Swallows of Kabul Quotes

“Music is the true breath of life. We eat so we won't starve to death. We sing so we can hear ourselves live.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“We've already been killed, all of us. It happened so long ago, we've forgotten it.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“Basically, being alive means keeping yourself ready for the sky to fall in on you at any time. If you start from the assumption that existence is only an ordeal, a test we have to pass, then you’re equipped to deal with its sorrows and its surprises. If you persist in expecting it to give you something it can’t give, that just proves that you haven’t understood anything. Take things as they come; don’t turn them into a drama. You’re not piloting the ship, you’re following the course of your destiny.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“اسمع قلبك، إنه الوحيد الذي يحدثك عن نفسك، الوحيد الذي يمتلك الحقيقة الحقة. إن حكمته أقوى من جميع الحكم. ثق فيه أتركه يقود خطاك.”
― ياسمينة خضرا, Swallows of Kabul

“You're living through the only moments that make life worthwhile... In love, even beasts become divine.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“There’s no more painful love than the love you feel when you’re in a railroad station and you exchange glances with someone whose train is headed in the other direction.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“As long as the world's been the world, there's been those who live with it and those who refuse to accept it.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“Vivre, c'est d'abord se tenir prêt à recevoir le ciel sur la tête. Si tu pars du principe que l'existence n'est qu'une épreuve, tu es équipé pour gérer ses peines et ses surprises. Si tu persistes à attendre d'elle ce qu'elle ne peut te donner, c'est la preuve que tu n'as rien compris. Prends les choses comme elles viennent, n'en fais pas un drame ni un plat ; ce n'est pas toi qui mènes ta barque, mais le cours de ton destin.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“في بلد الأخطاء التي لا ندم وراءها، ليس العفو أو تنفيذ حكم إعدام نتيجة مداولة القضاة و إنما تعبير عن تغير مفاجىء للمزاج.”
― ياسمينة خضرا, Swallows of Kabul

“لا إفراط ولا تفريط عين على حق الله علينا ، وعين على حق الحياة الدنيا علينا كبشر زائلين ، وعرفنا عن قرب الثريات والمصابيح الكهربائية كي لا لانكتفي بضوءالشمعة الخافت فقط ، وذقنا أفراح الحياة فوجدناها لذيذة كما أفراح اﻷخرة . لا نقبل أن نعامل كالقطيع !!!”
― ياسمينة خضرا, Swallows of Kabul

“I had a little light. I blew on it, trying to turn it into a torch, but I blew a bit too hard and put it out.”
― Yasmina Khadra, The Swallows of Kabul

“...if he lost his way in a moment of collective hysteria, that's because the horrors of everyday life are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm all defenses, and human degeneracy is deeper than any abyss.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“تكمن المأساة الأساسية للبشر في كون أن لا أحد يستطيع البقاء على قيد الحياة أبعد من أخلص أمانيه”
― ياسمينة خضرا, Swallows of Kabul

“It seems that the whole world is beginning to decay, and that its putrefaction has chosen to spread outward from here, from the land of the Pashtuns, where desertification proceeds at a steady, implacable crawl even in the consciences and intellects of men.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“Furthermore, I refuse to wear a burqa. Of all the burdens they've put on us, that's the most degrading. The Shirt of Nessus woudn't do as much damage to my dignity as that wretched getup. It cancels my face and takes away my identity and turns me into an object. Here, at least, I'm me Zunaira, Mohsen Ramat's wife, age thirty-two, former magistrate, dismissed by obscurantists without a hearing and without compensation, but with enough self-respect left to brush my hair every day and pay attention to my clothes. If I put that damned veil on, I'm neither a human being nor an animal, I'm just an affront, a disgrace, a blemish that has to be hidden. That's too hard to deal with. Especially for someone who was a lawyer, who worked for women's rights. Please, I don't want you to think for a minute that I'm putting on some sort of act. I'd like to, you know, but unfortunately my heart's not in it anymore. Don't ask me to give up my name, my features, the color of my eyes, and the shape of my lips so I can take a walk through squalor and desolation. Don't ask me to become something less than a shadow, an anonymus thing rustling around in a hostile place.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“An isolated person is doomed beyond remedy." Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“Personne ne croit au miracle des pluies, aux féeries du printemps, encore moins aux aurores d'un lendemain clément. Les hommes sont devenus fous ; ils ont tourné le dos au jour pour faire face à la nuit. Les saints patrons ont été destitués. Les prophètes sont morts et leurs fantômes crucifiés sur le front des enfants...”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“Atiq, mon époux, mon homme, tu es béni. Écoute ton cœur. Il est le seul à te parler de toi-même, le seul à détenir la vérité vraie. Sa raison est plus forte que toutes les raisons du monde. Fais-lui confiance, laisse-le guider tes pas. Et surtout n'aie pas peur. Puisque de tous les hommes, ce soir, tu es celui qui aime...”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“And yet it is also here, amid the hush of stony places and the silence of graves, in this land of dry earth and arid hearts, that our story is born, like the water lily that blooms in a stagnant swamp”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“L'obscurité des murs a eu raison de sa lucidité, celle de son occupation s'ancre profondément dans son âme.”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul

“…Moshen has gradually stopped dreaming. The light of his conscience has gone out.”
― Yasmina Khadra , Swallows of Kabul

“El polvo ha cubierto de tierra los huertos, ha cegado las miradas y puesto cemento a las ideas”
― Yasmina Khadra, Swallows of Kabul