Pashto Folk Couplets (Lundaye)

Compiled and Edited by Larry Blumenfeld, 1993

Malalai, an Afghan folk heroine and warrior poet is believed to have sung this more than a century ago. She fought alongside the commander Ayub Khan to defeat the British at the Battle of Maiwand on July 27, 1880.

I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan (translated by Eliza Griswold, photographs by Seamus Murphy)

Pashto landay

— Afghan folk poet & warrior Malalai, known as "the Afghan Jeanne d'Arc"

Na ye ikhlas na ye wafa kharseda.

”My darling, you re just like America /Even though you re guilty /I have to apologize.”