A New Future for Poetry in Post-Censorship Burma
For their special issue on Burma, The Dissident Blog has James Byrne, poet and founder of the poetry journal The Wolf, writing about censorship and Burmese literature. Byrne is also the editor and co-translator of Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets (Arc Publications, UK, 2012), the first anthology of Burmese poetry to be published in the West. Here, Byrne surveys the precipice on which Burmese poets and writers are now balancing post–state censorship:
When I began researching Burmese poetry back in 2007 I came to realise that the poets were essentially working undercover. They were survivors (those that had survived) and the poetry was extraordinarily rich in imagery, playfulness and dense in metaphor. Some writers would regularly outwit the censorship board. This was not easy, to say the least. In 1975 the then extreme Socialist government printed a list of what could and couldn’t be published which included ‘any incorrect ideas and opinions’ or ‘anything detrimental to the ‘Burmese Sociality Program’. The resulting mass censorship over successive generations was not merely a case of writing being blocked off by the censor’s pen. In fact, during General Ne Win’s government he—becoming increasingly paranoiac—banned the use of the word ‘sunset’ (his name roughly translates as ‘sunrise’ so he presumed that writers using ‘sunset’ would be assassinating him in print). Ne Win’s ruthless Socialist agenda also forbid the colour ‘Red’ because of its Communist associations and later on, until Aung San Suu Kyi was released from periods of imprisonment and house arrest, Ne Win’s successor, General Than Shwe, banned the use of the word ‘mother’ (the reason being that this was one of Daw Suu Kyi’s nicknames, conferred to her by the people).
How does a literature recover itself from these kinds of experiences? Or perhaps the question should be: because Burmese literature was so inventive during successive regimes, what kind of literature might emerge post-censorship? When I was in the country last year there were poems being read about the Arab Spring. There were others about the harsh treatment of Burmese farmers. There were satires about power cuts and short stories that had a beginning and middle, but no end. All of these would have been instantly banned just a few years previously.
The situation is changing for Burmese publishers, too. Until recently it was routine for small press publishers to keep bribe money under the floorboards so that they would be able to publish the work they wanted to, relatively un-censored. Nowadays they can concentrate more on simply publishing the best work out there (and there is more than ever to choose from—poetry remains the most popular form of writing in Burma). Approximately one hundred poetry titles were published last year. The print run of a poetry collection will rarely exceed 1,000 copies, putting it on par with English figures.
Some of the best writers inside Burma are now getting the attention their work deserves. Leading poet Zeyar Lynn now has an international profile—he toured in North America and England in the last few years and a translated book of his poems appeared in Hong Kong in 2013. He was chosen to represent ‘Myanmar’ at London’s ‘poetry Olympics’ in July 2012. One of the most distinguished editors Moe Way (also a fine poet himself) is now expanding his The Eras Press having been invited by Yale University/National University of Singapore to read. Khin Aung Aye has recited his poems in Berlin, South Korea and England. ko ko thett, my co-editor and co-translator of Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets, who writes in English, is soon to publish his debut collection, The Burden of Being Burmese, in North America. Interestingly his current anthological project aims to clarify Burmese poetry post-censorship as a literature ‘in transition’. Ma Thida, a former Fellow at Brown University in Rhode Island, and Zeyar Lynn are now pivotal figures in PEN Myanmar, which was launched at the PEN International Congress in September 2013. Essentially, many literary figures, once divided along political or aesthetical lines, are now coming together to celebrate a new future for Burmese writing....
Find the full read at The Dissident Blog. There's also a new poem from Pandora, a Burmese pseudoynm that acts as "one [of] the most influential poets in Burma today." You might also check out this interview with the anthology's editors, published in the fall. At top: Burmese poet and publisher Moe Way, with James Byrne last August. Courtesy of Inspirited Enterprise.