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Nauwarat Pongpaibun
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White Squirrel
From tree-top to tree-top, far away
Hesitantly scurrying high up and low down.
These are the ways and paths you follow
This is reality as you know it.
Who caught you, put you in a cage?
The straight paths which were yours in freedom
are nowadays designed by coercion.
They have been restrained to a circuit in the cage.
Your far ways have been reduced to small circles,
your long ways have been shortened.
And there you run all day
turning, twisting quickly round by round.
What is it that you look for, little squirrel?
Exploring the paths, trails and cavities?
Or are you a well-known actor
admired for turning in circles in a cage?
These are not the long tree top ways;
Just turning around is not a long journey;
Turning round about is not the Middle Path.
What do you long for, what else to do?
Have you found out yet, little squirrel?
The ways you want to follow
The long paths you have lost?
Who caught you and put you in a cage?
21 September, 2518 (1975)
Brutal Pleasure
Touched by the blue of the sky my dream is coloured.
I surround the edge of my heart which is the basis.
Shining white rays of the moon illuminate the world,
flatter and caress the fertile soil the long rays of heaven.
Pray, the redness of the shining sun,
by which the dazzling rays are clearly dabbed.
Colour of the flesh of deer in a fine web
delicately interwoven in cloth which covers the skin.
The echo of singing birds borne in a waft of air.
Twittering and whispering many a song at intervals
Glistening violet hues of blossom-clusters
evoke admiration the lively colour
Bright orange alternates with white colour.
Bringer of gladness, the eyes of young women to be deeply adorned.
Glittering gems fall like scales flashing many facets.
Love is a drop, the rays of stars as decoration.
Colours are silent, repress language. Every detail of art is precise.
Rock and forest pretend there being only deficiency
Greenness kills cruelly, destroys.
The colours of the night swallow the world.
The Universe is annihilated, deserted right to its end.
Nauwarat Pongpaibun
Tr: Klaus Wenk
Nauwarat Pongpaibun , born 1940 in Bangkok, Thailands most famous poet, has published an extensive work. He has been awarded the most prestigious SEA-Write-Prize. A large number of his poems have elements of nature, however, also social matters inspire Pongpaiboon, including the numerous and sometimes bloody coups d'état by the Thai military, oppressing the people.
© by the author. Publication authorized by the poet
