Salai Zoong | ယခုဆောင်းပါးကို မြန်မာဘာသာဖြင့် ဖတ်ရှုရန် ဤနေရာတွင် နှိပ်ပါ and click here to read this poem in Chin.

Cite as: 
Salai Zoong. (2025). The Final Voyage. Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship, 6. https://ijbs.online/?page_id=5445

Familiar conversations, voices, and views,
Did hands remain steady?
Just prior to it
The fragrance wafts away on its own.

We spoke in sparse phrases,
Did understanding dwell in our gaze?
Did our hearts commune in silent dialogue?
No reflections after I departed,
Only the echoes of yearning once you were gone.
Undiscovered wounds festered.

Humans are enigmatic.
Humans are peculiar.

In this moment,
No farewells were exchanged,
Friends once bound by mang-tha,¹
Those dearest to us,
Depart, one by one,
Once more, we sacrificed ourselves.

Spring, the embers of agrarian fires,
Consumes the old tree’s innermost roots,
Let’s cultivate this land.

This land … adorns with an orchard,
This land … imbues with love.

At the end of the hill ranges,
In the symphony of fiak-fai-rok,²
Herding gayals through the meadows, Crafting joy for children.

Endnotes

¹ A Chin greeting for returning from somewhere or wishing sweet dreams.
² The name of a bird in Chin State that sings in the summer, the common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius).