The Destiny of a Leaf | A Poem by Qanbar Ali Tabesh

Qanbar Ali Tabesh was born in 1969 in Sangshanda village near Ghazni in Afghanistan. He fled from the war in Afghanistan to Iran, where he settled in the city of Qom. He has a B.A. in Persian Literature from Payam-e Nur University and a B.A. in Political Science from the Human Sciences Institute of Qom. He is currently writing his master's thesis in political science at Baqer ol-Olum University in Qom. He is a member of the editorial committee of Khatt-e Sevvom, the leading cultural and literary magazine of Afghan refugees in Iran. He has published three collections of poetry and one of literary criticism.



The Destiny of a Leaf

A man is not a bird
that he might make his home on any shore he flies to.
A man has the destiny of a leaf.
A leaf, when separated from the heights of its branch,
is trampled underfoot by passersby in the streets.

Qanbar Ali Tabesh

Qom, Iran, 28 June 1999
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For more on the refugee experience, click here, and here.