Editor's Note
As these disarming poems gently and firmly report, we exist alongside other forms of life that consider planet earth as home. Specifically, I am referring to a gardenia, a representative fish, and an individual snail. The fish knows something we do not. And what is the purpose of life, according to a snail? Let them be our teachers. This feature is a tribute to the late Mandalay poet Khin Zaw Myint (b.1970) who passed away in his hometown on 10th October, 2024, and these poems are from “21 Poems” translated by Ko Ko Thett.
— Mani Rao
The Bombay Literary Magazine
Translator's Note
Burmese stanzas usually do not carry over to good effect in English, so I reshaped the Burmese poem in English. In the poem “Gardenia..”, the last line, literally translated, reads “gardenias may shed leaves, but they write immortal poetry.” The Burmese words for world, gardenia and verse rhyme. It was a happy coincidence that I was able to respond to those rhymes in the translation. For the poem “Fish”, I turned my translation into five couplets, each making a distinct statement. This one is a straightforward translation, except for how I reinterpreted “shouldering water” to mean “shouldering the whole ocean”.
— Ko Ko Thett
Gardenia & the world
Where else would I live
If not on this planet?
I’ve come to this age
My hair’s turned this grey
These tears, that warm.
After the pitch-black ravens,
more pitch-black ravens.
There are gardenias in this world too.
Their versification—
deciduous, perennial & immortal.
Fish
What life would I live,
If not this life?
We don’t move.
Our immobility is our movement.
In hustle & bustle,
Our movement is our flight.
Even when I go easy on life
I ain’t getting any lighter.
Tell you what,
It is just a single petal that shoulders the whole ocean
Snail
Day in day out
Like a tide I rise
Like a tide I fall.
If I succeed
I will do a somersault on the beach.
If I fail
Coconuts are to blame.
I tread on earth
Just to massage the planet
Acknowledgments
Image credits: Based on Henri Matisse. The Snail, 1953. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted on paper mounted on canvas, 286 x 287 cm. Courtesy Tate Britain. Source: henrimatisse.org
Snails are moving houses that reproduce, despite every discouragement to both activities. Matisse’s cut-paper artwork The Snail is a classic among classics, but it neither moves nor reproduces. The Maestro, clearly, obviously, had never encountered a snail in his life. We decided to add multiplicity and translation to the mix. Wait– did we just say, translation? So here you go then, a translated snail to go with a translated poem involving snails, flowers and fish.
Author | KHIN ZHAW MYINT
KHIN ZAW MYINT was born in Mandalay, Myanmar, in 1970. Like many other Burmese poets in the 1990s he wrote for samizdat publications throughout the decade. Most of his poems were published in collections that also featured other Mandalay poets of his generation. Noted for short and quirky verses as well as a laconic, simple and solitary life the poet’s only solo collection remains 21 Poems by Khin Zaw Myint [translated by ko ko thett, The Eras Books, Yangon, 2019]. After a long battle with throat cancer, a condition he got from his passion for cheroots, Khin Zaw Myint passed away in 2024, leaving about 100 poems.
Translator | KO KO THETT (ကိုကိုသက်)
KO KO THETT is a poet and poetry translator. He has published and edited twelve poetry collections and translations in both Burmese, his heart language, and English. His poems are widely published and translated. His translation work has been recognised with an English PEN Translates Award. He lives between Iowa City, US, and Norwich, UK.