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Folklore

This picture has the cover of the book Again I Hear These Waters by Shalim M. Hussain on the right...
“This, Here, Is Home”: Shalim M. Hussain on Miyah Poetry from Assam
By Uttaran Das Gupta
Poet and translator Shalim M. Hussain discusses Again I Hear These Waters , a new anthology that collects and celebrates poetry from the riverbanks and islands of the Brahmaputra.
Transcending the Human Viewpoint
By Madeleine Feeny
I allowed myself to be very playful and unafraid, and to try everything.
The Gut Demons
By Melaka Portuguese Oral Tradition
“When you go in search of food, you must do so at night, and you must only go with your head and intestines.”
Translated from Melaka Portuguese by Sara Frederica Santa Maria
Multilingual
Treasures
By Mohamed Magani
She tapped the photo and said, “When I am dead, this is the photo of me I want you to keep.”
Translated from French by Edward Gauvin
The Forsaken
By Aichetou
Listen, all of you, to what will later be said of the Forsaken by one of their descendants.
Translated from French by Edward Gauvin
Adabai
By Cheikh Nouh
Their nayffara is a flutelike instrument heavy with history, deeply immersed in sorrow.
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
Oil panting of two women drinking coffee at home
"Two Women Drinking Coffee, c. 1893" by Edouard Vuillard (artist) French, 1868 - 1940 in the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection in the National Gallery of Art
Thunderbird
By Sonia Nimr
An orphan named Noor receives a mysterious gift from her grandmother in this excerpt from Sonia Nimr’s YA novel Thunderbird.
Translated from Arabic by M. Lynx Qualey
Deceptive Simplicity: International Children’s Literature
By Daniel Hahn
I often feel that adults forget what children’s stories are capable of.
The Sunni and His Friend
By Qatari Oral Tradition
Cats. Carry cats!
Translated from Arabic by Tariq Ahmed
Lamb and ewe
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
Fatoum and Hamoud and Hamed
By Qatari Oral Tradition
The mother sheep would warn her children of the wolf that prowled the town.
Translated from Arabic by Rana Elmaghraby
Al Fisaikra
By Qatari Oral Tradition
Set me free and I'll make you rich.
Translated from Arabic by Kholoud Saleh
Enduring Tales: The Qatari Oral Tradition
By Autumn Watts
The stories are abundant with social wisdom, moral instruction, and cultural knowledge.
Erlina’s Sugilanon
By Tito Genova Valiente
Actually, the night Erlina first saw an Onglo was the night the creature was regenerating his power.
Across Mountains and Valleys: Stories of Migration from the Kinnaur and Spiti Valleys
By Arshia Sattar
Despite their specificity, these tales transcend the places that produced them and throb with a universal appeal.
The Story of Sunni and Bhunku
By Himalayan Oral Tradition
Why, oh why, did you not come back immediately?
Translated from Lahouli by Noor Zaheer
The Girl Who Turned into a Crocodile
By Himalayan Oral Tradition
She struggled and fought back and tried to save herself but could not overcome the great crocodile that had taken hold of her.
Translated from Lahouli by Noor Zaheer
When the Deer Moved Away
By Himalayan Oral Tradition
Deeku refused to understand the close bond between the humans and the deer and their dependence on each other.
Translated from Lahouli by Noor Zaheer
The Great Lord Pabori
By Anonymous
“I am the Great Lord Pabori, who eats the roast of seven lions!”
Translated from Sindhi by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
The Folktales of Sindh: An Introduction
By Musharraf Ali Farooqi
It is likely that in the folktales preserved in the Sindhi language, we can find the structures and traces of the earliest stories from the Indus Valley Civilization.
The Two Sparrows
By Anonymous
The cat said, “If I fetch him from down here, what will you give me?”
Translated from Sindhi by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
The Stork and the She-Stork
By Anonymous
“I was a fool. I will die and you will live. Return to our young now!”
Translated from Sindhi by Musharraf Ali Farooqi