"Rangoon," by Moe Way
On our recent podcast, “A History of Violence,” we were treated to the poem “Rangoon” by Moe Way. This appeared prior to the interview with Lynn. Following is an English translation of his poem.
I hear the bells and, all is well.
It’s 1 AM or 2 AM. I can’t sleep.
In Rangoon, whenever an old house is
razed, I walk into one street, and
yet another.
How curvy, and convoluted!
I still hear the bells, and all is well.
Everything will be renewed someday, probably.
How will the dim lampposts,
the fragrant dreams beneath the concrete sidewalks,
and our hearts be reinvented?
Just like the same news stories
reiterated in our different dailies,
lovers, o… love, I repeat.
Rangoon scuffles out of my hands
which way will you flow like a river?
Senile road signs and heaps of
broken bricks flash in the background.
Our past and our shadows have been sensational news.
On the glass walls of the banks and the malls,
I see the fleeting reflections of
Pazuntaung evenings, 42nd street, Myaynigone night bazaar …
in the beams of the passing cars.
Yes, I can’t sleep. And, Rangoon can’t sleep.
When the whole city is asleep
I spray-paint the walls of the new buildings.
I am back in Rangoon.
Rangoon is just like me.
On Poetry International Archives, translator Ko Ko Thet shares about the biography of the poem, as well as the meaning of the verse:
Moe Way was born in a hamlet in the Irrawaddy delta and moved to Rangoon at an early age. Life in the city must have enthralled the poet. Most of his best-loved poems are coloured by the place. In 'Rangoon', written in 2013, Moe Way sees the city transitioning into Yangon. Still awake at wee hours, the poet hears night watchmen ringing the bells at every hour to reassure him "All is well."
The poet is less than reassured. Everything around him is in flux. Old redbrick buildings are gone. In their place, glassy shopping malls and banks have sprung up. The paradox of Yangon is that while it is attracting millions of immigrants from rural Myanmar on the lower end and thousands of foreign businessmen on the upper end in transitional Myanmar, it has lost its status as the capital city.
Still 'Rangoon' is not just about Yangon. Given that Yangon probably has become one of those developing-world cities that will remain in a perpetual transition, the poet asks one of the most daunting questions artists are often faced with, "How will you reinvent yourself?"
Moe Way runs The Eras, a leading Burmese poetry press based in Rangoon, and is rightly regarded as a lynchpin in Burmese literary circles. With Zeyar Lynn and Way Khaun, he edits and publishes Kabya Lokka, an annual poetry journal, in addition to occasional poetry anthologies every year. Due to his vantage position as a poet-publisher he has had a major impact on developing postmodern poetic forms into the Burmese language. "The postmodern condition is not just Western, what's happening here is also post-modern", the poet says.