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Some more proverbs from Afghanistan
ضرب المثل های افغانستان
...............................................صلاح مملکت خویش خسروان دانند.
Transliteration: Salaahe
mamlakat-e-khesh khusrawan daanand.
Translation: Kings know best what is good for
their country.
Meaning and usage: This proverb shows the fact that a king can decide best for its
territory or country. It shows a non-intervention policy as well as a strategy
of neutrality of the people of Afghanistan and their respectful view for the
independence of other countries. This proverb is widely used not only in the
political sphere but also in the daily language when people want to show
another person that the right to make decision in that particular area is
theirs. For example if a person asks advice of a friend about his/her family
issues or personal choices, the person who wants to give advice would first
begin with this proverb to make it clear for that person that this issue is
completely personal for you and its your privacy and I don’t want to intervene,
but if you want my advice, I think this is better …
افتادی؟ آ (بلی) ، اوگار (افگار) شدی؟ نی
Transliteration: Aftaadi? Aaa. Awghar shudee? Nee.
Translation: Did you fall? Yes. Did it it
hurt? No.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is made of two different short questions and two short
answers which are very relevant to each other. This proverb describes a very
critical characteristic of the culture of the people of Afghanistan. It shows
how the people of Afghanistan are shy and polite and they don’t want to show to
others how much pain they feel. It also expresses the fact that how much they
are tolerant towards pain, grief and agony. A nation which suffered 40 years of
continuous war due to intervention and invasion of other countries, they lost
almost everything, every family lost many members but they are still trying
their best to cope with the worst kind of proxy wars and face Taliban rebellion
and other sort of casualties, despite the highest level of poverty in that
country.
This proverb teaches the children, men and women of
Afghanistan to hide their pain and don’t talk about it. This proverb is used
when a person faces a tragedy , sorrow , disaster or calamity like losing a a
house in plane bombardments, then the relatives would come for the condolences
and they use this proverb to mention that we know that you are sad, but you don’t
want to show it on your face.
When you use this proverb, you are telling the other
person that we know that you have lost something precious, but you are hiding
how much pain do you feel because of it and you tell all others that you are
fine but we know that you are in pain. Falling in this context is a metaphor
and it means having an accident, losing something at once or facing a tragedy while
here the word “hurt” represents the aftermath or consequence of that tragedy to
that person whatever it is.
بسوز و بساز.
Transliteration: Bosooz wa besaaz.
Translation: Burn (yourself) down and
compromise.
Meaning and usage: This proverb can take you to the depth of human rights crisis and the
how the war has affected the people of Afghanistan. This proverb is made up of
the two short imperatives “burn yourself down” as a candle and compromise means
you have no other choice and options.
When someone uses this proverb, he means that the
situation is so bad that it kills me and I still try to be positive and I still
try to make myself believe that the situation will get better, and I cooperate
despite the fact that I know that this situation will kill me.
It explains the hardship of living in 40 years of war
which has no ends and kills people everyday and there is no hope for the future
but you can’t do anything to change the situation but to compromise with the
situation.
نه از آن شوری شور، نه از آن بی نمکی، نه از آن
راستی راست، نه از آن خم خمکی.
Transliteration: Na az aan shooree shoor, na az aan bi namaki,
na az aan raasti raast na az aan kham khamaki.
Translation: Not so much saltiness of the
salt, nor so much of the saltlessness, not so much of a straight person nor so
much crook-backed.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is made of two different parts, but each part explains
the same idea of moderation and the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially
in one's behavior or political opinions. This proverb is about self-restraint,
it advice to learn self-restraint and self-control. It teaches us some basic
lessons about self-discipline, moderateness, temperance, leniency and fairness
in our daily lives to prevent destructive actions and extremism in ideologies.
از خر پرسیدند که چرا گوش هایت دراز است؟ گفت:
هر مقبول یک عیب دارد.
Transliteration: Az khar purseedand ki chiraa gosh hait daraaz
ast? Guft har maqbool yak aib darad!
Translation: (They) asked the donkey why your
ears are so long? “Every beautiful (thing) has got (at least) one defect” he replied.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is made of two different parts, one question and one
answer. There are some cultural background and pre-assumptions that you should
know, only then you will be able to understand the meaning of this proverb. Donkey
is famous for being ugly and stupid in Afghanistan. In the most stories being
told to the children by their grandparents, animals can speak to defend and
protect themselves. Sometimes they teach you the things that human beings can
rarely pay attention to those things. Admiring yourself is not something good
culturally because it will be contrary to the modesty, humbleness and courtesy
as well as obeisance being encouraged and praised in that culture as the main
values for humanity. “No ones is perfect” is another commonly used and accepted
proverb but now this proverb criticizes the previous version of the proverb as
“No one is perfect” because it says that sometimes those who exaggerate in
admiration of themselves, and pretend to be beautiful and perfect while they
are not, they also somehow believe that no one is perfect. The most ugly and
stupid animal (donkey) believes that he is beautiful and tries to hide his
biggest defect (size of ears as ugliness). Here the donkey is being used as
symbol but this proverb is used to notify that even the worst stupid people
think that they are the best, despite the fact that you can see all bad
behavior and ugly manners in every moment you look at them.
پیشکه که از گل بسازی، میوشه کی بزنه؟
Transliteration: Peeshaka ki az gail besaazee, meeaw-esha ki
bezana?
Translation: (If) you make a cat out of mud,
who will make the meaw noise (on its’ behalf)?
Meaning and usage: This proverb is made of two different parts, one conditional
pre-assumptive statement and one question after it. The first statement gives
you an assumption, and explains you the situation of creating a none-living
statue out of water and soil and pretend it to be a cat and the question after
it asks you about how you would compare it to a living one which makes noise
and moves itself and walks around and performs all living activities. It is
about wrong assumptions and pretending the wrong persons to be what they are
not. It is used as a metaphor to explain the unfitting problems at all levels.
For example if you make an unqualified person the president of a country, who
would work for the people? Because the president himself would not be able help
the people of the country and to work because he does not know what to do.
از نظر گرگ ها، سگ ها همان گرگ هایی اند که تن
به اسارت و غلامی انسان ها داده اند.
Transliteration: Az nazar gurg haa, sag haa hamaam gurg haaiee
and ki tan ba asaarat wa ghullami ensaan haa daada and.
Translation: From the viewpoint of wolves, the
dogs are those wolves who have accepted to be the slaves of human beings.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is about freedom. This proverb uses the similarity of
the two animals in race to show the difference in their behavior towards human
beings. One of them the dog is very friendly to human beings and lives inside
the houses of human beings while the other is living freely in the deserts and
sometimes attacks on human beings as a dangerous enemy.
This proverb assumes that both wolves and dogs come
from the same origin and what they might think about each other when the dogs
were tamed by the human beings. It has used animals to express and idea while
the real life today, this proverb is not used for animals. It is used for human
beings who are devided in different groups; political parties, races, color of
skin and that is why some of them are helping others against some other human
beings.
از کلوخ آتش پرید!
Transliteration: Az klokh aatash pareed.
Translation: Fire sparkled out of the clod.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is about unexpected. Sparks come out of the stones and
metallic work instruments but certainly not from the clods. This proverb is
used when something unexpected happens.
از خانه هندو قرآن برآمد!
Transliteration: Az khana Hindu Koran baraamad.
Translation: Koran came out of a Hindu house.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is about unexpected. When something unexpected happens,
people use this proverb to show that how come such a good unexpected thing
happened. It is about a surprise.
یک بار دزد، همیشه دزد.
Transliteration:
Yak baar duzd, hamisha duzd.
Translation: Once a thief, always a thief.
Meaning and usage: This proverb explains how the mentality of people work and how the
accusations or crimes create a bad name for a person and how long he would be
called by that name. If a person commits a crime, he will be called by the same
bad name for the rest of his life even though if he is punished for that crime
by a court and goes to prison but the impression he has created in the minds of
the people will never be erased.
خدا مهربان است.
Transliteration:
Khuda mehrabaan ast.
Translation: God is kind.
Meaning and usage: This proverb is used to give help for those who are suffering and
having bad days and you can’t help them. The only help you can do is to give
hope for them by this proverb to encourage them not to give up their lives. You
use this proverb to mention them that there is an extraordinary power that can
change everything in a minute and he will help you to get out of this bad
situation. This is partly related to theology, metaphysics and theo-psychology
to create hope for the people or a nation who lost everything in the war, just
to give them the strength to survive.
نزدیک نیا که بدم میایی، دور نرو که گرگ
میخوریت.
Transliteration:
Nazdeek nayaa ki badem meyaee, door naroo ki gurg mekhorait.
Translation: Don’t come close (because) I don’t like you, don’t
go away either (because) wolves might eat you.
Meaning and usage: This proverb explains a very nice situation and relationships between
two persons with particular reference to balance between affection and hate. It
is a situation of moderate relationship where one does not really feel that he
is loved too much and he does not feel to be hated by that particular person. When
you use this proverb, you are actually complaining the other party of not being
very kind to you and also not being too rude to you. Using this proverb require
the other side to respond a question like “please tell me if you love me or you
hate me because I am confused”.
This proverb comes from a love story in a village
where there are wolves during the night outside the house and people cannot walk
outside because of the fear of being attacked and killed by the wolves.
It shows a situation where a lover comes to meet hidden the beloved girl during the night but she refuses to open the door and to let him
inside the house because in that culture touching before marriage and having sexual
affairs before marriage is not accepted. The girl would ask the boy not to walk
far from the house because there are wolves; he cannot come inside because of
the father, brother and family of the girl as well as the accountability in
that culture.
In that context the boy would use this proverb to
complain from the girl and ask do you love me or you hate me? You don’t let me
in and you don’t let me go too.
The Worldview of the People of Afghanistan
The worldview of the People of Afghanistan can only be traced in the books of a man who was born in the Balkh Province and talked about everything in his book.
His ideas represent the major believes and ideology of the majority of the people of Afghanistan. Here he talks about LOVE and the RELIGION:
I am in love with Love
I am in love with Love
Because Love is my only salvation.
I am in love only with Love
Someone else is a Muslim!
Your Lover certainly ain't a Muslim
Because in the Religion of Love
There's no such thing as Islam or Infidels!
The Religion of Love is different
From all other Religions.
For true Lovers of Love
God is their only Faith and Creed.
~ Balkhi Rumi ~
ما عاشق عشقیم که عشقست نجات
ما عاشق عشقیم و مسلمان دگراست
عاشق تو یقین دار که مسلمان نبود
درمذهب عشق کفرو ایمان نبود
مذهب عشق زمذهب ها جداست
عاشقان را مذهب و ملت خداست
مولانا جلال الدين بلخی رومی
Who Are We?
This molded figure of Mankind -
so strangely assembled though -
is an image drawn in the stable of sorrows.
First as angels, then as demons,
and now acting as bunch of savages,
what kind of spell is this
being so firmly cast upon us humans?
~ Balkhi Rumi ~
این صورت آدمی که درهم بستند
نقشی است که در تویلهٔ غم بستند
گه دیو گهی فرشته گاهی وحشی
این خود چه طلسم است که محکم بستند
رباعی مولانا جلال الدين بلخی رومی
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