My Revival
by Hay Tran, Central High School, 1988

My name is Tran, Meng Hay (Hi)
I am attending Central High
A school of excellence nationwide.
But I have been horrified
By hunger, fatal illness, bombardment and explosions which I could not deny.
Lost in jungles, being plundered, becoming beggars, I have strived
With poverty, injustice and discrimination I have been familiarized.
I lost relatives and close friends, of happiness I have been deprived.
But all the truly have enriched my life.
They are things not to forget, neither to be memorized,
They are experiences of shame and sorrow but also of pride.
Peace without justice is not what I have had in mind,
But for peace with equity and love I will fight.

The Khmer Rouge's Regime of 1975,
Used many lies to commit genocide.
It tried to deindustrialize and purify,
Hoping that the country would be socialized,
As the regime was dramatized,
Doctors, lawyers, teachers and many others were harshly criticized,
All the common people were deprived of their civil rights,
Most of us were forced to work before dawn to dark, even till midnight,
Of my thirty-five relatives, only five survived,
Overall it took over three million lives.
Pol Pot, too, tried to take my life,
"By only one person, communism can be mobilized," he advertised,
"And we don't need you, those who are westernized and civilized."
But he failed, and I was all right, as he was exiled.
Then the country was left with the danger of becoming Vietnamized.

I was glad that I did survive.
Thank You God for giving me one more chance of life
And I will be struggling for a better and happier life.

The Thai's government, in 1979,
Returned thousands of refugees despite their pleas and cries,
By forcing them to walk down from the peak to the mountainside.
Hoping that this deterrent policy would well be publicized
Why should such a fatal site be chosen then, otherwise?
Nonetheless as they passed by exploding mines
That were planted there and no one knew why,
Thus many children, husbands and wives died.
Just like this, many families were victimized.
The mines, too, attempted to take my life;
One here, two there, three at the rear, and everywhere they spied.
They were all ready and alert for me to step by,
But they failed, and exploded, some far and some very close by.
Yet for eighteen days, I had rushed and walked a path of 300 miles,
Before I was free from being jeopardized.

I was glad that I did survive.
Thank You God for giving me one more chance of life.
And I will be struggling for a better and happier life.

On one of my escapes, I tried
To reach a refugee camp in the land of Thai,
My nephew lost his right foot to a mine.
"If we had found the needles for the larger mines,
And had planted them there last night.
Furthermore, we thought it was our enemy and we were ready to broadside.
But hearing a woman groan stopped us from letting the bullets fly."
It was not any woman, it was I who was frightened and cried.
But the mine, too, intended to take my life.
It exploded, pieces of my pubic skin fried
As parts of the exploding mine passed by.
But it failed to take my eternal life
For the reproductive organ of mine survived.

I was glad that I did survive.
Thank You God for giving me one more chance of life.
And I will be struggling for a better and happier life.

I have only one life.
Three times did that life subside,
But three times I revived.
And now I hope to live a happier life,
But though physically I'm alive,
Spiritually I'm in stage of strife.
Can my soul survive becoming Americanized?

Hay Tran graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia in 1988. He currently works as a computer specialist in San Francisco, California.

back to additional lesson 1 (older students)