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Indonesian poetry
| Critical Analysis #1 |
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Indonesian poetry |
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Willem Member
since 1999-11-18
Posts 139Inverness, FL, USA |
Allow me to post this poem written by a contemporary Indonesian poet. I have a few more like this, though on different subjects. Please let me know whether you liked it. MY COUNTRY Were my chest to be cleft all of my desire would be visible mountains and valleys trees skirting fields of rice a footpath to the house but an old city as well with ramshackle houses a sky burnt red and jungles with lost souls reflected in the shriek of a wounded deer as it runs resounding even before it is voiced if nature were not gathered in my breast how could words rise as if from nothing the hand would be empty when reaching for the sky by Subagio Sastrowardoyo |
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| © Copyright 1999 Willem - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Did you do the translation? I very much enjoyed the first part of the poem and the sort of symbiosis of desire/nature. My only complaint would be the 'lost souls' part which seems a bit too familiar to Western readers -- I would try to express that in some other way. The last stanza sort of stands apart from the rest; I suppose it's an attempt at unifying nature and the individual which, again, I think could be expressed in a different way. Having done several translations myself (in Japanese -- not poetry -- and Korean -- one poem -- I know how difficult this is to do. I hope, for one, to see more of these. Even with some of my complaints mentioned above, it does indeed capture a very different image than what you normally see in Western poetry. Thank you, Brad |
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Willem Member
since 1999-11-18
Posts 139Inverness, FL, USA |
Hi, Brad! I'm glad you could appreciate Subagio's poem. Unfortunately, I did not translate it myself, but the author might have done it, or even written it in English. That would account for the Western tinge you spotted. I never met him, but found this poem on a poetry webring a few years ago. He might be an expatriate, probably working in the UK or USA, going by the somewhat nostalgic tone of his poem. Most Indonesians, especially the rural ones, are very close to nature, a remnant of the old animist religions, before Islam came. Having lived among them myself more than half of my life, I share many of their feelings, even as a Christian. And I love their language, which I'm still studying. Will post another one, from a different poet, in a little while. I hope you will share some of those Japanese and Korean poems with us here. I tried haiku a couple of times, but found it too rigorous a style to express myself in, though I like reading them very much. Regards, Willem |
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