Editor’s Choice

Pornpen Hantrakool

 

1
History

 

History writes itself
History is written
History is made
History is distorted, deleted, and added
History expresses itself
History is expressed
History is culled
History is used
History repeats itself
History is created to make wars, disputes, and discriminations
History is loved
History is hated
History imprisons itself
In the past of hauntings and horrors

 

2

It’s Not Long That the Apricot Blossoms Will Bloom

 

It’s not long that the apricot blossoms will bloom
Inside the burgeons there are stacks of sadness
Coldness has no mercy for them
But they resistingly go through it
Waiting to open up their petals
To reveal their sadness
Pains from the deep wounds stabbed by the coldness
And some faint marks of dried bloodstain on the petals of white
It’s not long that the apricot blossoms will bloom
It’s not long that the apricot blossoms will win the merciless coldness
It’s not long that the apricot blossoms will bloom
It’s not long that the apricot blossoms will disclose the pains in beauty and truth

 

3

Change  

 

Change
Is an emerging transformation
From old to new
From one form to another which is different
Change
Is a long journey
From the beginning to the destination
From one spot to another which is not the same
Change
Is the development of all things
From the origin to the end of its process
From darkness to brightness where there is a new form of life
Fear not
Welcome and enfold it when it comes
For it is steady
For it is the emerging process of everything

4

Prejudice

 

It is not only Time that changes things
Prejudice can do also, and even more
It is not only Christ that gives love
Prejudice can do also, and even more
It is not only Erida that gives hate
Prejudice can do also, and even more
It is not only Ares that creates wars
Prejudice can do also, and even more

5

Stars Return, My Love Never

 

Stars sparklingly shine, vying among them
Decorating the sky
Their sparks seem to send down some messages
With sweet and impressive words of beauty
They always stay above and never leave
Return and rouse us to look at them
Every night of the waxing moon they scattered around
And unite the sky with love
Stars return, my love never
I am lamented and deplored
Tonight my love leaves me only a memory
My love has walked away forever
Stars return, my love never
No more lament and regret to be tormented
My love has gone, stars last evermore
I am imbued with their gleams and they impress in my heart

6

The Great Field        

 

The earth dresses in a bright color of gold
The sky puts on a golden glow of amber
Who eternally creates the wide rice field
In the wondrous mountainous valley of heaven

7

There Is No Snow Here

 

There is no snow here
There is snow there
Where there is snow there is coldness
There is no snow here
But I am fear
And there is coldness
Here there is not only coldness
But heartlessness
And oppression

 

8

Opulence

Beautifully embellished words
Elitist, vast, and scattered over the sky
Sweet rhetoric, but mere
Where’s the essence of words
Where’s the gist of thought
Where’s the course of heart

 

9

 

Crisis Breakthrough

 

Winter comes
All leaves of trees quit
Stems are dried and frosty
Trunks are shivering
The sun shines
Frosts are not melted
Coldness is still
All trunks turn pale white
Dare to resist against coldness
Strive bravely for existence
To sprout
To leaf
To flower and to fruit
Through the bleakness they go
Under the ice sheets
In the trunks the trees are inflamed

 

10

 

The Victim of Goodness

 

Sometimes I wonder what the social values are for
When people hold on a value
There is always good or bad
Of course good is the best and bad the worst
Sometimes good is overglorified
Religion helps affirm so
Ruling institutions as well spreadingly do
For the sake of what and whom, I wonder
Sometimes I have seen that
Good can be used as a political weapon
To find a victim and
To kill that victim
Sometimes I have seen that
Good makes people blind and maniac
Enough to lend their hands for the killing or
Even do it by themselves
The victim of goodness
The root of evilness
In the name of morality
In the name of justice

 

Pornpen Hantrakool Imagehas a B.A., an M.A., and Dip. in History. She has been a Professor at Tenri University in Japan and an Associate Professor at Silpakorn University of Thailand. Professor Hantrakool’s teaching specializations include Indian and Sri Lankan history, Eastern Civilization (China and India), Thai History, Japanese History, Southeast Asian History, Vietnamese Studies, Historiography, and the Philosophy of History. She has taught and done research widely, including at such places such as on the Teaching Staff, Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Srinakharintharawirot University, (Pisanulok, Thailand), Department of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand), Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University (Nakhon Pathom,Thailand), and Department of Thai Studies, Faculty of
International Cultures, Tenri University (Nara, Japan). She has been invited as a guest researcher at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, and as a visiting researcher at the Center for Oriental Studies, Hanoi, Vietnam. Also, she has been invited as a guest lecturer by many universities in Thailand, as well as by certain universities in Japan, Vietnam, and India. In her career, she has published widely in Thai and in English, including a wide range of books and articles on Indian History, Thai History, Thai Economic History, as well as textbooks on Eastern Civilization. Apart from teaching and doing research, Professor Hantrakool has served the public for many years while acting as the General Secretary and the Project Director of the Historical Society Under the Patronage of H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
She has also served some offices of the Thai Government as a subcommittee for editing historical publications. Now, she helps the Royal Institute of Thailand as a committee for compiling and publishing books on ASEAN langugues and cultures. Professor Hantrakool now writes and translates poetry as well as songs. She has been invited to participate in poetry and literary festivals held in several countries (Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, and Kenya). Having done some academic works on Vietnamese history, historiography, and literature, in 2012 she was granted an
honorable certificate with a decoration from the Vietnamese Writer Association for her pioneering contributions to Vietnamese Studies, particulary in literature, in Thailand