Slide Show: poem by Zeyar Lynn, translated from the Burmese by ko ko thett

Slide Show is a poem by Zeyar Lynn, translated into English by ko ko thett from the Burmese and printed in issue 26 of The Wolf. It is set out as a sequence of slides: each short passage is followed by the words Next slide, and seven empty slides come at the end.

The slides change subject at once. One begins with life being back to normal and another with how matters stand in the West. A news-style slide carries a reporter's name and the outlet Channel News Asia, datelined Beijing. Another says the speaker wears only trousers and has thought of no paso for ten years, then brings in a Maung Ba. Others mention shrimp paste produced by traditional technology, the body parts of hostages being matched to identity cards, a recorded message saying a caller cannot be reached, and a question about the Great War being staged one day with nobody turning up.

Further slides give a line on loathing, fear and fear and loathing, one on laughter that masks suppressed laughter, one calling life a sexually transmittable disease to be shared, and one on lives that were barely alive before they were gone. A slide carries the yellow submarine lyric, and another wishes to fly through the invisible fence. A speaker who has made a claim about thousands of lovers says he only wanted to connect with one.

The final stretch before the empty slides is a speech in prose. The speaker says the matter is simple, that those who spoke and wrote before him were respected scholars, and that he addresses the gentlemen as one would a madman. He thanks them for forgiving the shadow of a life, one still struggling in its own fashion.

Poems in this selection

• Slide Show