Sawv Tsees Rov Hlo Los: A Book of Poems

Sawv Tsees Rov Hlo Los piav qhia txog ib txoj kev paub txog kev poob lus thiab kev rov txais lus. Paj Hnub Vwj cov paj huam pib tim Nplog teb mus rau Thaib teb mus rau teb chaws MesKas, raws nws tsev neeg kev tsiv teb tsiv chaw, thiab taug lus Askiv mus rau lus Hmoob raws li nws tus kheej txoj kev rov txais siv lus Hmoob. Nws tau sau cov paj huam no thaum lub sij hawm kawm ntawv qib siab hauv University of California, Berkeley, uas yog ib lub sij hawm uas nws tau xav txog seb kev hais lus cuam tshuam li cas nrog neeg cev nqaij daim tawv, kev kav teb kav chaw, kev poob teb poob chaw, thiab kev ntseeg. Hauv phau ntawv paj huam no, Paj Hnub tham qhia txog lus Hmoob thiab qhov nyuaj ntawm kev siv cov tsiaj ntawv Latin los sau ua lus Hmoob. Nws siv kev nco qab, kev paub txog xav txog lub cev, thiab Hmoob kev ntseeg txog ntuj txog teb nrog rau Hmoob paj huam los ua ib txoj kev paub. Paj Hnub caw txhua tus neeg uas paub ntau hom lus thiab txhua tus neeg uas kawm lawv niam txiv pog yawg cov lus kom ua siab loj ua tiag siv lawv cov lus.

Sawv Tsees Rov Hlo Los enacts an experience of language erasure and reclamation. Pa N. Vue’s poems travel from Laos to Thailand to the United States, following her family’s migration, and from English to Hmong, following her own journey to reclaim Hmong language. She wrote these poems during her time as a doctoral student of education at University of California, Berkeley, where she grappled with questions of how language intersects with race, imperialism, forced displacement, and ideology. Pa sheds light on the richness of Hmong language and the complexities of using the Latin alphabet to write in Hmong. Drawing from memory, embodiment, and Hmong cosmology and traditional spoken poetry as ways of knowing, Pa invites multilinguals and heritage language learners to be courageously creative with all their languages.