A “landay” is a 2-line, 22 syllable poem, a “folk couplet…an oral and often anonymous scrap of song created by and for mostly illiterate people: the more than twenty million Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.” My friend Suzanne has a book of them, translated into English, called I Am the Beggar of the World, compiled by Eliza Griswold. They are sometimes funny but most often heart-wrenching snippets of life in a male-dominated war-torn country. Below are a few from the book. Griswold’s introduction to the form (with many more examples) is here and there’s a review on Slate here.
How much simpler can love be?
Let’s get engaged now. Text me.
When sisters sit together, they always praise their brothers.
When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to others.
You sold me to an old man, father.
May God destroy your home, I was your daughter.
Lovely. I’ll look for that book.