นิ้วมือ :red_heart:️ ใบมีด Finger ♥s Blade

นิ้วมือ :red_heart:️ ใบมีด

ไม่ทันไร! คมมีดใบใหม่ก็บาดนิ้วจนชุ่มฉ่ำใจ
ผมยิ้มแก้มฉีกใบหู หล่นเผละบ่า
เป็นค่ำคืนที่นิ้วมือขอใบมีดแต่งงานเมื่อได้แผลสดสวยและบาดลึก
และเป็นค่ำคืนแห่งความรักซึ่งต่างรอคอยกันและกันมาทั้งชีวิต
บรรยากาศคืนงานแต่งแสนน่ารักปนเจ็บชะมัดยาด
มีแขกเหรื่อตัวหนังสือที่สนิทชิดเชื้อเดินทางมาร่วมไม่ขาดสาย
ต่างแสดงความยินดีโล่งอกโล่งใจซะทีที่เห็นนิ้วมือผมได้เป็นฝั่งเป็นฝา
...เมื่อส่งตัวเข้าห้องหอเป็นที่เรียบร้อย
เจ้าเบ่าไม่รอช้า รีบสวมกอดประกบจูบดูดดื่มปลุกปล้ำขย้ำลูบไล้
จนเจ้าสาวสวยอ่อนระทวยเปลื้องชุดวิวาห์สีแดงหยดสกาวกองกับพื้น
 

Finger ♥s Blade

So soon! the new blade slit the finger to its heart’s content.
I grinned until my cheeks split and spilt to my shoulders.
It was the night the finger proposed to the blade, after accepting a bright, beautiful and deep cut.
A night of love each had awaited for a lifetime.
The mood of the wedding night blended super sweet with so darn painful. 
An endless stream of syllables, intimate guests, travelled to be there,
all gushing congratulations, relieved to finally see my finger settle down.
...Once ushered off to the nuptial suite
the groom wasted no time - clasped, cuddled, kissed, ravaged, crushed and caressed
until the beautiful bride languished, shedding her red wedding dress, radiance dripping clean onto the floor.
 
 
 

Finger ♥s Blade

In no time, the new blade slit the finger to its/my heart’s content.
I grinned until my cheeks split and fell to my shoulders.
It was the night the finger proposed to the blade, after receiving a beautiful and deep cut.
And it was a night of love that each had waited for all its life.
The mood of the wedding night was a blend of super sweet and so darn painful. 
An endless stream of guests, dear letters, travelled to attend,
All giving their congratulations, finally relieved to see my finger settle down.
...Once ushered off to their nuptial room,
The groom wasted no time and promptly held, cuddled, kissed, ravaged, grabbed and caressed her.
Until the beautiful bride languished and shed her red wedding gown, dripping with sheen, onto the floor [or dripping purity onto the floor.]
 

Uten Mahamid is from northern Thailand, and our literal translator Mui Poopoksakul began by explaining that he is a very modern poet, breaking away from elaborate fixed forms to write in free verse and inspired by his practice as a visual artist. We decided to start with this poem as it contains such a strong central image. It reminded me in many ways of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Cut’ in which she chops her thumb whilst preparing onions and images spill out – axed scalps, civil war, a bottle of ‘pink fizz’, a ‘trepanned veteran’. Here the central image has the same mixture of cartoonish glee and gore. The finger is marrying the blade in a ceremony both ‘super sweet and so darned painful.’

Thai often doesn’t use articles – Mui explained you might say ‘go school’ instead of ‘I’m going to school’ and described the language as having such brevity it can be ‘almost like a bullet.’ We spent a lot of time in the workshop choosing between the/a/its/my/her/his etc. The first two times we use ‘the finger’ as we thought the poem creates a sense of distance, although later it becomes more clearly ‘my finger’. We chose ‘its heart’s content’ so the satisfaction could either be the finger’s or the blade’s. It adds to the slightly queasy masochistic charge of this poem.

‘Syllables’ was another word we agonized over. The original is closer to ‘letters’ but means letters of the alphabet. In English, letters expressing congratulations at a wedding would make us think of physical, posted letters. We played with ‘words’ but thought that didn’t sound weird enough – we wanted to suggest all these jumbled fragments of speech turning up at the ceremony!

Clare Pollard

Original Poem by

Uten Mahamid

Translated by

Mui Poopoksakul with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Thai

Country

Thailand