Two Poems

Abstract

Abstract:Chey Chap is one of the most respected living poets in Cambodia. A master of formal poetic forms, he taught Khmer rhetoric, writing, and poetry at the University of Phnom Penh for many years and held positions in the Ministry of Education. His verses are distinguished by their sonorous rhymes, alliteration, and clever word play, giving his work a formal beauty in Khmer that is impossible to capture in translation. He composed most of his poems in the 1980s and 1990s; the two poems translated here were composed in 1985 and 1986, respectively, and first published in his influential 1994 collection, O Khmer Land. In "Don't Fight the Wind," the Khmer word phlieng (rain) echoes phleng (music). cm/sm