On My Way Home

Abstract

On My Way Home Khin Min Zaw (bio) Translated from Burmese by ko ko thett This poem is witness to the mass deportation of Burmese immigrant workers from Thailand in early 2020, during the first wave of covid-19. k.k.t. Yes,I am on my way home.At home I have Aphay.At home I have Amay.At home there are childrenof my bosom, who count on me.There is my little brother.There is my little sister.There's a pair of oxen in hock;I ought to go back for them.Through the thatch roof of our housewe can see the moon and the stars:I will have to patch it up.Yes,I am on my way home.The factory I worked for has shut down.The country I was in temporarilyhas revoked my temporary stay permit.I am returning to my place of birth.I am going back to my native land.Yes,I am on my way home.I am a daughter of Myanmar.I was born in Myanmar.I hold a Myanmar national identity card.The only language I know is Burmese.Wherever my children are bornthey will be from Myanmar. [End Page 213] Yes,I am on my way home.Whatever pandemicI will face it together with Myanmar people.Whatever virusI want to ride it out at home.Whatever might ail meI want to die in the loving shelterof Aphay and Amay.How could I leave them?Bury me at my birthplace when I die.Yes,I am on my way home.I will abide by restrictions at home.I'd like to receive care at home.I'd like an embrace from home.Yes,I am on my way home.I'd like to livean honest and incorrupt life.I am on my way home. [End Page 214] Khin Min Zaw Khin Min Zaw is from Pathein. While a student at Rangoon University, she became active in the 1988 democracy uprising, first with the university's student union and later with the National League for Democracy. In 1990 she was arrested, interrogated, and jailed for her political activism. She later published a memoir, I am Khin Min Zaw, about the period. Ko Ko Thett ko ko thett is a bilingual poet and author of several collections of poetry and poetry translations in Burmese and English. He has been featured at literary events from Sharjah to Shanghai, and his poems and translations have appeared in literary journals and anthologies worldwide. He was the poetry editor for Mekong Review from 2017 to 2022. His most recent volume is Bamboophobia (Zephyr, 2022). He lives in Norwich, U.K. Copyright © 2022 University of Hawai'i Press