Fly On O Crane! - Maung Swan Yi

Out from Hiroshima’s flames

thou hast winged, O Crane!

Fly, fly! O my good Crane!

Go thou to all the world’s places

and tell them how the once-prosperous

pleasant city has come to ashes,

flowing with blood,

tell this mournful tale to all the world and complain!

Among Hiroshima’s ashes

the cherry flowers no more bloom.

Amidst Hiroshima’s blood

the cherry flowers no more perfume.

Amidst the wails of Hiroshima

no birds sing.

Hiroshima’s mothers

their honey milk is now poisoned;

Hiroshima’s children

they do not grow and not at all look

like humans;

Hiroshima’s food and drink,

both are poisoned, no longer clean

Hiroshima’s raindrops,

they still smell gun-smoke;

Hiroshima’s sheep and cows

chew the sweet grass that’s stained

with blood—they started at it;

these tales of blood and tears,

these tales of Hiroshima,

how can man forget them?

Those bombs that destroy humanity,

Let not these be made any more!

Those bombs that destroy humanity,

away with them all, let none remain!

Fly, fly! O my good Crane!

Go thou to all the world’s places

and tell them how the once-prosperous

pleasant city has come to ashes,

flowing with blood,

tell this mournful tale to all the world

and complain!

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Maung Swan Yi (born 1939) Myanmar

Translated by Maung Tha Noe

Source: Burma Library.org