“Still managed to wear the flower on her head.”
In this evocative poem, Saya Zaw Gyi uses Ma Beda—the Burmese name for water hyacinth—as a metaphor for a resilient woman navigating the turbulent waters of life. The flower, delicate yet defiant, becomes a symbol of feminine strength and dignity.
Zaw Gyi’s series on Ma Beda portrays her not as a passive plant, but as a spirited woman who refuses to be subdued by the tides, the blows, or the crowd. In one of the most memorable verses, she encounters hundreds of ducks (a metaphor for men or societal forces), yet emerges with her flower still intact—a quiet triumph of grace under pressure.
This poem has offered strength to many readers facing adversity. I, too, recall my own struggles when reading it. And perhaps no one embodies this spirit more than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—who, like Ma Beda, continues to wear her symbolic flower through storms and trials.
“Still managed to wear the flower on her head.”
The Hyacinth Way
(Still Wearing the Flower) Inspired by Zaw Gyi’s “Ma Beda” Translated and adapted from Myat Kyi La Thein’s version
Brown-blue hues at the river’s edge, Baydar rises as the tide begins to swell. Then sinks again with the falling wave— No easy descent, no gentle farewell.
She hovers near branches, clings and sways, Entwined with the drift, she finds her way. A fallen twig she clasps with grace— A quiet gesture, a helping trace.
But ease eludes her, despite her plan. A sudden wave returns, and down she goes. Her beauty blurred beneath the stream, Yet once again, she dares to float.
Emerging still, though bruised and worn, She joins the ducks through narrow drains. Alone among the paddling swarm, She bears their kicks, their careless games.
Yet Baydar grins, unbowed, unshaken— For on her head, the flower remains.
မဗေဒါ-ဆရာဇော်ဂျီ
ညိုပြာပြာ လတာပြင် ခြေရင်း
လိူင်းတက်ရာ ဗေဒါတက်၊ လိူင်းသက်ရာဆင်း
ဆင်းရလဲမသက်သာ၊
အုန်းလက်ကြွေရေပေါလော၊ မျောဆုံလို့လာ
အဆင်းနဲ့အလာ ဗေဒါမအထွေး
အုန်းလက်ကြွေ သူ့နံဘေး ဆောင့်ခဲ့ရသေး
ဆောင့်ခဲ့လည်း မ သက်သာ
နောက်တချီ ဒီ တလုံးက ဖုန်းလိုက်ပြန်ပါ၊
မြုတ်လေပေါ့ ပေါ်မလာ မဗေဒါ အလှ
တလံကွာ လိူင်းအကြွ၊ ပေါ်လိုက်ပြန်ရ၊
ပေါ်ပြန်လည်း မ သက်သာ
ချောင်းအဆွယ် မြောင်းငယ်ထဲက
ဘဲ ထွက်လို့လာ၊
ဘဲအုပ်မှာ တစ်ရာ နှစ်ရာ
ဗေဒါက တပင်ထဲ၊
အယက်အကန်ခံလို့
ဗေဒါပျံ အံကိုခဲ ပန်းပန်လျှက်ပဲ။
