Finally, as discreetly as I can, I ask Chandar [chieftain of the village of
Mohmand, Afghanistan]what he thinks of his new neighbors, the Pakistani Army.
He turns to a gaunt man with pale eyes and a beard like steel wool who is
sitting apart from us, playing with a child. "Sher Khan," the chieftain calls
out, "perhaps you'd like to grace us with one of your couplets."
His eyes sparkling, sher Khan leaps up and delivers a poem in Pashtu. It
ends with an obscene gesture that has our army escort looking extremely
uncomfortable and Rahimullah doubled over laughing. "Oh, he's good. Very
critical of the government," Rahimullah says. By having the court jester
deliver the truth to us in a poem, he explains, the Mohmand tribesmen get
their message across without fear of retribution, as Pashtun poets are beyond
reproach. Sher Khan wanders back to his corner, and our host says
apologetically, " You have to excuse Sher Khan. He's a bit mad. But a fine
poet!"
-- National Geographic, December 2004
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Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
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