On the mic at the Open Stage, literary works reading event at Java Cafe hosted by Dr.
Bryan Humphrey from Australia and sponsored by Java Cafe owner
Dana
Langlois, I read three poems -- two Khmer ones titled "Palm Tree and
Juice" and "Sorrowful Death of a Circus Elephant" and another one is the
English-language version of the latter, inspired by watching a video of
the story on YouTube on August 19, 2014:
"Bam, bam, bam! ... , bam, bam, bam!" Eighty-six times,
The gunshot bullets hit her four score times,
Today, twenty years back in a town street,
Tyke tragically succumbed on her feet.
The circus pachyderm was closely chased,
From within the hall she had raced,
Against the time trying to save her life,
After years of abuse and a "l-o-n-g" strife.
There inside, she had attacked her mahout,
And his mate for a cause we do not know
Then fled the scene in panic, crying out.
'Twas a horrific event of sorrow.
The bullets hit her in the legs, trunk and head,
Blood was pitifully seen shed out -- red,
Her blinking eyes were in tears -- no comment.
As if to say her death was imminent.
Her wails sounded like saying "O-u-c-h, A-d-i-e-u !"
To her beloved dad, mum and people who,
Love freedom, peace and also equal rights,
And therefore to stop igniting the fights.
"Adieu, the circus in Honolulu,"
"Adieu, all my beloved," she sobbed, "/hu:, hu:/!"
"I can't live on in such a world so cruel,
"As the cruelty is so blunt as usual !"
And as though in her last breaths that she wished,
Not in a tragic end that so finished.
If she had had wings she would then have flown,
Thus, escaping death to live on her own.
Why shouldn't they have used the tranquilizer,
Instead of the live bullets and anger?
God makes them to be humans' mates since birth,
They're so mild the animals on the Earth.
(I think her decades-long life in captivity and depression might have
been the cause of her violent reaction that caused panic to the
audience.)
Dr.
Theresa de
Langis, one of the two feature readers read her three short compiled
oral history of Cambodia's human rights issues during the Khmer Rouge
regime. Chin Meas, another feature reader read his Khmer poems whereas
others such as Dr. Bryan Humphrey, the host read a work of his from his
book, Miss Chann Ryna, Chheangly Yeng read their own story and poems,
"Child Slaughter" and "Buffalo" ... respectively. Kimheng was the
interpreter helping the host.
The other two writers of the Writers Workshop group John Christopher Brown from the United States and
Jehangir Mehentee
from the UK -- not like in the previous events where they read their
own works -- this time just sat idle watching and listening to the
event. A Frenchman Antoine Touch teaching English at Panhnhasastra
University didn't get prepared to read this time, another Australian
writer
Carly Beth Nugent who used to host the reading was still on vacation in her home country Australia and not yet back in Phnom Penh.
While I was reading the poems, especially the English-language version
of the tragic death -- by an 86 rounds of live bullets -- of a circus
pachyderm Tyke twenty years back today on a street of Honolulu, Hawaii, I
noticed some people, particularly a young woman was moved as tears seen
in her eyes: Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, 86 times, She was shot with live
bullets many times. Dr. Theresa pleasantly gave me a thumb-up of her
satisfaction to my reading. Regret that a young Khmer talented writer
Hang Achariya wasn't available as hoped. Oh, I've nearly missed to say something. Another person Luke
Young, an American writer and member of the Writers Workshop group couldn't be seen at the reading tonight.
Thank Dr. Bryan for recounting to the audience my ability to write
poems in three languages -- English, Khmer and French. This kind man is
always helpful and in his usually soft voice says to me, "my good
friend" several times every time we meet whether at such an event or the
bimonthly workshop of writers of which I am the only Khmer member.
Thank everyone present there and those who've read and are reading this
item.
The kind of great event ended at around 8:40 and I got home
at exactly 9 by a car of my cousin Kim Sok who was back from studying
for his Master Degree's at Jiaotong International University in Beijing
recently.
