THE PULSE EDITOR: MANNY MAUNG manny. maung @ gmail. com |
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Traditions of the literary |
‘ One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.’ TS Eliot The Sacred Wood( 1921)
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THE days may be gone when censorship meant writers lived in constant fear that their words would never be published. But one writer recently experienced the opposite problem: His work was published but his name wasn’ t on it. Nay Min Aung said in November last year he submitted some poems and articles to his friend, a journalist, asking him for assistance in getting the works published. But when the pieces appeared in print, he was surprised to find they had been put under the journalist’ s pen name.
“ The journalist took my poems and articles to get published on Hello art journal and Ganbiya( Mystery) magazine,” Nay Min Aung said.“ All too soon, my poem was published in the journal but under his byline.”
The journalist, who was taking credit for Nay Min Aung’ s work, asked him to write more, informing him whenever his poems and articles were published but never paying the honorariums that came with publication.
“ I was happy to see my works
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ZON PANN PWINT
published but unhappy that they were published under somebody else’ s name,” he said.
In all, Nay Min Aung said“ about 10 poems and articles” were published under the journalist’ s pen name.
Since 2006, Nay Min Aung has published five children’ s stories. He is passionate about writing and left his home in Taunggyi in Shan State in 2006 to pursue his vocation in Yangon, which was where he met the freelance journalist.
“ I was satisfied with devoting myself to writing so I didn’ t complain,” Nay Min Aung said. But he did take the theft as a confirmation that his work deserved to be in print.
“ I sent my stories to the publishing house myself later,” he said.
That Nay Min Aung was aware that his work was being stolen and did not
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complain to the newspaper makes his case unusual; that he went along with it shows how powerless many writers are in the quest to get their words in print.
Poet Thitsar Ni, who said his early works were also published under someone else’ s pseudonym without his knowledge, said it’ s not an uncommon occurrence, adding that writers who are less well known are seen as particularly easy marks.
“ Amateur writers from out of the town are easy victims,” he said.“ They send the original piece to the editors of the magazines via an agent in anticipation that their writings will be published … [ but sometimes their ] short stories and poems are published under a pseudonym or the name of the editor,” he said.
“ They can’ t complain when there is no proof … and they need to be brave to speak out,” Thitsar Ni said.
Thitsar Ni’ s experience with plagiarism is slightly different to Nay Min Aung’ s, in that it was not his words but
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