Afghan proverbs


Across Afghanistan, proverbs are a valued part of speaking, both publicly and in conversations. Afghans "use proverbs in their daily conversations far more than Westerners do, and with greater effect".
The most extensive proverb collections in Afghan languages are in Pashto and Dari, the two largest languages in Afghanistan.
Pashto is the mother tongue of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, Pashtuns. Pashto has the oldest and largest collections of proverbs.
The Dari also known as Afghan Persian which is spoken by language is very similar to Persian spoken in Iran and Tajikistan. A broader, more contextualized, study of Afghan proverbs would include comparisons of Afghan proverbs with and with Tajik proverbs from Tajikistan.

Collections

So far, collections of proverbs in Afghan languages are available in English translation for at least four Afghan languages: Dari, Pashto, Pashai, and Balochi. Collections of Pashto, Dari, and Balochi proverbs in Arabic script are downloadable at the links at bottom of this article.
Dari: For Dari, there are two main published collections of proverbs, with some overlap between them. The earlier is J. Christy Wilson's collection of 100, One Hundred Afghan Persian Proverbs, the list having been reproduced in other sources. The most recent main collection of Dari proverbs is the 3rd edition of U.S. Navy Captain Edward Zellem's collection, built on the 151 of the 2012 edition, plus 50 more that were submitted via the Web. The 2012 edition won a 2013 award from the Military Writers Society of America. From the 151 proverbs of the 2012 edition, 38 were chosen for an edition with color illustrations, intended for language learning by a more popular audience. This edition's format has been published with , including English, Russian, German, French, and Finnish. There are reports that Zarbolmathalhâ, a collection of 1,152 Dari proverbs collected by Mowlânâ Khâl Mohammad Khaste, was published in 1983. There is also a collection of Dari proverbs with German translations by Noor Nazrabi, Afghanische Redensarten und Volksweisheiten.
Pashto: For Pashto, one of the two main languages of Afghanistan, the newest available source is the collection of 151 proverbs by Zellem. A larger collection of Pashto proverbs of 1,350 proverbs is by Bartlotti and Khattak, a revised and expanded version of an earlier work by Tair and Edwards. Enevoldsen published 100 proverbs and 100 tapas folk poems. An earlier collection was published by Benawa. An older source containing 406 Pashto proverbs is Thorburn's, where he includes them in his book on pp. 231–473. Another out-of-print collection is Boyle's "Naqluna": Some Pushtu Proverbs and Sayings from 1926. The most recent published collection of Pashto proverbs contains 151 proverbs submitted by Pashto speakers via the Web and Twitter. There are reports that Nuri published a selection of proverbs from Paśto Toləna in 1910. There are about 50 pages of Pashto proverbs arranged by topic in a doctoral dissertation by Bartlotti. Three additional volumes on Pashto proverbs have also been published in Pakistan, the first by M.M.K. Shinwari, Da mataluno qisay in 1999. There are two additional volumes printed in Pakistan, both by M. A. Lashkar, Oulasi mataluna in 2005 and Da mataluno qisay: Ter pa her baqi rozgar in 2009. There is also a collection of proverbs prepared by Boyle in 1926. Noor Sanauddin, a Pashto proverb scholar, has compared all available collections of Pashto proverbs.
Pashai: Pashai is a less known language community living east of Kabul. A local committee working with Yun produced a collection of 171 proverbs, each one translated into English, Korean, and Pashto. Lehr has analyzed an aspect of the grammar of proverb use.
Balochi: For Balochi, a language spoken on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border, Badalkan gives a number of Balochi proverbs translated into English in his article, focusing on proverbs that are related to specific stories. He also cites several published collections of Balochi proverbs, all published in Balochi. Six proverbs are given on the last pages of Dames' 1907 Popular poetry of the Baloches.
In addition to these publications in English, there are items about proverbs in languages spoken in Afghanistan published in other languages. These include:
Proverbs are often shared across languages when there is significant interaction among peoples. Some examples of shared proverbs among the languages of Afghanistan include:
The proverbs of Afghanistan are not fixed, archaic expressions. For example, there is a traditional proverb in Pashto and Dari, "The wound of the sword will heal, but not that of the tongue." The Pashai form of this proverb reflects a more modern form of weapon, "A bad wound by a gun will be cured, but the wound by a bad word won’t be cured". Another example of an updated proverb is today's Pashai proverb "An unloaded gun makes two people afraid" compared with a Pashto proverb published in 1876 reflecting an older form of military technology "Of the broken bow two persons are in fear".
Not surprisingly, proverbs in all four of the languages documented have proverbs that mention nouns common in Afghanistan, such as "camels", "mountains", and "poverty".
It is not surprising to find proverbs that reflect Afghanistan's Islamic traditions, such as
A common element among the proverb traditions of Afghanistan is that some proverbs are linked to stories. Proverbs that trace their origin to stories are found in Pashto, Dari, and Balochi.

Analysis of Afghan proverbs

For most Afghan languages, the first challenge is to collect proverbs before analysis can be done. For Pashto, which has the oldest and largest collections of proverbs, there have been two dissertations that analyzed the links between their proverbs and culture. The first was about '"pashtunwali" or "pakhto", "the way of the Pashtuns",... a code of honour embracing the customary law, morality, ethos and notion of ancestral heritage associated with "being Pashtun" and "doing pakhto" '. The second dissertation 'argues that Pashto proverbs encode and promote a patriarchal view and sexist ideology.' Gender identities and roles as expressed in Pashto proverbs are also described in an article-length presentation. Additionally, there is an article about the status of women as seen through Pakhtun proverbs. Pashto proverbs have also been studied to show attitudes related to marriage.
Kohistani has written a thesis to show how understanding Afghan Dari proverbs will help Europeans understand Afghan culture.
The use of proverbs and other artistic language in talking about war and instability in Afghanistan is the subject of a study by Margaret Mills.