A Masterpiece of Thai Folk Song- "Full Moon" (Thinking of Home) by Ga Karawan
- akiyamabkk
- 2021年9月2日
- 読了時間: 3分
更新日：2024年9月22日
By Hideki AKIYAMA
Full Moon (Thinking of Home)’ is a classic song by the Thai folk group Karawan. There are many versions of this song, but I like the original by Karawan the best. The following is my personal translation of the lyrics.
I found some parts a bit challenging, but I pushed myself to translate them.
Full Moon (Thinking of Home)
Full Moon (Thinking of Home)
The full moon is shining brightly
The sky is beautifully lit in a milky color,
and the gentle breeze feels good.
The moonlight reminds me
of a placeI've been away from
I remember the house I once lived in,
the field I once played ince
I made a bonfire by the buffaloes,
and the fire still burns bright.
O moon, I ask the wind to keep the flames alive
and chase away this chill.
May my comrades and I sleep in peace.
Cicadas sing loudly,
Let the wind carry my words to her ears,
That I’m still waiting to return,
And no matter what happens, the memories will never fade.
I’m still thinking of you and the place I left behind."
O Wind, tell them my heart is longing for them.
Let it be known that in this land of Thailand,
The children who have been separated from you
Will soon return home
And find comfort in their mother’s embrace."
Gar Karawan, the composer of this song, threw himself into the communist movement as a student and experienced armed struggle in the forest alongside his comrades. I initially thought that the lyrics were written by a woman, a senior student to him, who was reminiscing about her birthplace while in the stronghold of the communist guerrillas.
However, I later learned that the song was actually written by Asanee Pholacan, a prominent leftist and social critic in the 1950s, who sought exile after an arrest warrant was issued by the Phibun Songkhram government. He died in Laos in 1987 without returning home. Gar Karawan heard the woman comrade sing the song in a communist forest camp in northern Thailand. She, a relative of Asanee from Ratchaburi, explained that he wrote the song while in Beijing, after fleeing from persecution."
The old leftists in Thailand no longer wield the same influence they once did, and Gar Karawan himself sang this song at a royalist rally in support of the yellow shirts during the political struggle between the red and yellow shirts not long ago.
Yet, even without the political context, there’s something about this song that touches my heart. The sentiment of gazing at the moon and longing for one’s hometown resonates universally, much like Li Bai’s lines: 'Raising one’s head to look at the mountains and moon, lowering one’s head to think of one’s hometown'.
静夜思 – Quiet Night Thoughts
床前明月光 The white moonlight before my bed,
疑是地上霜 I suspect it is frost on the ground.
举头望明月 I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon,
低头思故乡 And lower it to think of my hometown.
(Ttanslated by Ezra Pound)
Isn't this a common poetic sentiment in Asia? Since the moon shows the same face everywhere and all the time, does it naturally evoke feelings of nostalgia? As I recall, Hitomi Soga, an abductee by North Korea, recalled seeing the moon in North Korea and wondering if the people in Sado Island, her home town, were seeing the same moon.
There are two other versions of this song: one sung by Eck Karabao, a legend of Thai folk music, and the other by Pongsit Kampee. However, if you listen to the song alone, I believe Pongsit’s version is the most beautiful. It is ironic that he comes from a generation that has not experienced serious political struggles.
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