Mullahs were at mosques, teachers were in shcools...
September 7, 2014 8:57 AM Subscribe
Many of you Americans will be familiar with that certain kind of pop/country song that looks back on the good old days of yesteryear, those carefree, reckless days of mythical youth: driving Camaros, drinking Boone's Farm wine, singing the hit songs of the day, and, yeah, all that. Well, here's a song that springs from that same place in the heart, but in an Afghani version, and a wee bit more political in its message, here and there, than the American versions: it's Farhad Darya's Oo Ghaitaa, translated as "Those Were the Days".
A wonderful song, thanks for sharing it! I'm pretty sure it's in Dari, the Afghan dialect of Persian. (You might want to ask the mods to fix the "shcools" in the title, since I doubt you want to make him sound either illiterate or drunk...)
posted by languagehat at 9:39 AM on September 7, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 9:39 AM on September 7, 2014 [4 favorites]
Well, I don't know how he got there but the levee's definitely dry.
posted by chavenet at 10:16 AM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 10:16 AM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
Mister, we could use a man like Amanullah again...
posted by Sys Rq at 10:46 AM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Sys Rq at 10:46 AM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
Nitpicky point, but Afghani is the unit of currency, Afghan is the adjective.
I'm trying to decide if I should link my parents to this, or if it will just lead to hours worth of weepy nostalgia and bittersweet reminiscing.
posted by yasaman at 10:52 AM on September 7, 2014 [10 favorites]
I'm trying to decide if I should link my parents to this, or if it will just lead to hours worth of weepy nostalgia and bittersweet reminiscing.
posted by yasaman at 10:52 AM on September 7, 2014 [10 favorites]
This is interesting just from an artistic point of view; his manner is so different from a western singer performing for the camera. Very few direct looks, lots of closed eyes, looking away up or to the side, almost a shy effect. And some interesting hand motions. Is that common in Afghan musical performances (or in surrounding countries) or just his personal quirk?
I would also guess he's in his 40s or older; was the Afghanistan of his youth markedly more liberal, or still restrictive but just not as murderous as under the Taliban?
I thought the "could sit with my sisters" line was interesting, because doesn't that imply any woman, not his actual sisters? (remembering only what I got from Persepolis about women in Islam being referred to as "sisters).
posted by emjaybee at 1:10 PM on September 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
I would also guess he's in his 40s or older; was the Afghanistan of his youth markedly more liberal, or still restrictive but just not as murderous as under the Taliban?
I thought the "could sit with my sisters" line was interesting, because doesn't that imply any woman, not his actual sisters? (remembering only what I got from Persepolis about women in Islam being referred to as "sisters).
posted by emjaybee at 1:10 PM on September 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
And related in a weird way, the Russian version of Pete Seegar's Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, about the Russians in Afghanistan, by Alexander Dolsky.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:41 PM on September 7, 2014
posted by Ideefixe at 1:41 PM on September 7, 2014
EmJB--Afghanistan before the wars--photos from the 60s.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:46 PM on September 7, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 1:46 PM on September 7, 2014 [3 favorites]
Thanks, flapjax. I needed that. Like a lot of bitter old Recons, I felt like I had the rug yanked out from under me just as I was becoming an adult. How much worse must have it been for Afghans a decade or so earlier? Makes me feel like a heel for even thinking about it. What a world.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:50 PM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 1:50 PM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oh, and if like me you're trying to put a date on "those days," Ahmad Zahir died in 1979.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:54 PM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 1:54 PM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
I would also guess he's in his 40s or older; was the Afghanistan of his youth markedly more liberal, or still restrictive but just not as murderous as under the Taliban?
The Afghanistan of his youth would have been circa the 1970s. It was indeed more liberal: my mom and aunts went to university and wore Western-style clothes and no head coverings, and that was considered normal enough among the middle to upper middle class. Urban life in 1970s Kabul was comparable to that of any other less developed country of the times.
The Afghanistan Farhad Darya is reminiscing about here is very much a nostalgic vision that did not apply to everybody. My family would find it familiar, but they grew up well off in the cities of Kabul and Herat. I think it's difficult to overstate the sense of profound exile for the Afghan diaspora who left the country around the time of the Soviet invasion. To many of them, the thought of returning is inconceivable, because the Afghanistan they left has essentially ceased to exist.
posted by yasaman at 2:28 PM on September 7, 2014 [17 favorites]
The Afghanistan of his youth would have been circa the 1970s. It was indeed more liberal: my mom and aunts went to university and wore Western-style clothes and no head coverings, and that was considered normal enough among the middle to upper middle class. Urban life in 1970s Kabul was comparable to that of any other less developed country of the times.
The Afghanistan Farhad Darya is reminiscing about here is very much a nostalgic vision that did not apply to everybody. My family would find it familiar, but they grew up well off in the cities of Kabul and Herat. I think it's difficult to overstate the sense of profound exile for the Afghan diaspora who left the country around the time of the Soviet invasion. To many of them, the thought of returning is inconceivable, because the Afghanistan they left has essentially ceased to exist.
posted by yasaman at 2:28 PM on September 7, 2014 [17 favorites]
Nitpicky point, but Afghani is the unit of currency, Afghan is the adjective.
Interesting! I had to gut check my linguistic model which I've found inconsistent. Apparently it is not just Flapjax and I who have been lead astray by a folk usage: where did we get it? The Economist suggests it slips naming convention, maybe there are other roots. It seems that thinking on older times the -i suffix was more of a thing like reports on the mujhadeen would have been about the "Afghani fighters" but modern usage is more perfect.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:18 AM on September 8, 2014
Interesting! I had to gut check my linguistic model which I've found inconsistent. Apparently it is not just Flapjax and I who have been lead astray by a folk usage: where did we get it? The Economist suggests it slips naming convention, maybe there are other roots. It seems that thinking on older times the -i suffix was more of a thing like reports on the mujhadeen would have been about the "Afghani fighters" but modern usage is more perfect.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:18 AM on September 8, 2014
Photos of Afghanistan before and after. "Afters" like that no doubt make the old days that much more golden.
In the lyrics, Farhad Darya recalls listening to Ahmad Zahir ("The King of Afghan music").
posted by Kabanos at 10:01 AM on September 8, 2014
In the lyrics, Farhad Darya recalls listening to Ahmad Zahir ("The King of Afghan music").
posted by Kabanos at 10:01 AM on September 8, 2014
« Older The Colors of Motion | I am Jack Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:58 AM on September 7, 2014