Poetry
Sacred Vows
U Sam Oeur · 1998
Synopsis
A bilingual collection, in Khmer and English, of poems composed by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge camps. The poet blends the myths, tales and history of Cambodia, which he ironically contrasts with the present of the country, evokes the rich rural culture of his childhood, then the terror of the years 1975 to 1979, the evacuation of Phnom Penh and survival in the labour camps. He announces the return of freedom and urges young Cambodians to reconnect with their heritage.
Context
Invited in 1992 by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, and arriving with only a few scraps of paper, the poet reconstructed most of his verses from memory, and translated them with Ken McCullough in three months of intense work. The publisher Allan Kornblum, of Coffee House Press, agreed to publish a bilingual edition in 1998, followed in 2005 by the poet's memoirs. His poems inspired a chamber opera, The Krasang Tree, for which McCullough wrote the libretto.
Who it is for
For those who want to hear the voice of a Khmer poet who survived the genocide, in a bilingual edition.
Prizes and reception
The New York Times read in it the transformation of Cambodia into a Dantesque hell, and World Literature Today hailed a “masterly” volume.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.