Career
Mya Than Tint entered Rangoon University in 1948, the year Burma gained independence from Great Britain, and received a degree in philosophy, political science and English literature. His writing career began in 1949 when his first short novel “Refugee” (ဒုက္ခသည်) was published in Tara (တာရာ) Magazine (Number 21, Volume(s) 3, 1949). He published many short and full-length novels, documentaries and translated works in his 50-year writing career.
Dataung Ko Kyaw Ywei, Mee Pinle Ko Hpyat Myi (Across the Mountain of Swords and the Sea of Fire) (ဓားတောင်ကိုကျော်၍ မီးပင်လယ်ကိုဖြတ်မယ်) (1973) is considered to be his greatest masterpiece.
He also wrote historical documentaries like “Breeze over Taungthaman Lake” (တောင်သမန်အင်းက လေညှင်းဆော်တော့). Also a prolific translator of Western literature into Burmese, Mya Than Tint introduced his readers to world classics like War and Peace (စစ်နှင့် ငြိမ်ချမ်းရေး), Gone with the Wind (လေရူးသုန္သုန္), and Dream of the Red Chamber (ခန်းဆောင်နီအိပ်မက်).
He was initially incarcerated in Rangoon"s notorious Insein Prison, but later transferred with other political prisoners to the Coco Islands penal colony in the Indian Ocean until his release three years later. At the age of 68, he died in his home in Sanchaung Township in Rangoon of a brain hemorrhage after an accidental fall from a staircase in the early morning of February 18, 1998.
He was cremated at the Hteinpin cemetery in Rangoon.
"Since my childhood, I have believed that writing is the most honourable job, and honour doesn’t mean material wealth, but honest and truthful dignity." "I will not exchange my job as a writer for anything." "I wouldn’t do now, I won’t do in the future.".