On Loss
Two powerful contemporary poems by Afghan sisters Farida and Shafiqa Labib on what it means to flee one's homeland
Farida Labib, ‘Lost Piece’
Am I borrowed from the future? Or inherited from the past? Failing to hold onto the present, where is my homeland, where is home? Everywhere fog, dust. My laughter is all domestic while I cry in a foreign accent. That is not me! That couldn't be me. To be free from all discontent there should be a lost piece here, there, somewhere. I am going to lock my injured heart in a small black wooden box to protect it from more pain. I'll hang up my passion in the wardrobe, unused like worn out clothes. Yet my missing piece, soon or late, will be found to make me complete.
Alexandre Jacovleff, In the Desert of Afghanistan (1931) commons.wikimedia.org
Shafiqa Labib, ‘Displaced’
If you are a displaced person Then you have a sad story. If you left your roots somewhere behind Then you have wrinkles in your heart. If you still have images of places you can never see again Then you left an eye behind. If you walked miles and are unable to return Then you buried hopes deep inside. If your heart deflates during evenings Then you lost a sense of belonging. If you speak your language only in your dreams Then you grow a great pain of missing inside. If your eyes sink deeply Then you miss familiar faces. If your brain tries to escape a past Then you have already lost a fight.
About the Authors…
Shafiqa and Farida Labib are sisters who grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. Farida has a PhD in International Relations and Shafiqa has a Master’s degree in Political Science. Both sisters write poetry and short stories in Farsi, Turkish, and English. Their work draws deeply upon their experiences during war, and of being women in Afghanistan, a country that largely denies them freedom of expression. They have just published their first collection of poems, Maybe I Should Fly (Grayson Books), from which ‘Lost Piece’ is taken. (Reprinted here with kind permission of the publisher.)
The sisters are grateful for the support of Afghan Women’s Writing Project, where many of their poems first appeared.
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