Maung Thano - Poetry Translation Work Camp

Village chief

With a large diamond ring, a fork, and a variety of teeth

Five elephants, the power of the elephants

Servant of the god Zambu Soera

If you sharpen it, your body will stop working.

Police crackdown

Nine hundred and fifty

Sword

If you fight, you will be destroyed.

The blacksmith of Shwebo Prison in Konbaung

Until now, from generation to generation

A man who carries the burden of the law without shirking

Happy in the forest after working in the fields

Corn and rice are the mainstays of the economy.

Various types of beans

Cucumber

Throughout Kayah County

With a perfect sesame and sour pork dish

No more purple

Fruit variety

Rabbit enclosure with wire mesh

The little dove and the little pigeon

The fragrance of the Buddha

June is coming soon.

The only one who rides a watercraft is Tomyaing.

Half a cup of rice mixed with corn and beans

While drinking wine

Full black

A dish cooked by a young man

Mixed and sweet

Aoi Shwe Nam Kar Aung

Eat, turn, and you'll get a bomb.

      *      *      *

Unknown words

ស្រានក

Multi -purpose, versatile, all-round

diamond prongs

Male grown-up elephant

Jambu Soera ruler of Jambudipa or India

Divine Lord , His Majesty

If you defy me - if you defy me

Come to your end, die.

Yan Nyunt Phyo - crush the enemies

Pissah-          yes

ស្រានក

Enemy (enemy )

Shout, cry, threaten

Fall                    -                  fall down, scatter

Darkness in prison -                    founded the dynasty

Written by -                    War

                                        expedition, battle, war, service, duty

Avoid                              - evade, shirk from

Farming -                    work on a farm

Enjoying the forest -                    enjoy country life

Business outlook -                    Apparently good at business

                                               well-known for success in trade/business

Corn -                              maize, corn

Rice                              - rice (paddy rice)

Bean                              - pulses, beans

Can                                - gourd

Cucumber -                              cucumber

Across the city -                    all over: the district

                                                  (It wasn't a state yet at that time)

Wa-                              cotton

 Sesame -                    sesame

Sour pork-                    roselle

Floor-                    bed, patch of soil

Purple -                    eggplant, aubergine

Not excluded, not excepted

Variety of fruits -                              A variety of vegetables and herbs

                                                  vegetables in abundance

Set up snares for hares

Dove

Quail

Lowercase: sparrow

Putat- kind of ground lizard or angama

Smell sweet, be aromatic

June - land crab

Waterway - a flowing stream

Pleasant woods

Grapes - a type of fruit that is woven with a thread, a type of poppy

a kind of bamboo container, tray mje:cy

Spread out, laid out

Get out of the car next to you - Get out of the car next to you

so your sides will burst

Bomb -                              Bombay abundant, lavish

Branch -          We will translate these words, verse by verse, line by line. We will write them in English so that they are easy to read, have good idioms, and resemble poetry, so if we think they are more appropriate than the ones given, we will make adjustments and use them.

Poetry translation work camp

The Farmer

With an all-around fork with diamond prongs

the strength of five bull elephants

slave of the divine lord, ruler of Jambudipa

Come dare defy me and meet your end

Valiant-Icrush all hostilities

My great sword

nine viss in weight

I brandish it and all enemies run helter-skelter

From the days of Konbaung-Shwebo's

founding fathers until now

never shirking from duty, I've served - this man

Working on my farm I enjoy country life

business is brisk - corn, rice

a variety of pulses

gourd, cucumber

throughout Kaya district

cotton, sesame and all, beds of roselle

eggplants not excepted

vegetables in abundance

setting up nets, snares for the hare

doves, quails, little sparrows

ground lizards - what aroma

land crabs dazzling yellow

a delightful woodland with a stream flowing by

Corn and pulses mixed, rice added half

laid out in a bamboo tray

filled to the brim

dish prepared by a bachelor

all a mess but terribly yummy

till your sides burst, young lady

help yourself - we've got plenty

Hyou thu to U Min

Poetry translation work camp

2

In a paper presented by Maung Thano at the International Literary Conference in Iowa, USA, Burmese translations of poems are presented alongside the originals. This month, we present Aung Ba Nyo's poem "My Snows" and Saya Maung Thano's Burmese translation.

My snow

Once upon a time

In our town

Like this

The snow didn't turn brown, let alone fall.

On the pagodas

On temples

On TV antennas

On the treetops

Last

Above the platform

Hey, touch these shoelaces.

Snow.

The bells also sound.

It's freezing in the snow.

I still feel the snow.

Where am I?

Aung Ba Nyo ( 1994 )

My Mist

Never has it been.

thus hung thick and dull

over our town

over the pagodas

over the temples

 

over TV aerials

over the roofs of houses

over the tops of trees

and finally

on to the thongs of my flip-flops

on the pavement

there is fog

 

The sound of bells

get frozen in the mist

I am still enjoying the mist.

but

Where am I?

Aung Ba Nyo

(2005-Aug)

Poetry translation work camp

 

( 3 )

A life that is no longer human

Water purification

Change of clothes

I often go out.

 

Take a look.

This universe is

Enjoy watching.

It's very beautiful, isn't it?

Rain

Forest

Grassland

Fishing with lakes

The fish I caught is me.

I'm back in my room.

I have to become a human again.

I started hiding in the pool.

Sukhamin Hlaing

 

 

 

Blue Fish

 

Life that no longer looks human

takes a bath

dresses

and goes out for a walk

 

Just look.

this great universe

-which is passable enough

looks in point of fact quite beautiful

 

Rain clouds

woodland

grassland

pond - when fished with these

a fish a caught - it's me

 

You come back to your room and

lest you be reborn a human

You hide yourself in the tank.

Maung Tha Noe

(2005, Oct.)