Book
O! Maha Mount Dangrek
O! Maha Mount Dangrek is a 2010 Khmer and English book of two long narrative poems by Ly Van, a Buddhist monk in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1][2] Its full title adds Poetry of Cambodian Refugee Experiences, and it is named for the mountain that many Cambodians crossed to reach Thailand and the refugee camps.[1][2]
About the poems
The Venerable Ly Van Aggadipo (1917 to 2008) was a monk at Wat Glory in Lowell.[2][1] Both poems date from the years before he entered the monkhood in the early 1980s. At 90 he set them down in careful Khmer calligraphy, and their depth surprised even those at the Wat who knew him well.[1]
The first poem, "The Khmer Rouge Regime: A Personal Nightmare", is written in a rare meter of 11 syllables. The second, "The Unfortunate Love of Sophoan Chea", is a tragic love story set in the same years and uses the more common seven-syllable meter.[1] George Chigas, who teaches cultural studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, judged the poems an important addition to the writing of survivors. He and the translator compared the second poem with Tum Teav, the classic Cambodian tale of tragic love, which was also written by a monk.[1]
Publication
Samkhann C. Khoeun, an educator and community activist in Lowell who also lived through the Khmer Rouge years, translated the poems with the help of volunteers over two years and called the work a labor of love.[1] He also edited and published the book, with Elaine McKinnon and George Chigas as English editors. Cambodian Expressions and the Glory Buddhist Temple published it in Lowell in 2010, in 176 illustrated pages.[2]
The book prints the Khmer and English texts side by side, with photographs from the Khmer Rouge years and the refugee camps and a glossary. Khoeun also recorded the poems in Khmer on a compact disc.[1] He said he hoped the book would help people who still suffer from the war to heal.[1]
In 2010 Khoeun and two Cambodian student artists toured the United States reading from the poems. They read in New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, Maryland, Minnesota and Northern California, and in April came to Long Beach, California, for readings at Wat Vipassanaram and the Mark Twain Library.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Greg Mellen, Buddhist monk's poetry explores the Killing Fields (April 24, 2010), reprinted by the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Library of Congress catalog record, O! maha Mount Dangrek: poetry of Cambodian refugee experiences (catalog record, undated)