Say "No" poem -- "Cross (it out) poem"

Language for a New Century: The Poetry of the Middle East, Asia and Beyond -- contains dissident poetry and two poems from Burma.


Fighting Peacock -- Image copyright Myint Myint San

Cross (it out) Poem.

By Yan Naing Htun, Liberated Areas, Korea.

Translation copyright Kyi May Kaung.

Cross it out!

Cut the roots

of the authoritarian government.

Kill

military rule.

Our countrymen and women

remember this always

on your voting card --

Cross it out!

Say NO[1] or else

There’ll be no more of us

As a race.[2]

---

[1] “Noh” in Burmese also stands for “Noh kyar tè” or being alert.

[2] Will read this at Rubin Museum in New York on 4-25-08 – for book launch of Language for a New Century, An Anthology of Poetry of the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, April 2008.