Burmese New Year & Water Splashing Festival (1) . Poem by U Win Kyi

Burmese New Year is coming.
The monks are praying.
The elderly people are donating.
To them, a great respect the youngsters are paying.
The devout Buddhists are meditating.
In monasteries, they are fasting.
From eating meat, they are avoiding.
At the pagodas, the volunteers are cleaning.
From the statues of Buddha, the dust and dirt they are washing.
For the souls, they are purifying.
Into the ponds, the fish they are freeing.
Many, many deeds of merit they are doing.

So hot, the sun is simmering.
So fragrant, the Padauk flowers are blossoming.
The young girls with Thanetkar paste on their faces are dancing.
The young boys, wishing to show their music talent are singing.
The children with water-buckets are merrying.
The clowns are joking.
The audience is bursting with laughing.
The water is splashing.
The body is cooling.
The heart is warming.
It is real, no kidding.
O, friends, don't be just standing and watching.
Don't be wall-flower, come get dousing.
From head to toe, the water is showering.
Joy and happiness, it will be bringing.
Fun is overwhelming.
Like a drowned rat, you will be looking.

A young man is waiting,
for a young woman he is courting,
for winning her smiling,
and heart for marrying.
on her, to give a cold sprinkling,
of scented water,
put in a big bowl of silver.

Water Splashing Festival is a thousand-year-old Burmese tradition,
handed down and maintained from generation to generation,
and celebrated by Burmese people all over the world, far or near,
in every Burmese New Year