Special post--just got permission for this, so posting straight away--
Lay Pan by ko ko thet--
posting with permission. He says--
'feel free to share ''air flower'' of course, ေလပန္း also means ''verbal diarrhea "'
In my opinion, ko ko thett is best poet writing in both Burmese and English and best literary translator for miles around.
See if you agree--
ေလပန္း
သင္းၾကိဳင္ ဝတ္မံႈ မာလာထံု နတ္ျပည္ေမႊး
ဇီဇဝါ ရဲ့ မပီကလာ ဇယားအက်ဥ္းေလး
ကန္႕ေကာ္ရဲ့ စိန္ပန္း ဖလန္းဖလန္းထေနသူ
ငု ရဲ့ပိေတာက္၊ ဆံေထာက္နဲ႕ စပယ္ျဖဴ
ပုန္းညက္ရဲ့ မမုန္းရက္တဲ့ ဆူးမဲ့ ႏွင္းဆီ
ေသာ္ကကို အေပၚက ခြ ထားတဲ့ အပူေဇာ္ခံ စြယ္ေတာ္
ရင္ခတ္ရဲ့ ရင္ဘတ္ေပၚက လိႈင္းလုံး ေဆးမွင္ေၾကာင္ၾကီးေတြ
သဇင္နဲ႕ ခြါညိဳ ကို ျပာသိုလို ထားပစ္ခဲ့သူ
ျမတ္ေလးထက္ ေလးျမတ္၊ မုေလးထက္ ေလးပင္
မခ်စ္ျပင္ျပင္ မၾကင္နာေလသူမို႕
ဂမုန္း ကို မုန္း ယင္းမာကို မာ အခ်စ္သစ္ရွာသူ
အင္ၾကင္းက ျပန္လြမ္းရတဲ့ သရဖီ
ထာဝရ အႏြမ္းမဲ့၊ အခန္းမဲ့ ခေရ
ကဗြီးသားနဲ႕ ထုထားတဲ့ ေရႊကႏုတ္ပန္း
ဘယ္ေနရာေရာက္ေရာက္ ပစ္တိုင္းေထာင္ ခ်ယ္ရီ
ေလထဲက ေရကို ယူယူေသာက္တတ္တဲ့ ကႏၱာရ ေဇာင္းၾကမ္း
မိုးေသာက္ခ်ိန္မွာေတာ့ ပဒုမၼာၾကာလို အျမဲ ရႊဲရႊဲစို
အခ်ိန္မေရြး၊ ရာသီမေရြး၊ ေနရာမေရြး
ပြင့္ခ်င္ရက္ လက္တို႕
--
KKt
ko ko thett
Monday, 30 March 2015
Saturday, 28 March 2015
Kyi May Kaung's review of Stephen Baxter's Behemoth--
Fantastic trip, backwards or is it forwards, and to another planet, written in lyrical, descriptive prose.
I have never read anything by Stephen Baxter before, and how I got to this was from trying to find out what it must have been like for the first humans to cross the Bering Land Bridge from Asia into the Americas. I expected no more than a rather insipid strained reconstruction of archaeological findings.
Instead, I was taken on a fabulous ride.
Everything Baxter writes here is perfectly credible and logical, and it is all presented from "inside the head" of a major mammoth character.
In the time line, it is a bit like A Canticle for Saint Leibowitz, in that the 3 novels are separated by aeons of time, yet all part of one Cycle, as the mammoths call it.
Baxter has created the mammoths own epic creation story, and it is told as the mammoths talk to each other, sometimes by stomping on the ground.
This novel creates so beautifully the meaning of the old adage "Elephants have long memories." Perhaps it is easier for me to suspend disbelief, as I grew up on elephant stories, such as from the Buddhist jataka, where the Buddha was once an elephant king. And in other incarnations, he was always surrounded by elephants and other animals.
I must say the mammoth characters are all superbly rounded, and much more believable than many homo sapiens sapiens characters written by some writers.
You can't help but root for Silverhair, Longtusk and Icebones, Silverhair's daughter.
The writing is very visual and descriptive, but you are never bored.
The landscape is part of the story, and details of landscape are given at the moment, for instance, that the mammoth characters encounter difficulties on their trek, such as glaciers, volcanoes, Blood Weeds and Breathing Trees.
And there are just not mammoths, but also mastadon(t)s, and differently evolved mammoths.
It is not just whimsical, and God-forbid, not cute at all, but very deep, and displays a deep sadness at what humans have done to the world and are still doing to it.
The humans are called The Lost, and Baxter has only one Neanderathal or Neandertal left.
The new humans he calls "Firehead", and in the second story, they grow more and more sinister and the politics and interpersonal relationships of Bedrock, Crocus, the Shaman and Longtusks become intricately interlinked.
There is a lot of conflict and violence.
Very little sex, as this was meant to be for a Young Adult audience.
He also knows a lot about elephants.
It gave me an idea to write--but I cannot talk about it here.
I am now a card-carrying Stephen Baxter fan-
Wow! I don't understand why it has not been made into a movie, but I hope it will not be Disneyfied. That would be almost as bad a disaster as the disasters portrayed in the three novels.
Copyright KMKaung
3-29-2015
I have never read anything by Stephen Baxter before, and how I got to this was from trying to find out what it must have been like for the first humans to cross the Bering Land Bridge from Asia into the Americas. I expected no more than a rather insipid strained reconstruction of archaeological findings.
Instead, I was taken on a fabulous ride.
Everything Baxter writes here is perfectly credible and logical, and it is all presented from "inside the head" of a major mammoth character.
In the time line, it is a bit like A Canticle for Saint Leibowitz, in that the 3 novels are separated by aeons of time, yet all part of one Cycle, as the mammoths call it.
Baxter has created the mammoths own epic creation story, and it is told as the mammoths talk to each other, sometimes by stomping on the ground.
This novel creates so beautifully the meaning of the old adage "Elephants have long memories." Perhaps it is easier for me to suspend disbelief, as I grew up on elephant stories, such as from the Buddhist jataka, where the Buddha was once an elephant king. And in other incarnations, he was always surrounded by elephants and other animals.
I must say the mammoth characters are all superbly rounded, and much more believable than many homo sapiens sapiens characters written by some writers.
You can't help but root for Silverhair, Longtusk and Icebones, Silverhair's daughter.
The writing is very visual and descriptive, but you are never bored.
The landscape is part of the story, and details of landscape are given at the moment, for instance, that the mammoth characters encounter difficulties on their trek, such as glaciers, volcanoes, Blood Weeds and Breathing Trees.
And there are just not mammoths, but also mastadon(t)s, and differently evolved mammoths.
It is not just whimsical, and God-forbid, not cute at all, but very deep, and displays a deep sadness at what humans have done to the world and are still doing to it.
The humans are called The Lost, and Baxter has only one Neanderathal or Neandertal left.
The new humans he calls "Firehead", and in the second story, they grow more and more sinister and the politics and interpersonal relationships of Bedrock, Crocus, the Shaman and Longtusks become intricately interlinked.
There is a lot of conflict and violence.
Very little sex, as this was meant to be for a Young Adult audience.
He also knows a lot about elephants.
It gave me an idea to write--but I cannot talk about it here.
I am now a card-carrying Stephen Baxter fan-
Wow! I don't understand why it has not been made into a movie, but I hope it will not be Disneyfied. That would be almost as bad a disaster as the disasters portrayed in the three novels.
Copyright KMKaung
3-29-2015
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Review by NNA of my novella The Rider of Crocodiles, by K.M. Kaung
By K.M.Kaung
This is my first time reading of this author K.M.Kaung novella even though it is not her first book of publication.
To my opinion, Ms Kaung’s novella “Rider of Crocodiles” is a kind of a bedtime Legendary story which is a factual fiction for all time. As a novella, it could not give very details in some parts as I expected, yet from the night scene of invasion force entering into the Ayuthia area from northwest, I felt empathy for the people’s tears and fear and unpleasant scene of war.
However, my curiosity was aroused to dig out more about the descendants of Saman, rider of crocodiles, if I get a chance to visit Central Myanmar after all. I recommend this book to the parents for those telling the legendary stories to their children and surely they will love it.
NNA
(English grammar not edited)
. The Rider of Crocodiles
Dr. Kaung was traveling in Thailand when a colleague told her his great great grandfather was not killed in Ayuthia in 1767 when the Burmese invaded, as he knew how to ride crocodiles.
https://www.createspace.com/4738699?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
print edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KZ6W8I6
Monday, 23 March 2015
Listen to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman
I cannot recommend highly enough--Democracy Now with Amy Goodman--only in depth radio TV interviews anywhere--
I do not know why vaunted Burmese have not been interviewed by her. She seems to be one of few journalists who really does her homework,
not some bumbling airhead.
KMKaung
3-23-2015
I do not know why vaunted Burmese have not been interviewed by her. She seems to be one of few journalists who really does her homework,
not some bumbling airhead.
KMKaung
3-23-2015
Friday, 13 March 2015
Glowing reviewby Mya Win of KMKaung's novella FGM--about Female Genital Mutilation
I just read your novella FGM and loved it. It said volume 2 so I was wondering if there volume 1 that I did not know about? (No, # refers to novellas)
In the Western world, I heard and read about this FGM, but never had I come across anyone who brought forth (fiction) about this, as it still happens in several countries. FGM is to point out the violation of women's human rights.
In my own experience while I was in Saudi Arabia for business two years ago (yes wearing a burka covering from head to toe) and hijab to cover my head. Security guard in the office, came to me and pointed me to the back of the room (in Arabic) and I realized that I did not belong in the front of the office. I needed to go to a special room where all the ladies hung out. I felt I was a second class citizen and was so fed up that I did not even go out to eat as 1) I had to put the whole costume each time, 2) I needed to be accompanied by a man (husband or relative) Luckily, my cab had dark windows, when the driver came to pick me up at the airport.
I felt the same way where men had privileges to act and do anything they wanted and got away with it in that culture. I experienced it myself.
Your book was intense, bold and very interesting - the reason I'd wanted to read it in the first place.
I liked the way you conveyed FGM through the eyes Dr. Aset as an educated professional. Ramesh' life was a series of convoluted relationships among his family members, including incest and I was not sure how it ended. Is there a sequel to this? (No, not now).
I know other readers will find this story as intriguing as I did.
Good job and keep on writing.
Review by Mya Win
In the Western world, I heard and read about this FGM, but never had I come across anyone who brought forth (fiction) about this, as it still happens in several countries. FGM is to point out the violation of women's human rights.
In my own experience while I was in Saudi Arabia for business two years ago (yes wearing a burka covering from head to toe) and hijab to cover my head. Security guard in the office, came to me and pointed me to the back of the room (in Arabic) and I realized that I did not belong in the front of the office. I needed to go to a special room where all the ladies hung out. I felt I was a second class citizen and was so fed up that I did not even go out to eat as 1) I had to put the whole costume each time, 2) I needed to be accompanied by a man (husband or relative) Luckily, my cab had dark windows, when the driver came to pick me up at the airport.
I felt the same way where men had privileges to act and do anything they wanted and got away with it in that culture. I experienced it myself.
Your book was intense, bold and very interesting - the reason I'd wanted to read it in the first place.
I liked the way you conveyed FGM through the eyes Dr. Aset as an educated professional. Ramesh' life was a series of convoluted relationships among his family members, including incest and I was not sure how it ended. Is there a sequel to this? (No, not now).
I know other readers will find this story as intriguing as I did.
Good job and keep on writing.
Review by Mya Win
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Sunday, 8 March 2015
A Review by Kauk Site Ma
of “Home is where? House Warming & My Potsdam”
by K.M. Kaung
It
so touched my heart when I read the Dedication—which says
To all far from home; and far from home without knowing it.
Reading
this story took me back to my days when
I worked for people who were displaced, parted from their families, who lost
their homes, left their places of origin, and are living in a host country,
which everyone knows is temporary.
Those
displaced people had a home that belonged to them, it does not matter how big
or small, how grand or not as Dr. Kaung says:
I always thought that I knew exactly where home was, but now in
America I am not so sure. In Burma I had a home. It wasn’t big. It wasn’t
grand, but it was mine.
The
people I worked with knew where their
homes were—but they cannot go back—for various reasons.
Another quote from Dr. Kaung:
My mother died and it made no sense returning when she was dead,
when I never went when she was alive.
Living
away from their homes made the refugees I worked with feel in limbo; seeming
neither here nor there, and their future must have seemed difficult and distant
to them.
Dr.
Kaung shows the darker side of moving abroad in her story.
She
shows and does not just tell.
*
I learned
from my own mother that she had to leave the place she had lived in with her
dear family and loved, because the house was bombed, during World War II.
They
were neglected and close and distant relatives ignored them.
I
am wondering, shall I take the advice my mother gave us , her children?
She
used to say “A home is not to be seen
as just a physical place. It is a place
of safety which you can take with you wherever you go, because as time passes
the physical home becomes more and more distant to you all and those hours you remember
are gone.”
My
mother taught us to keep in mind the
challenges and differences that will be waiting for us, there in the place which
we once we used to call “a home.”
Reviewed by
Kauk
Sike Ma
3-8-2015
Saturday, 7 March 2015
New reduced price for my story--FGM, about the mutilation of women--
New reduced price for my novella FGM--about the mutilation of women--an unusual piece of fiction about a shocking cultural practice--
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ3FUOE
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ3FUOE
Note to my story, Red Pigeon, coming soon--
Note to my short story, Red Pigeon, coming soon--
I wrote this after being obliged to keep this unusual dream in my head for 2 full days, as at the time I had a highly stressful job in international radio on M St. in Washington, DC. I even shared this story at work with my colleague, writer/artist/musician/former movie director, U Win Pe, and he said, “Why Sayama (Teacher), this dream is a complete short story already.” So I wrote it down when my off days came around. The night I had this dream, I was walking along M Street after work, when I saw a group of about 4 or 5 office workers, staring over the 3 foot fence, at something on the grass. It turned out to be an ordinary grey pigeon, with its beak canted over on the lawn, obviously dying. I watched a while, then went on to the Metro or subway station at Dupont Circle. I did not know how to provide first aid to a dying bird.
KMKaung
3-7-2015
I wrote this after being obliged to keep this unusual dream in my head for 2 full days, as at the time I had a highly stressful job in international radio on M St. in Washington, DC. I even shared this story at work with my colleague, writer/artist/musician/former movie director, U Win Pe, and he said, “Why Sayama (Teacher), this dream is a complete short story already.” So I wrote it down when my off days came around. The night I had this dream, I was walking along M Street after work, when I saw a group of about 4 or 5 office workers, staring over the 3 foot fence, at something on the grass. It turned out to be an ordinary grey pigeon, with its beak canted over on the lawn, obviously dying. I watched a while, then went on to the Metro or subway station at Dupont Circle. I did not know how to provide first aid to a dying bird.
KMKaung
3-7-2015
Friday, 6 March 2015
Excerpt from my novella My Potsdam--out soon on Amazon--
Excerpt from My Potsdam, out soon on Amazon--
"I began seeing Hiroshi on a regular basis.
I found he had an obsession with The Wall and had walked its whole length a year before it fell, taking photographs of the guards and the guard towers."
Copyright KMKaung
3-6-2015
"I began seeing Hiroshi on a regular basis.
I found he had an obsession with The Wall and had walked its whole length a year before it fell, taking photographs of the guards and the guard towers."
Copyright KMKaung
3-6-2015
New Kindle prices for my stories--
New Kindle prices for my short stories and novellas--
Black Rice
FGM
The Lovers--and
Dancing like a Peacock
will now be $4.99 each, from $9.99
No Crib for a Bed--(3 stories) will be $9.99
Band of Flesh (2 stories) will be $9.99
and so will Rider of Crocodiles.
The first 4 prices will be in effect in 12-24 hours, says Amazon.
I truly think if you missed my stories, you will have missed many good stories, which you cannot find anywhere else.
KMKaung
3-6-2015
www.kmka
DC Night--copyright KMKaung
Black Rice
FGM
The Lovers--and
Dancing like a Peacock
will now be $4.99 each, from $9.99
No Crib for a Bed--(3 stories) will be $9.99
Band of Flesh (2 stories) will be $9.99
and so will Rider of Crocodiles.
The first 4 prices will be in effect in 12-24 hours, says Amazon.
I truly think if you missed my stories, you will have missed many good stories, which you cannot find anywhere else.
KMKaung
3-6-2015
www.kmka
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