In Afghanistan, proverbs and poetry are part of everyday conversation. When Martha spoke with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, he told her about graffiti in Kabul, which sometimes includes verse from the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Poetic Afghan Graffiti”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Recently, I had a chance to talk with Khaled Hosseini. He’s the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Sons.
And I was interviewing him in front of an audience here in San Diego about his latest bestseller, And the Mountains Echoed.
Hosseini grew up in Afghanistan, and there poetry is integrated into daily life in a way that we’re not used to here in this country.
He said that in Kabul, you can walk around and you can see the kind of graffiti that you see anywhere in the world.
But then you’ll go around a corner and you’ll see that somebody spray painted the work of a 13th century mystic poet.
And we were talking also about the fact that proverbs are a part of the fabric of everyday conversation there.
And here’s one that I know you’ll like.
A porcupine speaking to its baby says, oh, my child of velvet.
Of course.
There’s nothing wrong with my child.
Exactly.
Claw-free.
I’ve got some more that I’m going to share later in the show.
But in the meantime, we’d love to talk about any aspect of language with you.
Call us at 877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
