Hmong love poem

Pahawh Hmong (Ntawv Pahawh, Ntawv Caub Fab, Ntawv Keeb, Ntawv Soob Lwj) is a semi-syllabary which dates from 1959 and is used to write two Hmong languages.

Hmong girl without country, you found refuge in China and Laos and there they called you miao. My love poem (paj huam hlub) translated, is the reflection of the true country of the Hmong, your face! It is sweet and welcoming as are those of your people! It summarizes them all! I do know not how many other poets have attempted to depict you. Certainly all of your ethnic group. Show me, then, some lines they have written about you!

Miao or Hmong is spoken in the south of China in Kweichow, Yunnan, Hunan and Kwangtung provinces and Laos and Vietnam. Affiliation of Hmong is uncertain. First it was written with an ideographic script then with a script invented by a missionary and now with our Latin letters.

When we talk about Hmong, we speak about 40 languages of southern China. Languages that can be divided into 3 branches comprising respectively: 1 (miao): Hmong, Bunu, Hmu, Qo Xiong; 2 (yao): Mine, Mun; 3: Ho Nte, for a total of nearly 6 million speakers. During the war in Indochina, many Miaos emigrated to France or the United States. The Hmong which was so long surrounded by Chinese, took a lot of influences.

The Hmongs or Miaos or Méos would be, from Central China, and would have come gradually to Indochina. There are several varieties of miao, white Hmong and green Hmong, are the most common, one finds them respectively in (Vietnam, Laos) and China. The term Miao is used by the Chinese to designate them. Themselves, call them, Hmongs.