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I Am The Beggar Of The World
I Am The Beggar Of The World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan | Elza Griswold
12 posts | 11 read | 16 to read
An eye-opening collection of clandestine poems by Afghan women
Because my loves American,
blisters blossom on my heart.
Afghans revere poetry, particularly the high literary forms that derive from Persian or Arabic. But the poem above is a folk coupleta landay, an ancient oral and anonymous form created by and for mostly illiterate people: the more than 20 million Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. War, separation, homeland, lovethese are the subjects of landays, which are brutal and spare, can be remixed like rap, and are powerful in that they make no attempts to be literary. From Facebook to drone strikes to the songs of the ancient caravans that first brought these poems to Afghanistan thousands of years ago, landays reflect contemporary Pashtun life and the impact of three decades of war. With the U.S. withdrawal in 2014 looming, these are the voices of protest most at risk of being lost when the Americans leave.
After learning the story of a teenage girl who was forbidden to write poems and set herself on fire in protest, the poet Eliza Griswold and the photographer Seamus Murphy journeyed to Afghanistan to learn about these women and to collect their landays. The poems gathered in I Am the Beggar of the World express a collective rage, a lament, a filthy joke, a love of homeland, an aching longing, a call to arms, all of which belie any facile image of a Pashtun woman as nothing but a mute ghost beneath a blue burqa.
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k323
Pickpick

There‘s something I don‘t like about Eliza Griswold. In her interviews you can hear this too. Every so often, she‘ll speak something patronizing. One quote: “Like most Afghan women, she has no idea of her age: …” (64). The landays themselves are beautiful and the background context of collective and anonymous authorship is super cool and empowering. I loved learning about this form of Afghan poetry. The pictures are beautiful too.

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Lyssa131330
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Pickpick

I requested this as an interlibrary loan for #23 on the 2017 Read Harder challenge and never heard anything. It turns out my library bought it for me and forgot to tell me. I‘m not that into poetry but my obligation read turned out to be moving and thought provoking. This is why I enjoy challenges, even the seemingly unenjoyable prompts 😊. Keep up the good work @bookriot

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Kappadeemom
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Taking a break from work for a few minutes

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Kappadeemom
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cathysaid Ouch! 👏 6y
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Kappadeemom
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In Afghanistan, a man farting is a big deal. This man farts in front of his family and leaves in shame for 20 years 😂💨

LeahBergen 😂😂 6y
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Bloomingjen
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I just finished I am the Beggar of the World for #readharder poetry translates from another language but I am also reading this book that I happened to notice on the shelf at the library. This includes the poems in English on the left side and written in Dari on the other.

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Eyelit
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It was hard narrowing this one down! I've read so many books that I give all the stars to this year. 😃 #bestreadsof2017sofar #jubilantjuly

KarenUK Love Burial Rites so much 💕 7y
DiruVamp Burial Rites and Revenge were both so amazing!! 7y
Lola After I read Burial Rites, I went on The Book Depository site and ordered her second book because I couldn't wait for the September US release 🙃#BlameItOnLitsy 7y
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RealLifeReading Love Yoko Ogawa! 7y
Eyelit @Lola that's such a great idea! I may have to do that 😄 7y
Lola @Eyelit Props to @Sue for sharing that great tip! I had no idea that such an amazing place even existed! 7y
Sue @Eyelit @lola I'm simply an enabler 😂It helps that the Book Depository is totally awesome. 7y
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brilliantglow
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book. Loved the little bits of back story that were included with the landays. The landays themselves are sometimes hilarious and sometimes shocking while other times incredibly sad. Definitely recommend this one.

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brilliantglow
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Starting this one now with a nice hot cup of cinnamon and honey tea❤

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Eyelit
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I'm cheating a teensy bit and reposting for the #poetry prompt today. I read and reviewed this book earlier in the year (it was my read harder translation poetry pick). I still think about the landays in this book and the women who share them. #aprilbookshowers

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brilliantglow
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#womenintranslation #aprilbookshowers has anyone read this one? I bought it for a spot on my #readharder

Eyelit One of my picks for read harder. Really good! 7y
brilliantglow @Eyelit that's great! I'm hoping to start it this month 7y
EllieDottie I bought it for the readharder challenge as well! 7y
brilliantglow @EllieDottie Oh that's funny! 7y
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Eyelit
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Pickpick

Arresting and eye-opening collection of landays (a folk couplet). I'm not usually one for poetry - and I picked this up to fulfill an item for #readharder - but I found myself very moved by many of these landays (a term I learned from this book, by the by). I am interested to learn more about this form of poetry and the impact it has on the lives of the women of Afghanistan.

arlenefinnigan Did you read this for the poetry in translation challenge? I've been stuck for ideas for that one and this looks good. 7y
Eyelit @arlenefinnigan yes, indeed. It was mentioned in the Goodreads group so I picked it up. The first section does have landays about love - but the other two are about grief/war/homelands so I'm still counting it as my pick for the poetry translation not about love 7y
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