Returning to Visit My Love

Notes

This very romatic poem comes from an early collection of poems and sees him writing in a very different style from the other poem of his we translated in this workshop, the much more elliptical, 'The Heart's Fifth Chamber'. Here, Angkarn is open-hearted and openly in love, longing to return to his beloved after a long separation.

The much longer first part of the poem draws metaphors from nature to express the anguish of separation. We enjoyed translating the poem's small refrain - each time repeated in a slightly different way - 'No one has held me for a long time', 'No one has held me for so long' and 'It's so long since anyone held me'.

What to make of the second part of the poem? It seems to imply that the longed-for reunion didn't quite go as the poet had anticipated....

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator