At the mudflat’s margin of murky blue
the hyacinth* moves up with the waves
and with the waves descends.
Descent is not without travail.
A coconut frond comes floating with the tide.
Descent and drift. The coconut frond
Hits the hyacinth girl in the side.
Though hit in the side she finds no rest.
In a moment a wave has smothered her.
She goes under and does not rise.
Then a wave surges and the hyacinth girl
Comes up about a yard away.
Coming up does not bring respite.
Ducks emerge from a branch of the creek.
A hundred ducks and a lone hyacinth.
She is jostled and kicked but
Holds her lips tight
and keeps wearing her flower.
1960
*Water-hyacinth called BEDA in Burmese, that grows in the deltaic stream floating up and down with the ebb and flow of the tide.ed.
Translated By Win Pe(modern Burmese Poetry)
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