Illustration for "A Dead Poem" (by Kenneth Wong) |
Burmese poet and novelist Taya Min Wai was also known as Shwe Phone Lu or Chit Nyi Nyi. He was a member of the inner circle of dissident students responsible for the 1988 uprising. For his role, he was imprisoned from 1990 to 1994. At Min Wai's funeral in 2007, prominent Burmese student leader Min Ko Naing read a poem, "The Groom of Fallen Stars," as a tribute to his friend.
In an anthology published to commemorate Min Wai's passing (Remembering Taya Min Wai, August 2009, Moemaka Multimedia), one of his cellmates recalled how Taya Min Wai composed poems by memorizing his lines in prison because he was forbidden to possess pencils and papers. It's believed that one of his acclaimed novels, The Moon of the Age of Flowers (Pan Khit Ka La Min), was conceived and written behind bars.
The illustration above was drawn digitally in Autodesk SketchBook Ink and Autodesk SketchBook Pro for iPad.
A Dead Poem
By Taya Min WaiPublished in Tay Kabyar magazine, July 2002
Translated from Burmese by Kenneth Wong
I miss …
The other side of the rainbow,
And hate my half-faded human scent.
The poltergeists flared up in my mind time after time,
I dug my own hole, even if it was narrow.
No blossom,
Just years brushing by me.
I foresaw that we’d have to part
As much as a little jasmine.
Yet …
Once on a sweltering wet road
We sought shelter from the rain together.
Tell me: what desert can I use to paint my losses?
I confess:
I still run after the sparkling winter mist,
Still say, “Just one cup, please,”
And try to drink up the old sea.
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