Poem ~ 11
By – Hein Min Tun
A historical poem with some imaginary changes made to add a better dramatical effect in presenting the story. An original poem created in the voice of a letter which should be imagined as the one written by Her Highness Thanbula to His Majesty King Kyansittha, her husband. An emphasized portrayal of her character and that of the King amidst a slightly-modified episode from the Bagan History, putting myself in the situation of Her Highness.]
Note:
- Htee Hlaing Shin – referring to King Kyansittha
- Anuradha – referring to King Anawrahta
- Shin – used to address Kings or Queens perhaps sometimes
- Khin U – Another Name of Princess Manisanda
(Poem):
“In Her Shoes”
By Hein Min Tun
Your Majesty,
History talks of you as a great King endowed with unsurpassed strengths. Yes, I wouldn’t deny it. But, pardon me, you are a cruel man though it’s not possible for me to hate you. I hope you can feel how painful I am when I say this.
Do you still remember the night my father and I came to your help while you lay worn out in exile with gore-moistened arms and cuts on your sweaty face in Kyaungbyu after losing Khin U to His Majesty Anuradha? Was it because you felt a touch of kindness in my hands that touched you? I sensed through your eyes how your heart overreacted to mere kindness with a bout of love freshly-sprung. When I tended your wounds with my father, I just wanted to save a life. I didn’t feel beyond that. I swear.
It was you that whispered under the magnolia tree of how you felt towards me; your words flowing cool like the sylvan stream nearby. Wasn’t it you that treated me nearly like my father, especially when we went hunting in the verdant jungle interspersed with gurgling streams and a roaring crystal waterfall? You are the only stranger second to my father in my life that offered me a sky of care and security. Let me say it was also you that taught a woman with a diamond-hard heart how to love a stranger. On full moon nights I remember falling asleep, beholding the wondrous moonlight in your irises. Didn’t you know that I had entrusted the rest of my life to the beauteous dreams outlined by your lips? I wish I had been able to tell you how I woke up every morn with heartbeats. I couldn’t….. I wonder how I came to be obsessed with you while I had always drilled into my brain that you belonged to the place which seemed colossally high to us like the azure sky. You had already had strong bonds tethered to your inner self long before destiny let us meet, and that the day would come when you had to return whence you came, leaving behind the nondescript woman you had met in some insignificant episode of your journey.
Why didn’t you tell us earlier that you already had another woman to love before you came to our little world? Why didn’t we know that you were the would-be King who would get to make Her Highness Khin U, your first love, your queen? When I knew everything, everything was late! I had my son in my belly, your son, half your royal blood. Don’t you know how it feels to be a mother? I don’t mean the pain I went through bringing my little son to this realm. It’s worth suffering if it’s for my son, who is also yours. How come I knew that I had ended up as your second person only long after I had your baby inside me? I’m not saying in malice against Her Highness Manisanda. As a woman, she can love you and there is nothing wrong about a woman falling in love with a person. But, hadn’t you ever taken her heart into consideration before you began to love me? Betrayal towards another woman is treachery towards me. Htee Hlaing Shin, if you are a man who truly knows how to love a woman, all of this wouldn’t have happened.
Finally, you said to us, “Come to the palace, bringing this ring if you happen to give birth to a son. If not, live on it throughout your life.” Your Majesty, you should know what you meant when you said those words. You should know what your words mean. Then how easily you left! Did you see that I remained frozen behind your fading shadow with shattered hopes and hopes__new and beautiful, to grow again?
While we had trouble, your baby and me, sleeping with mosquitoes buzzing around, you were asleep beside another woman or women in the cocoon of the Arimadanapura Palace. Did you know that I came to search for you walking miles to the Palace Gate with our grown-up son Yazakumar, not because I couldn’t resist the desire to be one of your queens, but because I understood my son? Didn’t you wonder how the people in Kyaungbyu would be treating our son? Sink into my flesh. You would experience a world of pains a single mother carries as you have the weight of your Kingdom to carry.
However, thank you so much, Your Majesty, the way you stood up for my son, bestowing on him what he deserved as a prince, as you knew that the time was too late for you to choose your first son Yazakumar as the heir to the throne.
In the end, in the Myanmar History, I was made your Chief concubine. But, I don’t want future women to think highly of me and that my story ended well. It’s just that Thanbula spoke up for her son, reclaiming her lost love from the man that has fiddled with the hearts of women for the sake of her son.
Your Majesty, I don’t have any doubt when I say that your kingship will remain fragrant among new people yet to come. But remember, we’re destined to be stranded in sansara. Whenever I return to your Shwe See Gone; whenever I traverse the sun-sprinkled alleys of Arimadanapura resonant with our dusty royal history, Htee Hlaing Shin, your love of Thanbula would still remain out of my faith.
From Thanbula
- Poem © Hein Min Tun
Hein Min Tun is a multiple award winning poet and writer hailing from Myanmar. He has received “Distinguished Writer Award” from the Bharat Award for Literature for two consecutive times – 2022 and 2023. He has also achieved “Tagore Honour” given by the Bengali Association of Poets- Literoma for his glittering pen that has danced over a vast terrain in the literary realm. He has a successful book to his credit; his debut poetry collection “Crescendo” has earned him the “Panorama Golden Book Award – 2024” conferred by Writers Capital International Foundation. Additionally, he is the 2nd runner-up in Rabindranath Tagore Award International Poetry Competition – 2025, bagging “Poiesis Award for Excellence in Poetry”. Above all, Hein Min Tun is the Winner of the prestigious “Reuel International Poetry Prize (2024) for all the poems he has written so far”.
