The secrets of flowers, the memories of pain, and the road to peace. A poem constructed in Faizabad, yet a message for all.

Originally from Khwahan district but currently based in the provincial capital of Faizabad in Badakhshan, Mohamaddin Khwahany, who was the former head of Culture and Information Directorate in Badakhshan, shares his philosophic views in the form of a poem.

His poem is about life values and begins by touching upon the secrets of feelings and understanding, and how they relate to each other. He then notes the destructive effect the war has on everything. Some verses of his poem are translated:

He says that ‘if you don’t understand the secret of flowers, the flowers will fade and if you fail to feel the sound of hearts, they will be saddened’.

‘A departed nightingale will only start to sing when it comes to a garden’.

‌‌He shares his memories and understanding of pain, the pain he and his people have suffered from war and from bombing, and how they ruin everything. ‘Everyone suffers from war regardless of where they are. If they are from Badakhshan, or from Mazar, from Ghazni or Helmand or from Zabul to Kabul’, he says.

He, as a Muslim, then refers to the Holy Koran, which calls for peace and brotherhood among all, and concludes that his ruined country can only be built when peace is restored.

Peace has been an aspiration for the people of Afghanistan for the past four decades.