Rewat Panpipat.
There’s a beautiful piece of prose in a Thai poem that reads: “Kavee rue lang laeng Siam” — (Siam never runs out of poets). Composed over 120 years ago by Prince Paramanuchit Chinoros, the verse is part of Samuta Koj Kam Chan, and it describes the golden age of Thai literary culture, in which poetry was ingrained as part of people’s speech. It was a time when rhyme and stanza were infused in normal dialogue. Men wrote poems, or sang them for courtship.
That was the past. Today poetry is no longer a popular form of literature, and poetry books are even rarer. “It is not because Thais are less poetic. Poetic licence is now found in our advertisement slogans, or lyrics in luk thung songs,” says Rewat Panpipat, 2004 SEA-Write Award poet. “But the modern generation no longer knows about our traditional heritage with poetry because our education system does not acknowledge its value.”
Rewat, who in 2014 was named a Silpathorn Artist by Ministry of Culture, is among a few poets who can still make a living selling his books. One of his short stories infused with poetry, It Looks Like Rain, was selected as one of the stories published in Heat, one of three books featured in the Southeast Asian Urban Anthology that was officially released at London Book Fair last month.
Amir Muhammad of Buku Fixi, the publishing house that puts out Heat, said that Rewar’s story was “chosen for literary quality, as well as for being an example among our submissions of how ties with rural origins are maintained or strained among city-goers”.
Rewat, however, is more interested in talking about the state of Thai poetry. The Thai education system, he said, was once known for cherishing traditional poems and Thai classical literature. Before 1978, students were required to recite poems in the morning and evening. “They helped cultivate literature and poetry appreciation in students’ characters. The new curriculum does not acknowledge the value of making kids recite poems in their daily life.”
Poets have therefore become an endangered artistic profession in Thailand. If it wasn’t for literary awards like SEA Write Award, the art form may be in even bigger trouble.
“Poetry is now a niche cultural product consumed among diehard fans. My books do not attract many readers. Most of my readers are long-time fans, and most of them live in the province and will place their order directly with the publishers,” says Rewat, who is now 49 years old.
To have his story published in Heat refers to the usual literary conundrum: can Thai traditional poems have the same aesthetic impact, melody, rhythm, and measure, once they have been translated into English? To appreciate Thai traditional poems, it seems, one needs a deep understanding on the sound of words and the wit of wordplay.
Rewat does not seem to be bothered by the lost-in-translation syndrome. “I would feel content if foreign and Western readers understand 70% of meanings.”
It Looks Like Rain, translated by Marcel Barang, is part short story and part poem — a unique device Rewat is famous for. The story depicts the scenes of bucolic rural landscape of Thailand — those trees, winds, rivers — where Rewat came from. He insists foreign readers can still understand and enjoy the sense of beauty in the description of landscape and understand the Thai way of life.
“There are no barriers for those who really want to understand the culture of others. People in developing nations have always tried to understand Western culture when they read translated books. I see no reason why people cannot understand the culture of Asian rural life if they really want to know. They will enjoy the beauty if they can suspend prejudices,” says Rewat, who grew up in a poor farming community in Suphan Buri province.
Rewat used to work as a sugar cane harvester and worker in a shoe factory before he started writing poetry. He won the prestigious SEA Write Award for his book Mae Nam Ram Luek (River Reminiscence) in 2014.
Pastoral and idyllic scenes are the signature of his work. His prose works like impressionist paintings that capture the reality of nature at each moment — streams, quivering leaves, the sense of locality and time. “I love the clarity of nature. The river, the voice reverberated in an earth jar. Trees and leaves. It’s just an escape, to get away from the harsh reality… poverty, drunken dad. Lucky, I found words as the tool to escape.”
Rewat does not have an urge to write about politics: “To me politics is a murky whirlpool that no one can see clearly or see the end.”
Nor does he try writing klon plao, or free verse, a modern genre of poetry that does away with the traditional rules of stanza and measures. Among a small group of Thai poets as well as readers, free verse has become increasingly popular, especially after Zakariya Amataya won the SEA Write Award for poetry with his book in 2007.
“Free verse is difficult to write. Your choice of words and meaning must be strong to carry on the verses. Traditional poems are easier to write because those melodic sounds entice readers to read aloud and listen to the end.”
What are you reading?
What book is on your bed side now?
Yarm Yied, a translated version of Alberto Moravia’s Contempt. The book puts a microscopic lens on marriage life. It is about love, lust, greed and exasperation, all those human foibles. It’s a work that can transcend race, border and language.
Which book can make you laugh or cry?
Wan Kuen An San Ngarm, the Thai translation of Granny, Iliko, Ilarion And I by the Soviet-Georgian writer, Nodar Dumbadze. Set in Georgia during a war, the book gives a wonderful and hilarious evocation of village life. All characters are idiosyncratic but their family bonds help them cope with life.
A poem that influences your work.
Those by Naowarat Pongpaibul. I first read his poems when I was in high school and I was inspired to write poems ever since. Also Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, especially his take on children: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you” — this should be basic reading for modern-day parents who overly pamper their kids as if they were angels.
Most favourite poet?
Soonthornpu, the Thai poet from the early Rattanakosin period. I love his folksy, layman words. His prose, however, can evoke scenes of the traditional way of life. His travelogue can bring you to scenes of life along the rivers.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.