Poetry · A way to begin
Phra Aphai Mani
พระอภัยมณี
Sunthorn Phu · 1870
Synopsis
Prince Aphai Mani has learned to play a magic flute that puts people to sleep or kills, and his brother Sri Suwan has learned swordsmanship; their father, who expected from them the learning of kings, drives them out. An ogress of the seas abducts Aphai, takes the form of a beautiful young woman and keeps him for years in her cave, where their son is born. Helped by a family of water spirits, he escapes towards an island guarded by a hermit, loves a mermaid, then a princess promised to a prince of Lanka, among castaways who have come from Asia and Europe.
Context
Sunthorn Phu began the poem in prison, driven by the need for money, and delivered it in instalments from 1822 to 1844; the printed version came only in 1870. Its nearly forty-nine thousand lines make it the longest Thai poem. Translators see in it a musician hero, in contrast to the warriors of court poetry, and one meets European mercenaries and pirates in it. The animated series The Adventure of Sudsakorn drew an episode from it in 1979.
Who it is for
A very long epic in Thai verse, best approached through an English version and in episodes; a tale of marvellous adventures.
Prizes and reception
It is counted among the national epics of Thailand, and its characters have their statues on the island of Ko Samet.
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