Put on your most lovely white costume
And smile broadly
It is only a simple burial
The celebration of one who has departed.
A man is dead
And that is not all
Fa Ngum is also dead
And Anou and Pangkham too.
A man is dead
And that is not all
Hate has been inherited
And vengeance hoped for.
A man is dead
Who wished to live one hundred years
The latest victim
Of our Twenty Year War.
A man is dead
And that is not all.
Somphavan Inthavon (20th century) Laos
Translated by Grant Evans
Source: Invoking the Past: The Cultural Politics of Lao Literatrure, 1941-1975, Chairat Polmuk, Cornell University, 2014
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