Thai poetry remains under-explored outside of Thailand due to the relative paucity of English translations. One of my current projects is to translate Thai poetry to English while doing my best to retain the original poetical structures that make the poems so distinctive.
Twisted Vines
Perhaps the single most famous verse of
Thai poetry, on trust and human relationships.
Vishvakarma
A selection from the Sepha Samakee Sevok on the importance of the arts.
Small selections of contemporary Thai pop music that I have translated with singable lyrics.
The original piece on Thai Enquirer on Sunthorn Phu, Thailand’s most celebrated poet. In this piece, I translated some of his most famous work.
I was interviewed in Thai on the challenges and future potential of translating Thai poetry.
Ken Mathis Lohatepanont 