(Translation of San Kyaw Zwar Win’s poem “Pyan-ma-lar-nel-Ngarh-kaung”.)
Too many ruthless men want to be king in this
fucking country but also too many lawless characters in this fucking country,
Too many overhead power cables in this fucking
country but too many blackouts in this fucking country,
Just too little electricity in this fucking country
but the power bills are too much in this fucking country,
I was nearly killed too many times in this dangerous country, and thus I want to tell you this, Don’t come back my boy,
You could be occasionally homesick remembering
Shwedagon, Bagan, Innlay, Monywar, and Harlawar snacks back here, but don’t come
back my boy,
Too many unclaimed corpses on the streets and too many unsolved crimes and too many orphaned children,
Too many demon-possessed people and too many child beggars at traffic-lights in this fucking country,
This fucking country spends billions of dollars buying warplanes and bombing her own people but no money to rescue megaquake-trapped people and retrieve thousands and thousands of stinky corpses rotting under tons and tons of rubbles,
This fucking country wants to build accident-prone Russian nuclear reactors on the megaquake-riddled fault line so that we can drive stupid EVs on the below-standard Expressways and get killed,
This fucking country sells natural gas and electricity to China and buys China-made batteries and inverters back from China,
In near future we will have to buy Sandalwood-paste (Tha-hna-khar) back from Thailand as Thai Songkran (Water Festival) is now on the UNESCO’s Heritage List, but not our Thingyan,
This fucking country is so shameless we should
reverse the water flows in the River Irrawaddy and River Salween if that were possible,
This fucking country is like a Tuna Fish being peeled
off by the layer after layer slowly and being eaten alive by the neighbouring countries,
So instead of coming back to this fucking hell, stay overseas and work like a bee and save like a termite to support your poor family back home, Don’t come back my boy,
They will force you into their Evil-Army to kill your own people or even get yourself killed by your own people, Don’t come back my boy,
This fucking country is a hellish land where
whatever-fire you build will not give you warmth and whatever-flowers you plant
will not bear fragrant flowers,
This blood-soaked cursed-land has been ruled since 1962 by the Satan (in the human forms of Ne-Win, Sein-Lwin, Saw-Maung, Than-Shwe, and now Min-Aung-Hlaing the Motherfucker) who
hides this fucking country from the Lord our God,
So my boy, please do not come back.
