A bonus episode of Pandora, one of Burma's most celebrated poets, reciting her poem from "Khru Pyit [Anti-Snail] Launcher." This poetry anthology, Pandora's first, won the Myanmar National Literature Award in 2019.

Cannot escape from this point for a while yet

We enjoy traffic jams

Our daily life is our school lesson

Have a bathe and wash your clothes while it rains

Blow out and save your candles while the moon shines

Do business while waiting for the green light

We have all sorts of news in our arms

Eleven, Voice, Modern, Myanmar Times

What happened in Letpadaung Hill

What will happen to the mobile internet rate

Murder cases during the month

Hooligans wreaking havoc in downtown

The more horrible the news is, the more sensational it is, isn’ it Or to hang in your new big car

Here's sabe, zun, ngwe, shwe flowers

Still fresh though dipped in the water since last night

By the way thazin track is also damn fresh

Part 1, 2 and 3 are on hand if you'd like

What! thazin track is no flower

Let it be if you have no idea

Then what's your line, politics or economics

Then here's the draft Telecommunications Law

Or the Constitution is also available

Still on sale though printed long ago

Yet I don’t know whether it is still in good shape

The Foreign Investment Law is just released

Obtainable in Burmese and in English

We've got Burma maps and Yangon maps too

You can get lost even in your own regions and streets

And a roadmap will still be handy

Until it is replaced with a new one

Will you buy at least something, brother

You cannot escape from this traffic point for a while yet

At least, a Daw Suu Calendar

Or a fighting peacock flag

Just a souvenir

Pandora

10 Dec 2012

(Translated from the Burmese by the author, edited by Mg Tha Noe)

DVB Reads (Podcast) is available on-demand to stream or download on listening apps: SoundCloud, Anchor FM, TuneIn Radio, Amazon Music, Audible, Stitcher, Spotify, Apple & Google Podcasts.