Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Gyat Aye Nursery Rhyme

Mi Mi Khaing wrote about childhold and nursery rhymes of Burma:

... Or the jumping nonsensical rhyme about Gyat-Aye, who got beaten up by her mother and wept in a dark corner and started a train of kaleidoscopic events, for every time a line ended with a clanging rhythm it suggested a rhyming word to shout out and continue its own associations, and when you got back to a rhyme for Gyat-Aye, you had to start all over again, and poor Gyat-Aye got beaten and cried as long as children's voice held out.

Gyat-Aye
Thu amay yaik lo
Hmaung maik hma ngo
Ko Lu Byo
Hta-yan pauk ka
Chay-dauk ko-swe
Twe-le!!
Twe-le ye
Nay ba ohn
Mo tway ka chon
Mok Lon!!
Mok lon ye sekku kat pa lo
Kya-ka-lat hnin hsun-daw tin
Pa-lin paw ka myauk kalay,
Hshin chi lo pyay
Gyat-Aye!!

Gyat-Aye
Beat by her mother so,
Cries in the dark corner "O,"
Young bachelor Ko
Through hole in the mantel
Pulls at her ankle,
Dangle!!
dangling yet wait awhile,
The rain clouds pile,
The heavens clang.
Meringue!!
Meringue with paper stuck below
Offer at altar in lacquer bowl,
From throne seat the monkey gay
Runs down and off with it away!
Gyat Aye!!