Nyane Thit – The Ghost

– Last night,

A tea cup was snatched from one of them

That you were found starving and hungry

Said you to our comrades

We too were also hungry and starved

 

– Had you ever prayed or meditate?

Had you ever met with your children?

Had you ever done chores for your mother?

Had you ever freed yourself?

And still you stayed with us

To protect and to serve?

 

– May you rest in peace

You had suffered too much

You had prayed and you had stood

To free the prisoners but

You became a prisoner of conscious yourself

You had been abused

You had been chained

While protecting the underage prisoners around us

Then you were beaten to death

 

This was rule less

The was law less

Even in Abu Ghraib

Seven of the torturers were prosecuted

Here, there 23 of them

Never being found guilty

We were that weak and feverish

That the sparrow was chased

Nobody dared to scare the crow away

 

Here, my ghost

You never bowed

You never withdrew

You were the one

Who switched from the enemy

To sided with us

Here, my ghost

On the wall of the prison

You were deserved to be curved your own greatness

Like the shining stars on the sky

There stretched your blood scatter

 

Here, my ghost

You will not be the one to witness such

 

But

We would be home soon

Were you still be left behind

 

(The poem was written in Mawlamyine Prison. In memory of one political prisoner, former military man who sided with democracy movement but later tortured to death in prison)
Translated by Maung Yit

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