Beautiful and heartbreaking, all at the same time. Exquisite in their brevity, managing to still pack a punch. That's the best way I can sum up these landlays, two line poems by that are recited by Afghan women. The authors of the landlays are completely diluted in time. No one can say where most started. These are poems that have trickled down from generation to generation, a few words changing here and there to reflect the modern times but their essence remains.
Become a beggar, then come to me.
No one stops beggars from going where they please.
Accompanied by black and white pictures of Afghanistan taken by Seamus Murphy, Eliza Griswold translates these gems from their native Pashto and gives us a peek into the secret world of the Afghan woman. The landlays are about love, separation/grief, and war. They even speak of drones. When most girls have been denied the opportunity to go to school, this art form allows them to gain wisdom. Ms. Griswold provides context to some of the landlays which helps broaden one's understanding of what is on the page.
They are so short, but some of them still haunt me now, even after I finished the book.
When sisters sit together, they always praise their brothers.
When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to others.
Everyone should read this.
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