghay
taa aakher zer tukrey namemana.
Translation: Not any
chicken will forever remain under the basket.
Usage: In the villages of Afghanistan,
sometimes people rise as a hobby some chickens in the most traditional ways by
keeping them under the basket during the nights to protect them from the wild
cats who want to attack them and eat them. Small chickens are very lovely
specially for the children and this proverb explains the idea that despite the
hard time for the small and vulnerable chickens under the basket, but they will
not be under the basket forever and they will grow and cats will no longer be a
threat to their lives.
It gives hope to those who are in a bad situation and says that all the
problems will pass.
از تنگی چشم پیل معلومم شد.
Transliteration: Az tangey chashm peel maloomam shud.
Translation: From the
narrowness of the eyes, it looked like an elephant to me.
Usage: Don’t see small problems as big as
an elephant, especially when you have less information on how to solve it
(narrow eyes).
آنانکه غنی ترند محتاج ترند.
Transliteration: Aanan ke
ghaneetarand muhtaajtarand.
Translation: The richer,
the needier.
Usage: When people start to get richer,
they become greedier. It is a message for the poor not to expect too much from
the rich class of the society. And it is also a message for the rich not to
forget the poor. (Economic equality)
همه
را مار خورد، ما را بقه کور.
Transliteration:
Hama ra maar khord
maa ra baqa koor.
Translation: Everybody was stung by a snake, but me
by a blind frog!!!
To face an unusual problem with something which is supposed to be not
harmful or things that other people easily passed safer.
Usage: A problem as a surprise arises from
the least harmful person.
از نو کیسه قرض نکو، قرض کدی خرج نکو.
Transliteration: Az naw qeesa qarz
nako, qarz kadi kharj nako!!!
Translation: Don’t borrow
from a new pocket, if you borrowed, don’t spend it.
Meaning and Usage: You can use
it when someone wants to borrow money from someone stingy. You can give him an
advice from which kind of person to borrow money. New pocket is an expression
in Dari used for a person who recently got rich and those who get rich at once
don’t know the manners of richness and they are not generous enough. If you
borrow money today, they will ask it back tomorrow for sure so you cannot use
it. As a conclusion, it is better not to borrow from a new pocket. Those who
get powerful at once, they don’t know the manners and change suddenly and don’t
know his old friends anymore.
دل تنگ نباشد، جای تنگ نیست.
Transliteration: Dil tang nabashad, jaai tang nist.
Translation: If the heart
is not narrow, the place isn’t either.
Meaning and Usage: It is a
proverb used to explain the generosity comes from your hearts and minds. It is
about sharing resources and helping others. It is mainly used when someone is
looking for a place to sit in the bus or in a car or in another tiny place and
the places are already occupied but still someone shares his only tiny place
with the sanding one. It says if your heart is not jealous and greedy, the resources
are never scarce. Scarcity comes out of our minds.
پیش طبیب چی میری، پیش سرگذشت برو.
Transliteration: Peshe tabib che
meri, peshe sargozashat boro.
Translation: Why do you go to the
doctor? go to the past stories (experience).
Meaning and Usage: This proverb
says that we learn everything from the past experiences and the history. Even
medical science comes out of past observation and experiences. It is an advice
and suggestion to a patient based on the stories in the past a sick person
went to many doctors and the doctors could not help him but an old illiterate
man treated him. When they asked how you could do that? He said why to go to
the doctor, if you can go to the mother of the doctor which is experience and
observation of the past. It is a proverb used to explain the source of the
medical science in the motherland of Avicenna. He was not a medical doctor
because he did not go to medical university in Balkh Province of Afghanistan
that time. It was all his knowledge and experience and observation of the past
which gave him the magical power to treat almost every kind of disease in that
time.
از بی کفنی زنده ماندیم.
Transliteration: Az bi kafani
zenda maandem.
Translation: From lack of
coffin, I remained alive.
Meaning and Usage: This proverb
is used to show the helplessness of a person who cannot do anything because he
does not have any kind of resources. There is no way to do anything and there
is no opportunity. Even there is no coffin do die.
مالته نگاه کو! همسایته دزد نگیر.
Transliteration: Maaleta nigaah ko,
hamsaayeta dozd nageer.
Translation: Look (well)
after your property, don’t blame your neighbor for stealing it.
Meaning and Usage: It is a
proverb used to explain the problem of blaming someone else because of our own
faults. It is about social irresponsibility of an individual which brings
accusations and blaming without identifying the main source of the problem.
This proverb suggests that one should look at his own role in creation of
problems. We usually and habitually look for the source of problems in others
and we rarely look back at ourselves to see what we did which might have
contributed to this problem.
مشک آن است که خود ببوید، نه آنکه عطاربگوید.
Transliteration: Mushq aan ast
ke khud bebuyad, na aanke attaar beguyad .
Translation: Musk is that
which smells itself, not that one said by the perfumer.
Meaning and Usage: Musk is a nice
smelling substance made out of musk deer for perfumery and it creates a long
lasting quality of good smell for perfumes. It is called Mushq in Dari and it
is famous as a nice smelling thing like saffron mostly sold by the perfumers in
the old times. If it has a good quality, the quality introduces itself by its
nice smell and there is no need to be explained by the seller. Quality products
can be seen by its qualities and attributes without advertisements.
This proverb is used commonly in business. There are so many ways of
marketing and promotion for products these days but this proverb emphasizes on
the quality and the attributes of the products itself which is the best way for
marketing for the products. Sellers usually admire their products in order to
sell more but if you want to know the quality of Mushq, just smell it. If it
smells good, then it is a high quality Mushq and if it does not smell good,
perhaps it is not Mushq.
You can use it when you buy something and the seller admires his/her
products, then you say Mushq is that which smells itself, not that one said by
the perfumer.
This proverb has a wide meaning and usage. Most people use it to say
that your manners and behaviors speak about you rather than what you say.
This proverb is somehow equal to the proverb:
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
بزرگی به عقل است نه به سال،
توانگری به دل است نه به مال.
Transliteration: Bozorgey ba aqel
ast na ba saal, tawangarey ba del ast na ba maal.
Translation: Magnitude
(dignity) lies in the intellect not in the age (of people); generosity lies in
the heart not in property.
Meaning and Usage: This is both
poetry and a proverb. Though it is nominated to Saadi the greatest poet of Dari
Farsi but I think this existed before him and he has also used it as part of
his poetry. It says that greatness, dignity and magnitude is included in the
intellect and wisdom other than what is well respected in Afghanistan “the
age”. In Afghanistan the older you are, the more respected you become and this
goes totally against that and says even if you are a child, but you have the
knowledge and wisdom, you are greater than better than those who are old and
know nothing. It also refers to generosity which comes with a great heart
unusual to what most people think about generosity linked with richness. Mostly
people think if someone is rich, he is generous too but now we know that it is
not true. People get rich because they are not generous. Only those who have
little are generous because they have already shared what they had and that is
why less has remained for them. You can use this proverb to give more chances to children to
speak and to express themselves and their knowledge. It is a kind of lobby for the rights of the children as well as to appreciate the generosity of the poor.
دنیا را آب بگیرد، مرغابی را تا بند پایش است.
Transliteration: Donya ra aab
begerad, murghaabi ra taa band paaish ast.
Translation: World full of
water, for duck it (the depth) is till the ankle.
Meaning and Usage: It explains
the immunity of ducks against drowning in the water and makes it an example for
all other similar conditions. If the whole world drowns in the water, ducks can
remain on the surface and for them water is not a problem at all. It is used
when people have their own kind of problems which do not affect others and
others do not care about that special problem. For not caring and not paying
attention to a matter or issue, a person resembles to a duck which does not
care about the water particularly when the water is like a flood which affects
others. For example: It is commonly used for the widespread poverty in
Afghanistan which will never be a problem for the wealthy politicians and
commanders who are rich enough and will never feel the severity of the poverty
in Afghanistan.
خائن
خائف است.
Transliteration: Khaayen khaayef ast.
Translation: Traitor is
afraid.
Meaning and Usage: It is a very
nice quote about finding a traitor or a criminal in a group of people. It
explains the psychological symptoms of a crime. It is kind of looking at the
criminology from the psychological perspective. If a person is doing wrong and
hides himself in a group of people, you can only find him easily by this
formula because he is afraid and worried while others are not.
قصاب
که زیاد شد گاو مردار میشه
Transliteration: Qasaab ke
zeyaad shud, gaw murdaar misha.
Translation: Too many butchers spoil the cow.
Meaning and usage: It explains
the idea of a situation where everybody claims to be an expert but the result
of the work is zero.
دروازۀ شهر را بسته میتوانند،
اما دهان مردم را نی.
Transliteration: Darwaza shahr
ra basta metawanna amma dahaan-e-mardooma nay.
Translation: The door of a city can be closed
but not the mouth of people.
Meaning and usage: It explains
the idea of freedom of expression, it says it is possible to close the entrance
of a city but is not possible to close the mouth of the people. People will say
what they wish to say, if you want the people to say good things about you, you
should do good things. If you do bad things, don’t try to shut the mouth of the
people up.
کل اگر طبیب بودی، سر خود دوا
نمودی.
Transliteration: Kal agar
tabeeb boodee, sar khud dawa namoodee.
Translation: If a scald (bald person) was a doctor, he would treat his own head.
Meaning and usage: Looking at
the sentence and the translation of it word by word, we get the idea that it is
a harsh critic of the medical sciences in which mostly doctors are without
hairs and still they cannot find a treatment to that problem. But also when we look
at the usage of the proverb and its meaning; we understand that this is implied
to all sorts of unprofessionalism, imperfect and result less efforts where
people claim to fix a problem of another person, while he himself has the same
problem and cannot solve it for themselves.
آب از سرچشمه گِل آلود است !
Transliteration: Aab az
sarchashma gel aalood ast.
Translation: The water is muddy from the
source spring.
Meaning and usage: When the
problem begins in the top level decision making positions, the poor people in
the down suffer and when they face problems and they can’t say it directly that
the president himself is fraudulent, they use this proverb to explain that the
lower positions has nothing to do with these problems because these problems
come from the main source or the head of the organization.
آب نمی بينه، اگرنی آبباز قابليست!
Transliteration: Aab namibina,
agarni aabbaaz qaabelest!
Translation: He/she does not see the water;
otherwise he/she is an excellent swimmer.
Meaning and usage: It explains
the circumstances and the conditions which make experts unable to do what they
can do in the best way. It explains a situation in which most experts remain
inactive due to the shortage of recourses or other environmental barriers.
آستين نو، بخور پلو!
Transliteration: Aasteen naw,
bokhor palaw.
Translation: New sleeves, eat palao (a
delicious Afghan food made of rice).
Meaning and usage: It
criticizes the attention paid to the importance of the appearance and good
looking clothes and less attention to the mentality and knowledge of the people
in the Afghan culture. If you are rich and you have nicest clothes, they will
invite you to all sorts of events but if you are a knowledgeable person, you
are less respected and you gain less out of your knowledge.
آشپز كه دوتا شد، آش يا شور میشه يا بی نمك !
Transliteration: Aashpaz ki
doota shud, aash ya shoor misha ya bi namak.
Translation: When the cooks become two, Aash
(Afghan soup) will be either salty or salt less.
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is the same as “Too many cooks spoil the kitchen”. It explains the dilemma of
leadership plurality and the contradictory decisions in the absence of
coordination which destroys everything.
افتاوه (آفتابه) خرج لحيم !
Transliteration: Aftaawa (literally Aaftaba) kharj lem.
Translation: Ewer the cost of solder.
Meaning and usage: Ewer is a
small plastic or metallic pot used to carry water for washing hands in the
Afghan culture and it is very cheap. When there is a hole in it and it cannot
carry water, sometimes you need to pay the same price of the ewer in order to
fix an old ewer. You pay the same ewer as a price to get it fixed. It explains
a situation in which you try to do something which is not worthy of its
results. It is used to notice someone of doing something which will cost him
more than what he expects to get out of it.
آمدم ثواب كنم، كباب شدم !
Transliteration: Aamadom sawab konom, kabab shodum.
Translation: I came to do good things, but I
was burned as a steak.
Meaning and usage: It explains
a situation where you go to help somebody but fall into a big problem. It is
used to show your good intentions for a person who might have forgotten why you
got involved in the issue under consideration. It says that I did not mean
anything bad but I received lots of troubles that I did not deserve.
آنقدر ایستاده شو، تا علف زير پايت سبز شوه !
Transliteration: Aan qadar istaada sho, ta alaf zer paayet sabz shawa.
Translation: Stand as along as grass grows
under your feet.
Meaning and usage: Waiting for
nothing is sometimes killing time and gives no good results. This proverb is
used as an advice or as the last message to an insister who expects another
person to do something for him/her but that person is not willing to do what he
expects and he uses this proverb to tell him that waiting is of no use even if
you wait as long as grass grows under your feet, I am not doing anything for
you. It can also show the strength of a person for being patient on waiting and
standing against problems.
از اینجا مانده، از آنجا رانده !
Transliteration: Az eenja maanda, az aanja raanda.
Translation: Remained out from here, thrown
out from there.
Meaning and usage: If a person
loses two opportunities at once, then we can use this proverb to show that he
lost the first opportunity because of the second one and he did not get the
second one either.
کی مردی؟
پارسال !
Transliteration: Kaai murdee? Paarsaal!
Transliteration: Kaai murdee? Paarsaal!
Translation: When did you die? Last year!
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is made of two separate parts, a short question and a short answer to that
question. It is used to express the level of fear of a person. For example; I
went to the jungle and there was suddenly a lion in front of me! I was so much
afraid that I could not even move “Kaai murdee? Parsaal!
I was so much afraid and I was not even able to run or able to shout
for help or even I was not able to move so that I will not make the lion angry,
I was like a person who died last year.
شتر دیدی؟ ندیدی!
Transliteration: Shotor deedee? Nadeedee !
Translation: Saw a camel? No you didn’t.
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is used to encourage someone to keep big secrets and not to disclose it,
particularly when that big secret is for the first time disclosed to a person,
you tell him this proverb “Did you see a camel? No you didn’t!” The camel here
is the big secret and if a person asks you that have you seen this scene? Or
have you witnessed such a thing? or do you know about something? Your answer
should be “No you didn’t”.
This proverb is used as a short question and a short answer to explain
to the other person that if somebody asks you a question like “Have you seen a
camel?” which means about the secret issue, the answer should be “No you didn’t
see!” By saying this proverb to someone, you are requesting him/her to keep
quiet about a secret which has been recently shared with him or her.
سوزنه ده جان خود بزن، جوال دوزه ده جان دیگرا.
Transliteration: Soozana da jaan khud bezan, jwaal doza da jaan
digaraa !
Translation: Hit the needle in your own body, and
the grand needle into others.
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is used to encourage someone to not hurt others and not to cause pain for
others and if they plan to cause pain or hurt others, they should first try a
little bit of the same pain themselves to understand how does it feel when you
give it to others. If you put a needle into your skin, you feel pain and if you
put a big needle into someone else’s body, which symbolizes causing pain to
other. It will hurt them even more. The main idea behind this proverb is to
test the smaller pain on your own body first, if you plan to give a bigger pain
to others so that you will understand how it wil hurt others when you hurt
them. Jwaal doz is a big needle (around 7 inches long and the a half centimeter
is the thickness which is used to make big bags for straws in the remote
villages mainly on the farms of Afghanistan and that represents the biggest
size of the needle in the country.
مه به حالت گریه میکنم، تو میگی دهانت کج است.
Transliteration: Ma ba haalet geria mekonom, tu megi dahaanet
kaj ast.
Translation: I am crying for your situation,
you tell me that my mouth is a wreck.
Meaning and usage: There are
some cases in Afghanistan where the level of understanding is too low. This
proverb mainly shows a situation where a man is trying to help someone who is
in bad situation but instead of receiving appreciation and gratefulness, he
receives critics and irresponsible comments and complements.
دِه دَه كجا ؟! درختا دَه كجا ؟!
Transliteration: Deh da kuja, darakhta da kuja.
Translation: Where the village?! Where the
trees?!
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is used to express the relevance of an issue. It simply uses the village as the
main issue and the trees as another issue. These two are supposed to be
together inside the village so that people can use the trees maybe the fruits
of the trees or the shadow of the tree to rest under it in the sunny days. If
you plant trees far from a village where nobody can access them, the place of
the trees is irrelevant to the population of the village. Mostly people in
Afghanistan uses this proverb when people start to talk about something but
they can’t follow the agenda and goes out of the agenda and talks about
irrelevant issues and then they use this proverb to give him the message that
he / she is speaking out of the agenda. It simply means that we talk about
something else and you talk about something totally different which are two
different and separate issues and they are not relevant to each other.
الَو الَو بِه از پلو.
Transliteration: Alaw alaw beh
az palaw.
Translation: Fire fire is better than palaw (cooked
rice)!
Meaning and usage: This proverb
is used to express the fact that sometimes the process of reaching to a goal is
much better and pleasant than the goal itself. In Afghanistan when they have a
party, they usually cook rice which is called Palaw with gravy meat which is called Qurma and they always come together. People cook
it with wood fire in a fireplace. Many people come together and they say make
some fire here for cooking meat and they all come together to cook the food and
that is very nice party near the fireplace usually called “digdaan”. That
process and party of making Palaw which is usually accompanied with fire fire
noises is much better than readymade Palaw. This proverb is simply used to notify the fact
that the process is important not the goal itself. It is also used to express
the idea that sometimes hoping to have something is better than having it.
مار که از پودینه بدش میایه، دهان خانیش سبز میکنه!
Transliteration: Maar ki az
poodina badesh meyaya, dahaane khanesh sabz mekona.
Translation: The snake hates the pennyroyal plant but it grows right in front of his house.
Meaning and usage: This proverb
explains a situation where somone more often comes across things, persons, or
situations that he or she does not like it. It basically means that a person always faces
things that he / she hates the most. Pennyroyal is a kind of herb similar to
mint which smells very good and it is usually used in the kitchen as a spice
both in dried and fresh forms. It usually grows in the banks of the water
streams.
عقل نی، جان در عذاب.
Transliteration: Aqel nay, jaan
dar azaab.
Translation: No intellect, body in agony.
Meaning
and usage: This proverb is used when you see a person is
suffering because of his own stupidity or because not knowing small things in
life. When people do not know what to do, instead of doing a right thing, they
do the wrong things and they suffer because of that.
