Poems translated into English from Thai.

Sunthorn Pu (1786-1856). Thailand's most famous poet.

A smoking stove and a bucket hung by a rope from a pole;

Oh, Karma, because of that evil water

I am drunk, mad, shameful.

Let me make merit and achieve enlightenment

So when I am faced with liquor

I'll be saved:

Never to go near it or see it.

But when I'm not drunk on liquor,

I'm drunk on love!

How can that temptation be stopped?

The hangover of whisky is gone the next day,

But the hangover of love lasts forever.

We may be drunk,

But we are also honey-drunk with love.

I cannot resist my heart.

And though we are drunk,

Tomorrow the sun will shine,

And that drunkenness will have passed.

But when night falls, love's honeyed drunkenness will return.

Though Death should claim the ocean, earth and sky,

My love for you will never, never, die.

And were I born beneath the earth or in the sea,

My darling, it is there I'd pray you'd dwell with me.

Or, if perchance you were the ocean blue,

I'd choose to be a fish and live with you.

Or, if the water-lily's form you would assume,

The beetle I would be who'd help you bloom.

And may I be the swan if you're the grotto'd nest,

And dwell forever in your arms, close pressed.

I pray to follow you, beloved one,

In all reincarnations yet to come.