Show notes
If you could write a love letter to your home, while you are thousands of miles away from your country, your family, your community... what would you say?
This is Abdullah Bikzad's love letter, as he dreams of Afghanistan while living in Korea.
He shares about:
- Fond memories of growing up in a beautiful small province in Western Afghanistan and being in nature;
- The close-knit communal interactions and festive celebrations back home;
- How literacy in Afghan society is heavily shaped by Persian literature, and by poets such as Rumi and Hafiz;
- Emotional recollections of studying Persian poetry with his father at sunrise;
- Challenges in learning English and Korean after moving to Korea to study;
- Supporting Afghan students in Korea, and actively changing misinformed perceptions of Afghanistan by sharing their culture;
- What a big deal dancing is for Afghan people;
- The universal themes of Persian poetry, and how greatly it has influenced his relationship with his father, his connection with nature, and his outlook on life.
Last but not least, he closes the conversation with the 13th century poem بنیآدم (Bani Adam) by Persian poet Saadi Shīrāzī, gifting us with readings in his native tongue of Farsi and in English.
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