Thawathotsamat
The male speaker laments over a lost lover through the course of one year, drawing on the seasonal weather for similes of his emotions.
Early attempts to date the work ranged from the fifteenth to seventeenth century, but there is now a rough consensus that it was written in or around the reign of King Trailokanat (1448–?1488).
Verse 258 states that a yaowarat (Thai: เยาวราช), "young-king" composed the whole work with the help of three men whose titles suggest they were official court poets.
Around 1463 CE, he moved to Phitsanulok to conduct wars against Lan Na, and elevated a relative to rule in Ayutthaya with the title Boromracha.
All appear to stem from a single original, though there is a great deal of minor variation that has probably arisen in the process of copying.
[7][8] In 1925, Thawathotsamat was printed as a cremation book with a preface by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab and the seal of the Vajirañāṇa Library on the title page.
[11] In 2017, an annotated edition prepared by a team including Trongjai Hutangkura, Winai Pongsripian and Samoe Bunma was published by the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre.
[12] Under an ASEAN literature project, Maneepin Phromsuthirak published an edition with a version in modern Thai in 1996, and an English translation (done with Panit Boonyavatana) in 1999.
She is addressed with royal forms, and named as Si Julalak (Thai: ศรีจุฬาลักษน, Sanskrit: śrī cuḷalakṣana), the official title of one of the king's four primary consorts according to the Three Seals Law.
The couples are: Rama and Sita; Aniruddha and Usa; Samuddaghosa and Vindumati; Sudhana and Manohara; Pacitta and Arabimba; and Sudhanu and Cirappa.
The poem begins in the hot season with images of fierce sunlight, searing heat, parched land, and withered vegetation.
The speaker repeatedly wonders whether his separation from the beloved is the working of karma, the result of bad deeds in a former life (v. 76, 80, 100, 163).
After the close of the calendar year, there is a retrospect which summarizes the main themes of the poem, and ends on a note of reconciliation and optimism (v. 259): this Twelve is twelve of wretchedness but love and happiness are found throughout the world The work is written in the khlong meter except for the final six lines which are in rai.
[19][20] Plueang na Nakhon, the pioneer historian of Thai literature, wrote: "Poets of later generations when dealing with love and loss did not stray from the ideas laid down by Thawathotsamat.
[21] Chanthit Krasaesin wrote that, for a Thai poet, "not having read Thawathotsamat is like not yet having entered the world of literature.
[24][25] In 2005 Maneepin Phromsuthirak, editor and translator of the poem for the ASEAN project, published an article on "Thawathotsamat: Nirat or Manual of Poetics" in a Silpakorn University journal.
[16] According to Samoe Bunma, this neglect arose partly because of the work's obscure language and partly because "people call it ‘erotic literature' (Thai: สังวาสวรรณกรรม, sangwat wannakam) as it deals with inappropriate matters such as the private organs of men and women, and uses words for erotic effect in some verses.
