HYACINTH'S WAY BY ZAWGYI

Hyacinth's Way (10)

STILL WEARING THE FLOWER

At the foot of the mudflats, bluish brown
Riding the waves and tossed around,
Beda floats, moving up and down.

Floating down the water's, not at ease,
With a surfing coconut frond happened to meet,
The floater and the drifter, having an encounter
The frond drifting along with the tide,
Smites her square in the side.

After being smitten wasn't left alone in pain,
But a tidal wave drowned her again,
Sinking down under, doesn't re-appear
Till a wave surges up a couple of yards afar,
Together with it, surfaces the beauteous Ma Beda.

Surfacing again brings no relief,
Ducks and drake emerge out of a small inlet of the creek,
They number a hundred or two,
But Beda's all alone and solitary to be true;
Jostled and kicked with hundreds of feet,
While Beda just clenched her teeth,
The unsubdued and unyielding Beda fair,
Still keeps on wearing the flower in her hair.

Zawgyi

(University O-way Magazine, 1960)

Water hyacinth