In 1903 he married Ma Shin whom he had met in Rangoon before moving to Moulmein, and returned to the capital as the nationalist movement was gaining momentum in 1911 to work for the Thuriya (Sun) newspaper.

[1][2] His mastery of classical Burmese literature enabled him to write extensively in verse with such ease and flair that future generations of writers still find hard to match.

A genius in multiple and complex rhyme, here is one of his couplets that has often been quoted: Kaung myo ahtweidwei yenè chunzei myazei saw, daung owei yelo tunzei kazei thaw (ကောင်းမျိုးအထွေထွေ ရယ်နဲ့ ချွန်စေမြစေစော ဒေါင်းအိုးဝေရယ်လို့ တွန်စေကစေသော) - "May a myriad good things with vigour have a chance; may the peacock have its call and dance".

He is also considered to be unequalled in another traditional form of poetry called Laygyo gyi (လေးချိုးကြီး) which he revived to great effect by giving it a new content of contemporary political issues.

Hmaing inspired a whole generation of Burmese nationalists in the fight for independence, fostering immense pride in their own history, language and culture, and more importantly urging them to take direct action such as strikes by students and workers, the subject of Boingkauk htika (On Boycott).

[1] It was Hmaing along with other leaders of the Dobama who sent Aung San and other young men - later known as the 'Thirty Comrades' - to seek military training abroad in order to fight the British.

After independence in 1948 the country immediately plunged into a widespread civil war which caused great sorrow to Hmaing, and he spent the rest of his life trying to bring internal peace to the land.

Hmaing also travelled to People's Republic of China, Mongolia, Hungary and the Soviet Union in 1953, and went to Ceylon and India for the World Peace Conference in 1957.

Sone Nant Thar Myaing Htika of Mahar Hmaing: Yangon, Myanmar, Walei Society Publishing, First Edition, January, 2013.