“These are morality stories. They’re zany, they’re witty, they’re wise,”
Cambodian village life during the years of French colonialism. PHOTO SUPPLIED
Cambodian legends rescued from the depths of obscurity
Many years ago in Cambodia, a devious woman tricked a group of
thieves into disposing of her lover’s corpse. Less than grateful, she
subsequently sold them into slavery. When the gang escaped, they tracked
down the woman and one admitted her shrewdness, which caused him to
fall in love with her. So, naturally, she tricked him into
French-kissing her, bit off his tongue and left him with the slaver.
This fable, called "Women’s Wiles", is a Khmer morality tale that has
been handed down through the generations. It now appears as the first
story of a newly translated anthology of old folk tales, also titled Women’s Wiles, with topics ranging from the birth of Angkor to piracy.
The anthology was first put to paper in 1922 by Guillaume Henri
Monod, a French geologist who heard the stories from a Pursat governor
known only as Khieu. The original collection, published in 1922 as Légendes cambodgiennes: que m’a contées le Gouverneur Khieu, was never republished and disappeared into the obscure depths of university libraries.
But three years ago, Davis, a self-described “literary
archaeologist”, stumbled upon the book while researching old Southeast
Asian texts and decided to translate it into English.
Kent Davis edited the translation of Women’s Wiles. PHOTO SUPPLIED
“We really have a time machine of Cambodian culture and oral
tradition,” said Davis, who previously republished the works of
colonial-era anthropologist George Groslier.
“Monod was collecting these things 92 years ago from a guy who was
probably born around 1850, so he grew up hearing these stories from his
parents who were born around 1800.”
After posting an ad online asking for a French-to-English translator,
Davis found Solang Uk, a 75-year-old retired Cambodian-Swiss biologist
who had previously translated Chinese diplomat Zhou Daugan’s account of
13th-century Angkor.
Uk, who grew up in Tuk Meas town in Kampot province under both French
and Japanese occupation, said that he recalled hearing the stories from
his town’s elders. Despite being a Frenchman, Uk said that Monod
accurately captured the essence of the tales.
“Reading the stories in French, I see no difference between what [Monod] wrote and what I had heard,” Uk said.
According to the translator, the morals of the stories are still a
source of debate, with some seeing Women’s Wiles as a celebration of
intelligence while others see it as a cautionary tale against
treacherous women.
Many other aspects of the tales remain shrouded in mystery. Given the
unstable transmission of oral stories, as well as the shortage of
surviving written Khmer records prior to the 19th century, neither Davis
nor Uk know for certain how old the legends are.
A depiction of Cambodians in an 1887 edition of Popular Science Monthly magazine. WIKICOMMONS
“Oral legends are going to change depending on the story teller, the
place, the time, his or her mood, his memory, his sobriety,” said Davis.
“Some of these tales could easily be a thousand years old, but we don’t know and we can’t tell.”
Monod himself is a mystery, with only a handful of genealogical and
colonial records confirming his existence, while no mention of Governor
Khieu was discovered at all.
“We spent a couple years trying to piece things together, and even
after digging through all this information, we were unable to find a
single photograph of Monod, we were unable to find a single document by
his hand or that he signed. It can be very frustrating when you go back
to look at these people who created these literary works and then
disappeared.”
The stories themselves are told less and less among Cambodians, said
Uk, with the overseas Khmer community particularly disconnected with the
legends. He hoped the English translation would increase awareness
among the Cambodian diaspora of their cultural narratives.
“The young generation might not speak Khmer, so it’s a way of
providing a link to this Cambodia diaspora to keep in touch with their
culture.”
Women’s Wiles will be available at Monument Books next month in both English and French.
This is meayea srei. មាយាស្រី។ We have Khmer story book about this. I think this story was taught at secondary school during Sihanouk time. Nothing new. We can probably find at the National Library in Phnom Penh. Sadly now, the National Library ha become a parking place for fees now.
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