Skip to main content

PHKA SROPOUN [Summarize - Cambo Time]

The novel tells the story of Bun Thoeun (ប៊ុនធឿន) and Vitheavy (វិធាវី), whose parents have arranged for them to marry since they were young. After Bun Thoeun’s father loses his boat in a storm transporting rice to Prey Nokor, his family lose their livelihood and become poor. 



“Mrs. Nuon (យាយនួន), mother of Vitheavy, prefers money over honor and cancels the engagement. Instead she arranges a new marriage for Vitheavy with Naisot (ណៃស៊ត), who is a rich man. Naisot is bad-tempered and immoral and uses his money to do anything he wants. 


After becoming engaged to Naisot, Vitheavy falls ill, and pines for Bun Thoeun. However, she dares not argue with her mother over the engagement. As her health worsens, Mrs. Nuon takes her daughter to t Siem Reap, but Vitheavy’s spirits remain low. 


When Vitheavy coughs up blood, her superstitious mother takes her to a fortune teller/healer, who tries various methods to try to cure her. However, it does not work and Vitheavy’s condition worsens. 

Bun Thoeun, on hearing Vitheavy will be getting married to someone else, becomes very sad and cries alone. He goes into the forest for days with Mr. So (តាសូ), to find firewood and fish to try to take his mind off the marriage. When he returns home, he learns Vitheavy had died, causing him much grief.” 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BAYONG KOR MOUNTAIN [Cambo Time - Fairy Tales]

  Long time ago, in Khmer kingdom there was a king named Preah Bat Bayong, who had a royal palace in Dangrek Mountain. The king had a wife named Neang Sak Kraob. She was the most beautiful woman with smiling face, and white complexion like an angel. The good fragrance of her body could be smelled around 16 kilometers. Then, this great fame was publicized to Siam king. This king sent a spy to find out and finally they knew that the queen was really a beautiful and faithful woman. The Siam king made a bad scheme to catch her to his kingdom for the great honor of his country. When Preah Bat Bayong knew this trick, he immediately took his wife, group of ladies- in- waiting, servants, officers and all soldiers to leave the palace by the junks toward the southeast in the nighttime. Before leaving, the king raised his both hands on the head and prayed to God, "May I achieve three wishes 1. Have a safe journey on the waterway, 2. Be not caught up by Siam soldiers 3. Find a good residence.

SOPHAT [Summarize - Cambo Time]

The novel Sophat was written by Rim Kin in 1938 but not published until 1942 due to a lack of publishing facilities in Cambodia at that time. The book depicts both the repression endured by Cambodian women at that time and the ripple effects that this treatment could have on all of society. Girls and young women who became pregnant outside of marriage were made to feel ashamed. Like the mother of this story’s title character, they and their children were often abandoned, their existence denied. This tale begins with the abandonment of a pregnant young woman by the well-to-do, high-ranking father of her unborn child, who goes to Phnom Penh for work. She is left to deliver her baby alone, without any support from relatives. Unable to care for the child, she leaves it with an orphanage. Before she leaves her son, she gives him a name: “Sophat.” When she learns that her former sweetheart has left her for another woman, she is so utterly devastated by the betrayal that she soon falls ill an