"Don't dig a well in another's path,
In case you come to the well's edge."

The translation made the BBC news last February! See the news report.

"To keep up with the idea and thoughts of a poet is very challenging," Momin Khan Jaja told the BBC's Haroon Rashid, shortly after the book launch. "But we tried our best to be genuine and sincere."

Robert Sampson told the BBC he hoped their translation would lead to a more widespread awareness and appreciation of a poetry that has had a deep influence on Pashtun life.

Another BBC interview!

Shortly after the book launch, Robert Sampson was interviewed in England for a full seven minutes on the BBC's cultural programme, The Ticket.

Rahman Baba's poetry is now in English

Rahman Baba is the most popular and best known Pushtun poet.

Although he has been dead for over 300 years, the insights and statements of this remarkable man are still quoted and enjoyed up and down the long frontier region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In fact, it's probably true to say there is hardly a Pashtun who does not know some of Rahman Baba's work by heart.

New translation published

And now for the first time the entire works of this Pushtun poet have been translated into English and published in this book.

It's 900 pages long, and is the result of four years' work by two translators; Momin Khan, a Pakistani university graduate from the Swat Valley, and Robert Sampson, a teacher at Edwardes College in Peshawar.

You can order your copy with a check or credit card. Or read a free sample of the English translation.

Popular

Though Pushtuns generally possess few books, the diwan of Rahman Baba is in steady demand in the bookshops of Peshawar’s storytellers’ bazaar.

And if significance can be deduced from a list of the limited possessions that refugees carry, Rahman Baba’s poetry is highly prized. For along with carpets, teacups and long-grained rice, exiled Pushtuns will frequently carry the diwan to new lands.

History of translation

Early copies of the diwan were made by hand and were apparently in wide circulation as early as 1728.

But translation of the diwan into English has been limited.

Of the 343 poems, 36 have been translated into English by Raverty, 35 by Plowden, 50 by Enevoldsen, and 12 by Benawa. But many of these translations are of the same poems, so the total number of different poems that have been translated is only around 80!

Now that has changed.

All of these remarkable poems have now been patiently, carefully translated into English, published in Peshawar and you can buy a copy here.