As a young man U Sam Oeur wrote poetry to show off his English skills. Since surviving Pol Pot's killing fields, Oeur has used poetry as a weapon against evil and a tool for healing.
In his book of poetry, "Sacred Vows", Oeur chronicles his hopes and nightmares during his quest for freedom in Cambodia. His poetry and his story resonate even more today.
Oeur says freedom and self-expression cannot thrive under tyranny, whether at the hands of Cambodia's Pol Pot or Iraq's Saddam Hussein. He believes the war against Iraq was necessary "because evil is on the other side."
It is one thing to read his "The Loss of My Twins," quite another to hear Oeur chant it in his native Khmer. His quiet peaceful veneer begins to crack at the eyebrows, as a furrow works its way up his forehead. His eyes quit smiling, then narrow and fill with grief. "Performing still releases the pain", Oeur says.
His Poem [a painful read]
Deep one night in October, '76
when the moon was fully waxed,
it was cold to the bone;
that's when my wife's labor pains began.
I searched for a bed, but that was wishful thinking;
I felt so helpless. Two midwives materialized-
one squatted above her abdomen and pushed,
the other reached up into my wife's womb and ripped the babies out.
What a lowing my wife put up
when she gave birth to the first twin.
"Very pretty, just as I'd wished, but those fiends
choked them and wrapped them in black plastic.
Two pretty girls-
Buddho! I couldn't do a thing to save them!'
murmured my mother.
"Here, Ta!" the midwives handed me the bundles.
Cringing as if I'd entered Hell,
I took the babies in my arms
and carried them to the banks of the Mekong River.
Staring at the moon, I howled:
"O, babies, you never had the chance to ripen into life-
only your souls look down on me now.
Dad hasn't seen you alive at all, girls-
forgive me, daughters; I have to leave you here.
Even though I'll bury your bodies here,
may your souls guide me and watch over your mother.
Lead us across this wilderness
and light our way to the Triple Gem."
[The Triple Gem of Buddhism, The Buddha, The Teachings, The Disciples]
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In the last line of the last poem in his book, Oeur describes the delicate balance between good and evil in the world, and a way to cope with both:
"The positive and negative - every strand is precious in the web of life"
"One makes the other possible" |
