My Beloved children, now you have grown up, we hope you have some understanding about life. Moreover, we hope you have come to realize how much we, as your parents, love you. You are our pupils or our most important internal living organs.
You also know that we, parents, do not work hard just for our own sakes, but mainly for your wellbeing. We say this, not because we want your gratitude, but because we wish you to become good people.
In fact, we really need your help, but we cannot spell it out. Please understand that although we have everything we really need, we still wish to receive gifts from you, even though those gifts may not be as expensive or good as they should be. Still, we are extremely joyful once we know that the gift we receive is from our beloved son or daughter.
In fact, no matter how fully we have been fed, we are always genuinely pleased to taste any food you offer us. Also, no matter how plain the clothes you offer are, we always want to wear them to please you. Even when nothing has been received as gift from you, we are always joyful in your presence and your joined-hands kneeling salute.
The main blessing that all parents want from their beloved sons and daughters is to see each one develop good hearts and reasoning, good deeds, and righteous speech. Their children must know how to distinguish between merit and misdeed according to the truth. We cannot tell you to kneel and greet us or buy us good fruits, and for this reason, some parents, even up to their last breath have never received a salute from their children.
The following is the rendering of a Khmer poem into English:
Keep your parents’ words, the words of their heart, which are precious. They are collection of wise words from the past based on Buddhist teachings.
Bright like morning sun’s golden rays, parents’ words should be remembered. And they are comparable to sunlight and as valuable as gold. The world is bright due to the sun, and parents are the living Buddha that can be compared to the morning rising sun. Parents are in the East and they are worthy of salute from their children. East means ancestors who gave birth to many children on earth and their words are as bright as the sunlight illuminating the world.
