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BOUNDLESS LOVE
Were I to write a thesis on
My boundless love for you, my dear,
With such a lot to write and write,
It wouldn’t end, I fear.
I’ll have to fill the seas with ink,
While Meru’s Mount shall be the brush,
But with the sky to serve as scroll,
There won’t be space enough.
Note: Meru is the mythical mountain of Buddhist
Lore. Like Olympus, it is the abode of gods.
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MAY I TOUCH YOUR ROSE?
They’ve gone and dug a wide canal
North of Shway-bo town,
In despair, with muted flute
I sit and sulk at fortune’s frown,
I fear to cross the stream, my love,
There’s the risk that I may drown.
But I shall dare, if with your rose,
My effort, you will crown.
Note: Shway-bo, originally a large village,
suddenly became the capital of the Third Burmese
Empire under King Alaungpaya in 1752. The song
marks the digging of a net-work of canals in the
vicinity, after it had become the capital. The
Burmese peasant carries a small flute, which he
plays in his moments of leisure.
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AT SUN-SET
When from the fields, we come back home,
The sun will sink and dusk will fall,
And eerie are the tinted clouds,
Nervous are the maidens all.
That’s the hour I dread and fear.
So bring a lamp and meet me, dear.
NOTE: In Burma ploughing, irrigating, and
draining of paddy fields are done by men, but
the transplanting of young paddy plants is done
by girls.
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THE OXEN TWAIN
I can hear the cow-bells ring,
Ting and tong and tong and ting.
With ploughing done, my lover cuts
Bamboos on the distant hill,
His oxen twain, he lets them loose
To browse and eat their fill.
When he and I are wedded, then,
The fattened twain will play their part.
With jingling bells around their necks,
They will pull our dainty cart.
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TWELVE TEAK TREES
A dozen saplings, all of teak,
Proudly grow beside your home.
Tend them, sweetheart, lest they die,
I pray, you wouldn’t grouse.
What can I tell? They well may form
The main posts of an abbey fine.
If fate is kind, the donors’ names
Jointly can be yours and mine.
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FOR MY LADY’S HAIR
I climbed the mountains over there,
And plucked a flower sweet and rare,
The hue is gold which glitters bold,
With stalk as green as em`rald sheen.
It will grace my lady’s hair.
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WITH LOVE
I asked my love to fetch me food
From the abbey on the hill
What he brought was water, though,
Of which I had my fill.
The water that my lover brought
With all his love aflow,
Was so cool and nectar-like,
For love had made is so.
NOTE: the young man and the young woman had
eloped, and weary and hungry with traveling,
they sought some food from the abbey on the
hill, but as no food was left, the monks could
give them only water.
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SUPPLICATION
Coming to your village dear,
My wobbly knees display my fear.
Since I’ve not been here before,
I am nervous all the more.
Sweetest, may I humbly pray
Will you help and let me stay?
In your hands you hold my fate,
May I humbly supplicate?
Hold my hands as well, my dear,
That indeed will calm my fear.
NOTE: A stranger from another village has come
to woo a maiden, and he is afraid lest the young
men of her village should attack and drive him
away.
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@1970 Maung Htin Aung
The author received the M.A. and LL.B degrees
from Queens' College, Cambridge and was called
to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn. He was one of
the framers of the Burmese Constitution of 1948,
and later served his country as ambassador
successively to the Nationalist Republic of
China, the People's Republic of China and the
United Nations. He was the Chief Justice of
Supreme Court from 1956-1962.
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