Wednesday, February 01, 2006

How long will I survive!


How long will I survive!

We, human beings are born on earth, under the same sky, under the same sunlight and moonbeam,
Why do we have different destinies! Children of the poor have no money to buy books and go to school,
Children of the rich go to study abroad. Those with dollars are winners and those with empty stomachs are
losers. Court clerks and judges swindle. Where is Justice!

Anarchic society with dictatorship, injustice, market dwellers, gambling, nepotism and gangsters,
No respect for law, fighting, killing each other, causing misery and suffering.
How long will I survive!


Dirty society, bribery and dollars rule; cheating people out of property, people cry out. The bad ones enjoy
beautiful villas while powerful figures sit down, cross legged and relaxed! No compassion,
no sentiment, farmers with no land, peasants with no crops like off-season flowers.
While peasants? hands are picking fish paste , powerful figures gamble big hands in casinos.
How long will I survive!


Society of AIDS, untrue love, kidnapping, rape, gross injustice,
The poor with rotten smell and look of burning corpse, covered with wounds and skin diseases
Starve under the market roofs made of leaves,
Of tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, leprosy, AIDS, they die miserably.
Nothing left, prostitution spreads all over the country.
How long will I survive!

Society of drug, opium, LSD, Amphetamines, Ecstasy, Nicotine, Narcotic,
Alcohol, cigarette, glue sniffing, Heroine, Morphine, Marijuana,
Running after dollars, dealing with mafia.
Of drugs, society painfully hurts.
How long will I survive!

Society with no religion, monks and wise men isolated and lonely;
Bad things rule, gambling, alcohol, swindling, killing, lying, cheating without thinking;
Betray religion, destroy temples, beat up wise men, and kick monks,
Monkey-like mentality but more fiercer than a tiger, they destroy Buddhism.
How long will I survive!


Society of slavery, the rich oppress the poor without mercy. Factory supervisors beat up and kick
employees like dogs Under the owner?s influence, authorities squeeze the throat of the poor. Till tongues stick
out, exploit them, break them into pieces as a vultures do. For dollars they sell state property, mountains,
sky, land, gardens, Government buildings, statues, Angkor Wat's artifacts, ocean, rivers, lakes, ponds,
They sell fish, forests, markets, Olympic stadium, school buildings, nation and religion. They sell
everything including themselves without thinking of the children's future.
How long will I survive!

Poem by: Mam Sonando

Translation by: Ieng Mala
Edited by: Susan Bopha & Sophal Ear

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Awesomely beautiful and sadm, yet very true to the core. This is how the Khmer society these days; there exist all kind problems throughout the society. The problems are derived from the governmental instition. The government fails to rectify to the problems because the governmental itself is creator of these problems. It is corrupted hierarchically from top governmental officials down to the small ones.