About 30 Long Beach residents listened to Cambodian-American Samkhann Khoeun recite poetry from "O! Maha Mount Dangrek" a book of narrative poems he translated and edited. The poems were originally written in Khmer by late monk Ly Van.
The two poems, presented in the book side-by-side in Khmer and English, tell tales of hardship under the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge. The monk, who died in Lowell at the age of 90, told a personal tale of survival during the genocide and another tragic love story about a friend. The poems, written by hand in Khmer calligraphy, were among the few possessions the money left behind.
The first poem tells of the horrors faced by refugees fleeing over the mountain for the border with Thailand and being forced at gunpoint by Thai soldiers to return to their homeland strewn with land mines where "we walked, ate and slept amid corpses."
In addition to the poetry reading,, two young musicians from Cambodia: Srey Peov Phoeun, a singer, and Sinat Nhok, who played several traditional instruments, peformed. Among their selections were traditional smot song, or funereal pieces to help departed souls reach the next world. Something Khoeun said was denied during the Khmer Rouge reign when upwards of 2 million Cambodians who died "innocently, violently and inhumanely."
Khoeun says he hoped the bilingual book will be able to reach both young and old Cambodians, to help surivivors heal and the young understand what their parents and grandparents endured to reach the United States and create better lives for their families.
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