Cambodia's Lament: A Selection of Cambodian Writing

by George Chigas (Editor)

English

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Emma]

I bought this book second-hand, quite happy with finding something so left-field. I've interested myself in the communication of trauma, especially through visual art, poetry, and fiction. However, this collection of poetry was not what I expected. Translated poetry is extremely hard to assess, hence why I'm refraining from giving this a rating, and I believe it is the gap between languages that caused the poems to fall flat. The explanation on versification in Cambodian poetry at the beginning of the book outlines the complicated structure of traditional Cambodian poetry to which the composers have conformed. Knowing this, I can see why it is almost impossible to translate into English the lyrical beauty of these poems.

I don't know if I found these poems so raw and bare because of what was lost in translation or whether it was due to the temporal proximity to political events (this book having been published in 1991.). Perhaps as I am too young to have witnessed the reign and fall of the KR, I have little appreciation for the immediacy and intensity of the emotion expressed by the poets. Together, 1991 and the writers' "unrelenting need to bear witness on behalf of those who died and so act as a vital link between the dead, the survivors, and the world," explains the urgent desire to translate these poems into English, regardless of what is lost in between.

I do not know how much of the West's attention was given to Cambodia's trauma. The existence of the book, the small selection of poetry, and the even smaller publisher, would suggest not much at all. Thus I suspect this book was a shout for recognition needed for Cambodians in the 90s. How I am meant to treat such poetry today, I am not sure.