Improve your Pashto conversation

All I have posted on this blog will help to improve your Pashto reading and writing. There is more every level information I will post now and then. I try to post learning lessons in such a manner that both beginners and advanced learners could find them helpful.

But then there are some learners who are good in writing and reading, and they only want to improve their conversation. They should contact  me so we can fix a time for voice chat or phone conversations.

I am also working to prepare these posts in an understandable audio format.

Khoshala aosey (Be Happy)

Pashto Tappa

Tappa or ټپه, as we write it in Pashto, is the shortest, most comprehensive and most attractive poem of the world. Pashto language is proud of it. Tappa is an important part of the Pashto literature. It has a format of tow lines. The first of nine syllables and the second is of thirteen syllables.

According to Rajwali Shah Khattak, ‘ Tappa is the oldest and most popular genre of the Pashto poetry. It is liked very much by the Pushtoons of all ages irrespective of their age and sex. Countless Tappas have been added by unknown poets and are sung with unsurpassed popularity. Lyrically, the Tappa is a composition of two unequal meters, in which the first line is shorter than the succeeding one, yet it reflects all human feelings and aspirations elegantly. Be it laborers, peasants, or women, everyone’s sentiments find expression in the Tappa.
It is also common among the Pashtoons that a boy of school would sing it, the elders in their hujrahs, the women in their home and Godar alike. It is the only song sung in the time of grief and on the occasion of marriage. In music it is sung with the traditional Pashto musical instrument ‘Rabab’ and ‘Mangay’. Tappa has upto 16 different models of harmony. Nowaday it is being sung with full orchestra. Tappa is the song, which used to be sung without musical instruments but musicians have composed different compositions for it. In mountains and in the deserts, it is still sung without some instruments.’

Here are some tappas with English translation:

گلونه ډېر دي خداى دې ډېر کړي
د صبر گل به خپل اشنا له ورکومه

The garden is full of flowers but I have to present the flower of patience to my friend.

ځان دې زړو جامو کې جوړ کړو
لکه په وران کلي کې باغ د ګلو وينه

She dressed herself in tattered clothes and Looks like a garden of flowers showing through the ruins of a village.

بس کړه په دغه ځاى يې پرېږده
څوک چې ښايسته اشنا لري غمجن به وينه

Let us close and leave these Tappey alone, Those who have a beautiful lover, have to put up with some sadness…

Here are my two favourite tappas:

په لويو غرو د خداى نظر دى

په سر يې واورې په لمن زيړي گلونه

کابل د ښو ځوانانو ځاى دى

ما د نېستۍ د لاسه پرېښوده ميينه

A good collection of the tappas is available here.

Mullah Naseruddin And The Fork

ملا نصرالدين او ښاخۍ

ملا نصرالدين يوه زړه څپره درلوده. څپرې هيڅ کړکۍ نه درلودې او له همدې کبله هغه ډېره تياره او د زړو شيانو نه ډکه وه. يوه ورځ هغه خپلې څپرې ته دننه ورغى تر څو يوه زينه راواخلي خو غريب په څه شي باندې دننه وښويېده او په يوه غټه ښاخۍ ورولوېده. ښاخۍ يې پر سر وربرابره شوه او بيا يې په چپه پښه غرزنده راوغورځېده. او د ښاخۍ لاستى يې په اوږده ږيره کې ونښتو.

ملا نصرالدين هغې ښاخۍ ته په سخت عکس العمل ښودلو سره ښاخۍ ايسته وارتوله او په چټکۍ سره د څپرې نه راووت.

ملا نصرالدين ډېر په غوسه و. خپلې هغې زړې تورې پسې يې ورمنډه کړه او راوايې خيسته چې د خپلې بسترې لاندې يې ساتلې وه. څپرې ته يې بېرته ورمنډۀ کړه او ناڅاپه يې دروازه ورخلاصه کړه. په يوه هېبتناک اواز يې چيغه کړه، “ډېره ښه ده اوس نو ته او د دنيا ټولې ښاخۍ جگړې ته راووځئ. زه له تاسو څخه نه ډارېږم.”

Mullah Naseruddin And The Fork

Mullah Naseruddin had an old shed. It had no windows. So it was very dark, and it was full of old things.

One day Naseruddin went into his shed to get a ladder, but slipped on something and fell against a big garden fork. The fork hit him on the head and knocked him down. Then it fell on top of him and hit him hard on the left leg. The ends of the fork then went into his long beard. He fought with the fork fiercely, and at last threw it off him, jumped up and ran out of the shed.

He was very angry. He had an old sword under his bed, and he now ran and got that. Then he ran back to the shed, opened the door suddenly and shouted in a terrible voice, ‘All right, come out and fight, you and all the other forks in the world! I’m not afraid of you!’