Kamsuan Samut

''Kamsuan Samut'' ( th, กำสรวลสมุทร, ) or ''Kamsuan Siprat'' (, ) is a '' nirat'' traditionally attributed to legendary 17th century Thai poet Si Prat and generally regarded as a seminal work from the Ayutthaya era. The poem tells of a distraught lover who describes his journey into exile to Southern Thailand while lamenting the loss of his love.

Synopsis

''Kamsuan Samut'' follows the speaker who proclaims his love for the city of Ayuthhaya and its people; however, he has been exiled to Southern Thailand and thus has to leave his lover behind. He begins to describe his journey from Ayuthhaya "southward, along the Chao Phraya River to just beyond the mouth of the river passing along some Islands along the Cholburi coast plus a few other places which it has not yet been possible to identify." At each pitstop, he expresses feelings of "love-longing", while occasionally detailing the people and wildlife of the area and their history, or reminiscing fond memories with his beloved.

Analysis

The poem is in the style of a '' nirat'' (a poetic form resembling "a series of travel notes to one's beloved, interspersed with comments about her") addressed to the speaker's lover as evidenced by the use of first and second person pronouns seen most prevalently in the final stanza. The poem is made up of 131 stanzas, and contains two forms of verse – ''kap'' and ''khlong'' – that indicate a middle rhyme scheme.

Background and reception

Referred to as ''Kamsuan Samut'' ("Ocean's Lament") in the contemporaneous poetry textbook ''Chindamani'', the poem is otherwise known as ''Kamsuan Siprat'', variously translated as "The Mourning of Si Prat" or "The Wailing of Si Prat".
The poem is traditionally attributed to legendary Thai poet Si Prat, who was active in the 17th century under King Narai; Si Prat allegedly wrote ''Kamsuan Samut'' en route to Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in around 1680, his place of exile after it was found out that he had an affair with one of Narai's consorts.

The date of composition of the poem is still disputed by scholars of Thai literature. For instance, M.R. Sumonachat Sawatdikhun holds that the poem was written during the 15th century, whereas Chantit Krasaesin argues that ''Kamsuan Samut'' was written during the reign of Phetracha (16881703); others have accepted that it is indeed a 17th-century work. A majority of the manuscripts of Ayutthaya-era poetry including ''Kamsuan Samut'' were destroyed by Burmese invaders in 1767. The poem has been variously described as a "masterpiece", "(an example of) heightened realism and sensuality", as well as "one of the most widely imitated ''nirats'' in the 17th and 18th (centuries)".

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

* {{cite book, ref={{SfnRef, Winai, 2010, editor1-last=Winai Pongsripian, title=กำสรวลสมุทร: สุดยอดกำสรวลศิลป์, trans-title=Ocean lament: the ultimate of the lament genre, date=2010, publisher=Thailand Research Fund, location=Bangkok, isbn=9789742255275, url=http://beyond.library.tu.ac.th/cdm/ref/collection/trf_or_th/id/19287, language=Thai

17th-century poems
Thai poems