August 19th marked the 90th anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence.
In the 90 years since Amanullah Shah led and won Afghanistan’s right for self-determination from the British, Afghanistan’s history has taken some good and ill turns.
The Afghanistan of today was not in Amanullah Shah’s remotest vision. And we could wonder what he would have thought about the recent presidential elections—the winner yet to be determined.
To commemorate this anniversary, it is befitting to see Farhad Darya’s new music video recorded on the ruins of Amanullah Shah’s palace—bombed, burned and looted by the same people that run the current government of Afghanistan. Darya sings the late Qahar Asi’s poem “My Beloved Land”.
Here is the poem’s translation by Dr. Sherief Fayez, the Founding President of the American University of Afghanistan, we published back in October 1999:
My Beloved Land
My beloved land
My dream, my conviction
My honored blasphemy and religion
My seventh heaven
What a valiant people!
What sun! What fire!
Rising like the Resurrection,
No obstacle to their will
Not mountain nor hill.
Across the land
Passionately they scream:
Martyrdom and determination!
No house without a Rustem
That great warrior
No fortress without an Arash,
That great archer
What a brave nation!
What a proud people!
Let the dust of their footpath
Be an honor on my temple!
– Qahar Asi, Kabul 1987
