By Bo Aung Din (My Psudonym or Penname in Burma Digest) Dr Ko Ko Gyi @ Abdul Rahman Zafrudin

Edited by Chat GPT

I knew you were angry with my stepmother, Daw Than Shwe, for bribing the local authorities to imprison your uncles, including U Khun Tun Oo. When you decided to leave and stay with your father, I was not overly worried at first. I believed you already knew how deeply I loved your Uncle Khun — perhaps even more than you did. Though he was your uncle, he always treated me like his own younger brother. As you know, he was the one who first introduced me to you.

I tried my best, but I could not secure his release immediately.

I must confess, dear, that at that difficult time I foolishly tried to ease your anger with a teasing song:

“If you wish to stay, then stay.
But if you no longer wish to remain, then go.
I will not stop you.
Every human being has pride.
I could not give you everything you wanted.”

But when I received a letter from my friend Maung Chan regarding discussions between my close friend Ko Tayza and your father, Hso Kham Hpa, I was shocked. You truly meant what you said. You wanted a divorce from me.

I knew your father — the son of your grandfather, once the chief of your tribe and later the headman of our shared village — was always a serious and straightforward man. He had long been unhappy with my family.

Yet despite our differences, I never believed our love would truly end.

There were times before when you left me and stayed with your father for a while. Others pitied us, believing we had separated. But we were never truly apart. Whenever I closed my eyes and thought of you, distance disappeared. Though physically separated, we remained close in spirit, living quietly within each other’s hearts.

Recently, I obtained a DVD collection of your favourite songs — the timeless compositions of Sai Kham Leik sung by Sai Htee Saing. I am sending you this collection as a Valentine gift.

I listened to those songs with a very heavy heart.

The song that touched me most was one in which a man asks his beloved to think carefully before saying goodbye. He reminds her not only of the tears they shared, but of the many more moments of happiness and laughter they once enjoyed together.

There was a time when we flew joyfully together with the wind. But now the wind has stopped, and you see yourself as a dry leaf without wings, lying helplessly upon the ground. You accuse me of abandoning you — of failing to fly to your side though I still possess wings.

But do you know, my dear, that although I am a Fighting Peacock, I too am trapped inside a cage built by my stepmother?

You should understand that no bird can truly be happy inside a cage — even a golden one. Birds are born to fly, just as flowers are born to bloom. Yet my stepmother is trying to prevent the flower of democracy from blossoming in our homeland. She is trying to halt the very process of nature itself.

But nature cannot be defeated forever.

No matter how hard they try, no matter how powerful they believe themselves to be, they will ultimately fail.

The birds — including the Fighting Peacock — will fly again.

And democracy will bloom again in our homeland.

Not all the blame belongs to me alone, my dear.

If the roof leaks, can we blame only the house and not the rain? Darkness covers our land. Electricity has vanished. The moon itself is waning. But the waning moon is part of nature, not my fault.

Still, from now onward, I will try my best — to repair the roof, to buy a generator, or at least to light the kerosene lamp before darkness completely consumes us.