MPR’s Lynette Lyman profiles Cambodian poet U Sam Oeur. Lyman also reports on a perfomance of his work in the Twin Cities.
On April 15th, 1998, the notorious Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in his sleep. He was an old and broken man, but such had been his grip on Cambodia through the reign of terror he led, he lives in the minds of its survivors. One of those is the poet U Sam Oeur. Since the 1970s, Oeur has written about his experience at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. His poetry is the basis for "Krasang Tree," an opera performed at Theater de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis.
Transcripts
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U SAM OEUR: [KHMER SINGING]
LYNETTE NYMAN: U Sam Oeur is reading from his poem called "The Loss of My Twins." When they were born, the attending midwives strangled the two girls. Under the Khmer Rouge, infants were considered an obstacle to rapid agrarian progress. Women were needed in the fields without suckling children. Oeur buried the twins with his own hands at the banks of the Mekong river. Oeur says he can't describe all he saw during those years.
U SAM OEUR: They starved people. Hundreds of people just lay in the mud, lay down in the mud, and just [GASPING]. Some asked me a little grain of rice, but I didn't have-- if I gave them, they're going to kill me. So no one lend a hand to help anyone, just pass by, you know. We have seen the flies die-- couldn't care less about anything.
LYNETTE NYMAN: Over 1 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. U Sam Oeur says it wasn't luck that he survived. Rather, he says, spirits protected him so he could come to the United States to tell the story through his poetry. And it's that same spirit, he says, that brought the poetry to the stage in Krasang Tree. In one of Oeur's poems, the Khmer Rouge uses the tree's thorny trunk as a weapon against the children. Oeur says the opera, called Krasang Tree, gives life to his poetry.
U SAM OEUR: You know, if I read only poems on the radio, they just listen once. That's it. But in opera, they hear the music. They hear the voice, they see the beautiful dancer, the [INAUDIBLE] the-- remind them the peaceful past experienced during the killing fields. Then we invoke the [INAUDIBLE] angel to help us to bring peace, freedom, and democracy. So they said, well, we better join and bring peace and freedom, democracy to Cambodia for the Cambodian people and for the world.
[CHANTING]
LYNETTE NYMAN: During the show, the actors call forth ancestral spirits to purge supernatural devils from Cambodia. The music has multiple layers of contemporary and traditional elements. Cambodian instruments, such as the kong thom and roneat create otherworldly sounds. Composer Mark Bruckner discovered Oeur's poetry while at the University of Iowa. In time, he played music for Oeur's readings. Bruckner says Cambodian musicians were forced to find substitutes after the Khmer Rouge destroyed their instruments. Bruckner says when he couldn't find traditional instruments, he had to do much the same.
MARK BRUCKNER: Instruments-- I've been building instruments out of found objects and things for a long time. And when I first accompanied Sam, I used these transmission gears-- these are from cars-- as substituting for the gong sound. So you get--
[RINGING]
LYNETTE NYMAN: As the actors prepare for one of the final runthroughs, they form a circle on stage and join hands. All of a sudden, the noise level drops. Bruckner says it's a moment for the actors to come together as a group.
MARK BRUCKNER: There's not a lot of-- because, at that time, and you'll see this, there's not much touching of each other during this. But you have to sense each other across the space. Just as during Khmer Rouge time, you couldn't-- I mean, the men were separated from the women. The children were separated from their families. And so this is the one moment they have before the show that they can touch and focus their energy.
MARY BETH EASLEY: When I came in, they had maybe 30-40 poems picked out.
LYNETTE NYMAN: Theater director Mary Beth Easley took Oeur's work and narrowed it to around 15 poems, circling major events and action words in the poems to help create the script and movement for the production.
MARY BETH EASLEY: When they got pushed out of the city, when it all first happened on the first day and they got pushed out, Sam's poem about it has incredible images-- stumbling, faces floating. You couldn't move. So I took a lot of those words and helped them develop the movement with it. And then we picked out certain sections that could be sung from this poetry.
[CHANTING]
LYNETTE NYMAN: For Easley, the production is as much a celebration of Cambodian culture as the Khmer Rouge terror. The actors and musicians are mostly of Cambodian origin. There's classical Cambodian dance, and poems are sung in Khmer. There's only a bit of English at the end. The poet U Sam Oeur says when Krasang Tree was first performed in Iowa, language wasn't a barrier.
U SAM OEUR: So my friend then, after the show, they didn't need me because I was full of tears. They understood very well. And they said they told me, I don't need you to translate. I cried all the whole show.
LYNETTE NYMAN: Krasang Tree opens tonight at the Theater de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis. U Sam Oeur's book of poetry, Sacred Vows, is published by Coffee House Press. I'm Lynette Nyman, Minnesota Public Radio.
U SAM OEUR: Oh, full moon, bring my best wishes to Cambodia. Sprinkle holy water over her.