[Poem] The Ghost Nang Nak

Edouard Dupas has completed the translation of my classic poem, the Ghost Nang Nak into French over at his website as Fantôme de Nang Nak, an homage to the classic Southeast Asian ghost story based on my last trip there in 2003. He had to work with some very difficult wordplay in this piece, but I think he did well with it. Here is the original version in English.


The Ghost Nang Nak 

Hates the draft.
Isn’t very good on issues
Of fertility

But isn’t too bad
With the lottery
If you pay your respects
Properly by the takian trees.

She’s eating diced mangos
With a mouth of ebony ants.

Kept company by a
TV tuned to tacky Thai soap operas.

Surrounded by white mutts
Who hate black dogs of any pedigree.

Wants a simple life again.
To set down the Buddha’s yellow candles
For just a minute.

But she has a lot of karma to pay off
For trying to keep her family together

Spooking mischievous children at night
Who thinks she’s looking for playmates

For her beautiful baby
Toddling between Wat Mahabut
And the Prakanong River.