من نگویم که مرا از قفس
Man Nagoyam Ka Mara Az Qafas
“I Will Not Say Free Me from This Cage”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
I will not say: free me from this cage Only carry my cage to a garden, and gladden my heart
The season of roses is passing — companions, for God's sake Sit in a garden somewhere, and remember me
Nightingales! The damask rose has entered the meadow Cry out, all of you, to welcome its arrival
Remember this captive bird, O birds When you gaze on the rose, the tulip, and the boxwood
Transliteration
Man nagoyam ke mara az qafas azad koned Qafasam borda ba baghe o dilam shad koned
Fasle gol megozarad hamnafasan bahre khoda Beneshined ba baghe o mara yad koned
Yad az ein morgh greftar koned ay morghan Chod tamashaye gule o lala o shamshad koned
Har ke darad ze shoma morgh aseere ba qafas Borda ba baghe o ba yad manash azad koned
Asheyane mane bechara agar sokht che baak Fekere wayran shodane khanaye sayad koned
Shama agar koshta shod az yad madared ajab Yade parwanaye maste shoda bar baad koned
Bestoon bar sar rah ast, bamad az shirin Khabare gofta o ghamgin dil farhad koned
Jawr bedad koned, omre jawan kotah Ay bozorgan watan, bahre khoda dad koned
Gar shod az jawr shoma khanye moree wayran Khanaye khwesh mahal ast ka abad koned
Ganj wayranaye zendan shod agar sahm bahar Shokre azadi o an ganj khoda dad koned
متن اصلی
من نگویم که مرا از قفس آزاد کنید قفسم برده به باغی و دلم شاد کنید
فصل گل میگذرد همنفسان بهر خدا بنشینید به باغی و مرا یاد کنید
عندلیبان گل سوری به چمن کرد ورود بهر شاباش قدومش همه فریاد کنید
یاد از این مرغ گرفتار کنید ای مرغان چون تماشای گل و لاله و شمشاد کنید
I Will Not Say Free Me from This Cage — Bahar's prison ghazal of 1933: the caged bird does not ask for freedom, only that the cage be carried to a garden. Sung by Zahir, it became an Afghan anthem of dignity under confinement.
About This Recording
Man Nagoyam Ka Mara Az Qafas performs one of the most delicate moves available to a poet writing under tyranny: it asks for nothing the jailer can refuse. Not freedom — only a garden view, only remembrance. The modesty of the request is the indictment; a regime that cannot grant even this is named without being named.
In Ahmad Zahir's hands after the Saur Revolution, the song needed no commentary. Audiences heard a blacklisted singer voicing a prisoner's plea written under a different dictatorship, and understood. It belongs with his late political repertoire — the recordings where the classical canon itself became the safest available language of resistance.
Poetic Source & Adaptation
Malek o-Shoara Bahar
Malek o-Shoara Bahar (1886–1951), Ghazaliyat 65 (Ganjoor). Bahar wrote the poem in 1933 while imprisoned under Reza Shah. The conceit — a caged nightingale that asks not for release but for its cage to be set among the roses, and for its companions to remember it when they see the garden — made the poem a touchstone for political prisoners across the Persian-speaking world. After the 1978 coup, Ahmad Zahir's recording acquired an unmistakable second meaning that no censor could quite prosecute: he had only sung a classical poem about a bird.
More Songs
Not sure what to listen to next?
Discover Ahmad Zahir by Mood →