P H A Y V A N H  •  L U E K H A M H A N

I Think of This Every Time I Think of Mountains

Track 3: "SOUPHINE'S ESCAPE SONG"
MP3, 2.5 MB (right click to download)

Written and performed by Souphine Phathsoungneune, accompanied by Bounthan Thongsouvanh on kaen.   

translation:

I Think of This Every Time I Think of Mountains Audio CD

Souphine's Escape Song

Now I will describe when Laos fell apart.
Everyone had to escape and had no home,
We had to move out from our old land.
Aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers
float along the Mekong River.
Float across the river to Thailand.
All the sisters and brothers had to separate from each other.
Everybody had to go by themselves and will not see each other again.
Everybody had to escape from death and had nowhere to go...
Ubon refugee camp had millions of refugees.
Laos' people still floated over the Mae Khong River.
They left Laos from all directions and didn't have a chance to see each other.
They had to leave alone and couldn't worry about other people,
Get to the refugee camp in Thailand first.
The religon was wrecked.
It was better for the people who lived by the river.
But for people who lived far away from the Mekong River,
it took a long time before they could take a boat.
Some people died before the middle of the way.
A lot of people found that their families died in the river.
Brothers left sisters,
The sound of people crying, was everywhere.
Husbands and wives separated from each other.
What bad Karma.
It separated the children from their parents;
The girls separated from their partners
And far away from the flowers they used to smell.
Those days are many years from today;
Maybe they will have to marry another man or woman.
Already, now Oh!
My old girlfriend
I wonder if you went back to your old homeland or not.

Written by Souphine Phathsoungneune. Translated by Aew Ladd.