So for the second half of last year, our Khmer literacy teacher split us into groups based off the houses we lived in at Liger to create poems. I was in a group with 3 other boys and we wrote 3 poems. One was about what you should and shouldn’t do in school, the other was about deforestation, and the other one was about alcoholic beverages. At around the same time, the seniors worked on a book about Khmer poetry which contained lessons on how to write different types of Khmer poems and poems they wrote themselves. At the beginning of this round, our teacher decided that we, juniors also create a book relating to Khmer poetry, so what we did for most of the round was write poems. Each student was given a type of Khmer poem and they had to write. My type of poem was “ពាក្យ ប្រាំមួយ” which translates into “Six words” and I wrote a poem of that type about the ocean and its problems. At the end of this post, you can find links to both this poem and the other 3 poems which I and 3 other boys created last year as mentioned earlier. I apologize if you do not speak the Khmer language because the poems are in Khmer. For next round, we are going to get into the book design of our junior poetry book and hopefully have it done somewhere in December. This round was a great start to creating our first Khmer Poetry Book.
There was an event I got to partake in an called the Khmer Literature Festival at the end of this round. So the Khmer literature festival is an event that takes place in a province in Cambodia every year with the theme of that province. Anyone can join and it is where people learn and celebrate Khmer literature. It is full of activities such as book-reading, interviews, and lectures. Last year, it took place in Siem Reap and this year it took place in Battambang. It lasted from the 21st to the 24th of September; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The first day was a poem-reading competition. 3 of our juniors participated and they were the youngest participators in the competition. Everyone also else had more time to prepare while our students had less than a week. Despite that, 2 of the juniors that participated got first place. All three students did very well however, they wrote and sang beautiful poems. On the second day, there was a discussion about the stories of Battambang, an interview with three Khmer writers, a presentation of graphic design, a book fair and a circus performance. In the book fair, our students sold the senior’s poetry book and it went surprisingly better than we expected. The book was printed in a rush, hence there were a few mistakes and not all poems the seniors wrote were in that book, so I think there will be another edition or part of this book coming soon. I really enjoyed the circus performance. The circus is called “Phare” and their performances are breathtaking and stunning. On the last day, our seniors went to a school to show and talk about the poetry book they created. Overall, I really enjoyed taking part in this event and learning more about Khmer literature as well as Battambang and its stories.
My group’s poems: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15cPfq0rIElnJuqFlZM4uZMz8ibEyI_C88OdeoSQbwFU/edit?usp=sharing
My poem about the ocean: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yJwRwEorVi82FN5_V8qrpA24JhFF4UuzdySTN7-97zc/edit?usp=sharing