17 : From Fowl to Foul

The whole place was packed and the atmosphere was tense;
the patrons frowned, at the limits of their patience.

Then someone heard something not exactly soothing to the ear
(the kitchen helper probably thought that others couldn't hear).

"There's not enough fowl!" they reported, and oh how they scowled.
There were some who even snapped -- words and actions turned foul!

The fact of the matter is, there was no need for such heat,
the only thing needing fire should have just been the meat.

Thus, among the lessons we can learn is patience is a virtue,
and if you don't act rationally... you'll be easy to sue ;)

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This poem is pretty much about a certain issue that just happened in Malaysia last week. It's quite a hard topic I hafta admit, but I hope it turned out ok. :P

Credits to Irin Y. for suggesting the topic! ^_^

7: Tom Yam for the soul

The tom yam was hot
when the clouds started to cry;
Makes me warm inside

Translation

Tom yam yang pedas/panas

apabila awan menangis;

Menghilangkan rasa dingin

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I made Tom Yam campur (mixed) for dinner today, and had it while was raining outside. Cold weather+hot/spicy food = perfect combo.


Anyway, of all the haikus I've posted here so far, I think this one is possibly the hardest to translate, because feeling warm is generally a good thing in English, but not exactly in Malay... possibly due to the fact that Malays typically come from tropical countries and so feeling hot/warm isn't a thing to really thrive for. 'Warmth' would thus probably bring to mind sweatiness, rather than comfy, fluffy thoughts. Thus in the translation I actually used 'feeling less cold', which has a somewhat equal effect to 'makes me warm'.

Also, in Malay, the English word 'hot' can be translated into 2 ways: to mean high temperature, people use 'panas', while hotness from spices like chilli is called 'pedas'. For the original haiku, I meant to use both meanings for the single word 'hot', but as I said, the translation didn't come through perfectly. I apologise :)

Random language lessons ftw :P