THE GOAT
Mullah Powinda “the goat”
Beneath vague voices and the feeble din,
Strangely as if through a shield,
Through the khattak dancers in a row
One sees the towering old mullah.
A welcoming voice, a direct look,
With eyebrows, grizzled and curved,
Of nothing in particular he spoke
And to you said no more than he should.
Among the tribesmen and the khans
Amid the day’s whirlwind,
It seems that they’d forgotten
His past dramatic legend.
They forgot the day of anguish,
The night of cries: “To arms.”
The disheartening salt-marshes,
The camels’ measured tread;
Forgot the margins of shifting sand
Where a bad-luck company dragged;
Forgot Maiwand and Jandola carnage,
Tochi Valley fallen to the Ferenghee’s flag.
Forgotten? — No! Each time it occurs
That some attention-grabbing incident
Dims the spark of his peaceful eyes,
Refreshing them with old events.
“What is with you?” — “My foot aches.” —
“Gout?” — “No, an old jezail wound.”
Suddenly provoked, he awakes
And breaks the tedium of the Punjabi sun.
And he told me that none of those
Among all of the veterans,
In lines with up raised tulwars
Or in rows of resting on the ground,
Could force him out of the shabby bed,
Clever, foxy and corpulent,
As his heart repeatedly agonized
Over memories of mishaps past.
But a new Rule is moving his world,
And he wakes up from his deserved rest,
Grabs his jezail and embraces the jihad,
‘Cause the True Ruler claims his life.
Among the rocks
Jumping and landing
He forgets the pain in the foot
No gout he told…just goat!!!
R.WInkie from “Peshawar barracks ballads” which inspired Gumilev’s famous poem
Mustafa turned for a last glance to the tamarind market stall but…dozens shadows were appearing over the hills ridges…only the incoming darkness and the rocks shadows could save him to be detected, but for sure it was not a nice news for the Tajiki following them…he was staring them...who are they?
“Quick quick” cried running in front of the trio and pointing to the crossroads which led to Mir Zakah
“Quick quick…STOOOP” Mustafà indicated some sparkle of light coming from the main road, the sunset reflecting on the metal of weapons
“How can they be already here?” asked Yamad fully surprised
“Tajik have magic powers, they are all wizards” grumbled Mustafa for Yamad discomfort but he was tacitated by Muletail
“Silence, Mustafa stop with this foolish stories which impress Yamad, they cannot be the friends of the three killed tajiks, they were waiting on the crossroad in the opposite road; these must be other tribesmen, let’s go behind that mud brick house and let they pass unseen”.
It was a simple classic brick mud house, very common not only in this area, called in “renedra style”, often sometime they include also a dome and awning and jars, but this was very simple and, above all, without any evidence of inhabitants.
Two tribesmen are coming from Mir Zakah escorting an old man, apparently inoffensive and harmless, he walked with a limp, like something was wrong with his leg, obliged to carry a big water tank.
The trio was just beyond the mud brick house, which controlled the road and could be used as a sentinel to warn about enemies coming to the village; but actually it appeared desert and without inhabitants, and allowed our friends to hide out unseen, when suddenly cracking and cries erupted filling the air with noisy sounds.
Immediately the trio stopped in the middle of the road and the old men said with a clear waziri accent
“so it seems that my friends came to look for me” and laughed but the two answered with surprising perfect Afridis’ accent:
“Shut up stupid ruffian, you will pay for our three brothers you killed before being captured” and raise the arms to hit him with their tulwars “if we cannot bring you back we will kill you here”
Even if Muletail orders were to hide and then go to Mir Zakah, the generous and naïf Yamad could not stand looking the old men injured and going to be despatched. His generosity was also boosted by the consideration that the old men looked worthless while the tulwars of the Tajiki could be easily converted in juicy tamarind slices and he knew very well that Mustafa, after eating a dozen of slices, was keen to tell fantastic stories about Tsar monster and now new ones about Tajiki wizards, and Yamad was crazily fond of horror stories.
He pointed the jezail and, covered by the chaotic din coming from behind the curve: snip! But for the hurry to move and fire he missed; surprised also Muletail and Mustafà fired without aiming and failed their shots. The ambushed afridis grabbed their jezails but misfired and then started the melee but no tulwar reached his target 5 dice for fire and 5 for melee, all failed!
At this point the five fighters paused and the old man took the water tank over his shoulders and hit the head of one Afridis, stunning him, while the second, distracted by the unforeseen attack, lost for one second controlling the attackers and was wounded by Yamad and despatched by Muletail, without successfully counterattacking.
“Rumours are stopped now, the warriors seen by Mustafa must have completed their work on Tajiks or the latter routed, now it is best accelerating towards the village before they join us” said Muletail
“Thanks brothers you have broken me free from these heretic ruffians” said the old man grabbing a jezail from a dead Afridis “ but now I must continue my job”
and before completing his sentence he disappeared jumping among the rocks.
When Yamad climbed a rock he could see only a far shepherd with some goats…
“Wow he is faster than a goat among these rocks and he facilitated our job hitting one warrior” Yamad said
“Sure he was not a normal old man , perhaps a demon” replied Mustafa
“A demon, a goat demon?”Yamad was terrorized but much more fascinated. “Perhaps generated by Tajik wizards?”
“Shut up and run if you do not want be captured by other bandits and if they catch us you will regret the demon did not kill you”” said sharply Muletail and the trio run again towards Mir Zaleh…
Running cautiously, keeping a strict silence, all three are thinking: but who was the “goat demon”? An old shepherd? A master of camouflage? Will our heroes meet him again? Probably sooner than they think…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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October 04, 2023, 10:39:08 AM
February 01, 2011, 12:20:27 PM