CENTENARY OF ‘WATER HYACINTH’ (mentor)
As the full moon
And the hot sun
Are there to illumine
The life of humans
So for the Burmese
And their poetry
Zaw Gyi, Min Thu Wun
were moon and sun.
As life is bound
To its painful round
We all must jump
Over the myrtle stump
And scale the plinth
Of the water hyacinth.
By these two lights
We’ll wage our fight.
(‘Great Myrtle Stump’ and ‘Water Hyacinth’
are classic Burmese poems by Min Thu Wun
and Zaw Gyi respectively).
Translated by Niall McDevitt and Myint Swe
