A Flag Unfurled

By Min Ko Naing ● 2026

Original Burmese

 

English Translation

Noiseless according to rules,
But the flag remains unfurled
Flying high.

As the new night of the world
Awaits the moon’s first rays

Like TheinDaw’s hooves rocket pass

those who had taken unscrupulous steps ahead
We are waiting……..

Shaken to the cores of the marrow

Every time the pinnacle of the flag is worshiped,
duties of our history
strengthens us again.

Noiseless according to rules,
but the flag remains unfurled Flying high…….

Min Ko Naing has been described by the New York Times as Burma’s “most influential opposition figure after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.” He was the chairman of the All Burma Federation of Students Union (ABFSU) and a leader of the prodemocracy protests in 1988 (popularly known as the “Four Eights Uprising”) that were eventually stopped by a brutal government crackdown. Min Ko Naing spent much of the last twenty years in prison; he was freed on 13 January 2012 in a mass presidential amnesty. He was named the recipient of the 17th Citizen of Burma Award during a ceremony held at the Chiang Mai University Convention Center in Thailand.

Posted in: Poetry