Tanka poems against the war

 Twenty years have passed since the attacks. What is called "War on Terror" was waged by the United States and has taken so many lives of innocent Afghan people and those of soldiers of both sides. What was that for?

The below is a poem I wrote when I watched a TV interview in the end of 2001. I post this not to do the same again.

In a TV interview

The man was shedding beads of tear,

Leaving tear trails on the both cheeks

From the wide-opened eyes

One teardrop after another was

Running down on the cheeks

"If we had dropped wheat seeds, 

Not bombs, in Afghanistan,

No children would have died of hunger there"

The man was shedding teardrops,

Leaving the cheeks glistened

"If we had dropped books, not bombs,

Children could have had hope for the future,

Not despair"

One teardrop after another

Has been falling down into my heart

And formed a small pond there

The still surface of the pond, like a mirror,

Has begun to reflect the world I haven't seen ever

Kaoru Kobashi Flowers and Bombs - Stop the Violence of the War Now! p.63

I have been looking into the mirror ever since, and doing anything I can think of to help children in Afghanistan.

It is not clear how Afghanistan will be under the Taliban regime, but I will find what I can.

I do hope you, who happen to read this, will not forget suffering people in Afghanistan and do something not to repeat the tragedy. 

Note: The man in the poem was Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Here is his comment from the recent interview. 

"If books had rained on people in Afghanistan instead of bombs [and] if wheat had been sowed instead of land mines, the people would not have suffered so badly. What I said in my acceptance speech for UNESCO's Federico Fellini Honor in October 2001 is still relevant."

Read more at the site below:

■20 YEARS AFTER 9/11　Mohsen Makhmalbaf warns of extremists

Iranian filmmaker worries over fate of journalists and artists stuck in Afghanistan

https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Life/Mohsen-Makhmalbaf-warns-of-extremists

A drawing by Kaoru Kobashi  Flowers and Bombs p.18