Poem of the week: Maung Yu Py – ‘Under the Great Ice Sheet’

Published on 20/10/2012 00:00

After decades of military rule, Burma appears to be moving slowly towards a greater degree of democracy.

With restrictions placed on reporting, it was Burma’s poets who recorded life under the junta, albeit in frequently ingenious ways to evade censorship. Maung Yu Py’s ‘Under the Great Ice Sheet’ is one of the poems in Bones Will Crow (Arc, £12.99), a new anthology showcasing the best living Burmese poets. The Scottish Poetry Library hosts a reading by three of the poets anthologised – Thitsar Ni, Eaindra and ko ko thett – on 26 October at 6:30pm (free).

Under the great ice sheet

A great country has been buried alive.

Under the great country

A great church where God no longer shelters.

Under the great church

Great wars, welded together six feet under.

Under the great wars

A great museum of culture, dilapidated and yellowing.

Under the great museum

Banknotes without currency.

Under the banknotes

Slaves with protruding bones and sunken eyes.

Under the slavery

A Stone Age cave sealed by stones.

Under the Stone Age

Regressive evolution.

Under the evolution

The ocean – the mother of Mother Earth – who died in labour.

Under the ocean

A great ice sheet, unanticipated.

Under the great ice sheet…

You can borrow Bones Will Crow from the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT. Tel: [phone], e-mail [e-mail] or see www.spl.org.uk for details.