"Fearless Tiger" by Hanthawaddy U Win Tin

Portrait of U Win Tin (NLD Party Elder) by Kenneth Wong

After he was released from prison in 2008, Hanthawaddy U Win Tin, Burma's veteran journalist and political prisoner, received a visit from a policeman. The officer wanted something that, by protocol, the freed man should have left behind on the day he walked out of In Sein Jail -- his blue prison shirt.

"I told him that I can’t give it back and I’d rather be ready to face whatever lawsuit they wanted to file against me for this. Then he said I had to pay a 2,000 kyat [US $2] fine, " he recalled. U Win Tin refused to pay the fine too, as the story was reported by The Irrawaddy.

 “Although I’m said to be free, I am still a prisoner, because the whole country is prisoner to this military regime,” he said.

In his view, as long as the country was under the dictates of the 2008 Constitution, drafted and approved by the former military regime, true freedom still remained a farfetched dream. To show his solidarity with the political prisoners still behind bars, he continued to don his trademark blue shirt in all public appearances.

On April 21, 2014, at 6:30 AM Rangoon Standard Time, U Win Tin received the ultimate freedom. He passed away.

By his own admission, U Win Tin composed "Fearless Tiger" while he was in captivity. (The poem is footnoted with, "a poem from inside the prison," presumably by the poet himself.) The Burmese version is easily found online and in print. Here, for instance, is the Burmese text of the poem preserved online by Burma Campaign Japan. (To see the script properly, you'll need to install Zawgyi One font.)

The English translation here is mine. The portrait published in this post is based on his famous photo by James Mackay. It's drawn in Autodesk SketchBook Pro for iPad.

 
Fearless Tiger

Hanthawaddy U Win Tin (translated by Kenneth Wong)

Burning sun,

Pelting snow,

Sometimes the heat is prickly,

Sometimes the cold shakes me;

My narrow living quarter

Sees no bright light, feels no wind blow,

Sees no sunshine, nor no moonrise,

Sees no human, nor humanity.

Sit or gaze,

Sleep or think,

Can’t get news, can’t even sing a song,

Can’t read, can’t attempt poetry,

Can’t preach, can’t even speak to a soul.

Samsara is empty,

My world is tiny,

I pace in my little space,

I pause before the iron door,

I stand for a bit … and the day is gone.

Gone was the day before,

Gone is the whole today,

Gone will be the next day,

Gone, gone, gone …

Get them all gone!

A day or a life

A month or an age

A year or an era,

I won’t lose hope, I won’t give up,

Now I’m the anvil, later the hammer;

Don’t you know

The truth is on my side,

The people are on my side,

Time stands by me,

And Buddha stands with me?

Do you think

I’ll grow blunt in monotony

Like a caged tiger at the zoo?

What a laugh!

Remember!

As long as the black stripes

Cut across my yellow bright,

Unmistakable

And clear,

A tiger is a tiger,

And I am

Just the same!

U Win Tin (Hanthawaddy)

A poem from somewhere inside the prison