“Did you do what I told you to read and consider the poem ‘When mist rises in the springtime’ yesterday?”, Teacher Hsu asked the students in an online classroom using Zoom in a clear voice.
Hsu, which spends most of the day teaching the children of CDM families, is looking forward to the day when the tyrants will end and there will be peace.
She has hope, and she unburdens that every time she thinks about it, she feels both sad and happy. This is because Hsu’s boyfriend is a person who is fighting an armed revolution to end the current military dictatorship, so she is worried that something will happen to him.
In the early days after the Myanmar military coup d’état, (a freelance teacher) Hsu participated in protests against injustice like others. She met her current lover while working on the revolution. At first, she said he didn’t think they would become lovers.
“I love him who gave his life to participate in the revolution. If he was not participating in the revolution and was just an ordinary person, I can’t even think about whether we would become lovers like this,” said Hsu.
When she was in Yangon, she and her lover were helping and working together for the revolution on duty with them, but both of them were tried to be arrested by the SAC under Section 505 (a), Section 25, Section 188, and Section 122, etc. Then, they avoided escaping from them.
It is said that when they had to avoid that, both of them had to hide separately in different places in Yangon. Every time the SAC troops came to check houses on suspects, they worried they would be arrested.
“One time I hid under the big bed. I got really close to them. I couldn’t bear the pain. I didn’t want to be caught and tortured by them. I could die just once,” Hsu revealed.
While the two of them were fleeing, Hsu’s boyfriend told Hsu to flee to Thailand as soon as possible, saying that he wanted to continue his revolutionary work in Myanmar. At that time, both agreed.
However, she should have made a strong decision to continue the revolution in Myanmar with her lover without listening to her lover’s words. she revealed that she regretted the fact till now that she left him in the lurch.
“Hsu always sheds tears when talking about him like that,” she said, holding back the tears that flowed with her bending the right pointed finger.
In addition to the desire to meet a lover because Hsu is a human being distinctly, the revolutionary spirit in pairs is already exhausting for Hsu. Still, she says that she will continue to stay mentally strong until the end of the dictatorship.
Although not in a life-threatening situation like the lover who is currently making a revolution on the ground, Hsu’s security is still important as she has to enter Myanmar and neighboring Thailand illegally.
Except for sleeping, most of the day was spent teaching in a room about ten feet across. Sometimes there were times when she visited the houses of acquaintances, but that time was too rare.
When she goes like this, she often has a day’s teaching work. At those times, it can clearly see her skills, which are in her thirties. She can teach students, and entertain friends at the same time.
Now, despite living far away from her lover and teaching and working, she sometimes encourages her lover when she is in contact with her online.
In such cases, said that they ended their conversation like that, “We say ‘Take care’ each other. What should we take care of? We always ask each other that question. The people’s suffering is greater than our own.”
Hsu states that the end of the military dictatorship is the main thing for the current situation in Myanmar, but she explains her political philosophy that there are only two sides, it has soft and hard, because whoever will rise and they build the power politics.
The 2-year anniversary of the coup is only a few months away, and the Spring Revolution is still going strong. Therefore, Hsu still hopes to meet her love in some day that the country is peaceful while revolutionizing the military dictatorship.
“I hope to meet him in a place where has certainty, but he maybe leaves out of my life whether he is alive or dead. But everyone who participates in the revolution is not ignoble,” she said calmly and resumed on her Zoom microphone from teaching online which is not completed.
After that, she continued to explain the verse text “………” from the poem ‘When mist rises in the springtime’ by Wungyi Padethayaza, which the students were asked to consider yesterday.
Caption – A scene of the protest in front of Sule Pagoda in Yangon (Old Photo)