ON MALAYSIAN LITERATURE

The World is a Shopping Mall

Shakespeare had said
All the world’s a stage
Men are merely actors
With many roles and many parts


In the hand of Beckett
The actors become slaves
Imprisoned on the stage
In a scene of waiting
In a play without ending


Today what if we say
That the world is a big market
We are traders or buyers without exception
Uttering the dialog of business transaction


This is a shopping mall for all
Also a display hall
With cunning promoters
Catching the social conscious
Who go on searching
And shopping for status


Whether this is a Shakespearean stage
Actors with many roles
And many faces
Or in the play by Beckett
The act of waiting on the set
We are no different from them
We’re being directed by materialism


Dunia Sebuah Pasar Raya


Kata Shakespeare
Dunia adalah sebuah pentas
Manusia hanyalah pelakon
Dengan pelbagai peranannya


Di tangan Beckett
Manusia adalah pelakon
Yang terperangkap di pentasnya
Di dalam satu babak penantian
Yang tidak ada kesudahan


Hari ini bagaimana kalau kita berkata
Dunia adalah sebuah pasar raya
Manusia menjadi pembeli dan penjual
Berdialogkan transisi urus niaga


Ini adalah medan berjual beli
Ini juga gedung peragaan
Si mahir menebar iklan
Menjala si egois
Yang tidak putus-putus
Membeli status


Adakah ini pentas Shakespeare
Pelakon dengan pelbagai peranan
Harus pandai bermuka-muka
Atau seperti pentas Beckett
Yang memerangkap di babak penantian
Apakah bezanya
Kita yang diarah oleh kebendaan


ZURINAH HASSAN

Facing the Harbour

It disturbs me
Every time I face the harbour lights
They are the lights of our boundary
Reminding us nobody can live without a name
And loyalty to a country


But nobody can choose his own name
Or the country to be born in

IKLAN TV


Suatu hari pada tahun 1966
ayah membawa pulang
sebuah peti televisyen
kami bersorak riang
lalu sibuk menyusun ruang
untuk memberikan padanya
sudut yang utama


Mulai hari itu
kami mengatur kerja harian
kami melentur kebiasaan
mengikut jadual tayangan


Tetapi sebenarnya
peti itulah yang mengatur acara keluarga
mempertemukan kami
dengan tetamu pelbagai rupa


Dari Kentucky
mereka datang menghidang makanan segera
lalu menakluk selera bangsa


Dari Marlboro Country
mereka menunggang kuda
ke dalam minda anak-anak muda


Dari kota London
kilauan emas pemetik api
menyalakan seribu fantasi
sambil mengusap dada
dengan asap dan jelaga


Dari Paris semestinya
mereka memperagakan kehebatan jenama
lalu memakaikan anak-anak kami
dengan baju ilusi

Ketika kami cuba melindungi putera puteri
di dalam pagar kesantunan
mereka menjerit "breakaway"
lupakan segala batasan


Kadang-kadang kami marah
kerana terlalu banyak iklan
memecah keasyikan
perlahan-lahan kami fahami juga
kuasanya mencorakkan rancangan
dan menyusun jadual tayangan
yang kemudian mempengaruhi
agenda kehidupan.



Biasanya kami leka
ketika wajah negara
dan watak bangsa
diadun oleh tangan sang penaja



TV commercials

One day in 1966
My father brought home
A television set
How we cheered with joy
Immediately rearranged our space
To give it
A prominent place

That day was the beginning
Of our daily routine
Following the program summary
And setting our time accordingly

In fact the box has come to control
The timetable of our household
Bringing to us guests
From all over the world

From Kentucky
They serve food in an instant
Conquering the taste bud of our nation

From Marlboro country
The horses gallop
Into the minds of our young ones


From London city
The gold lighter
Sparks off a thousand fantasies
Filling our chests
With fog and smoke

Form Paris for certain
The parade of brands and fashion
Dress up our children
With clothes of illusions

While we protect our boys and girls
With ethics and morals
They shouted ‘breakaway’
Lets break all the rules

Sometimes we are annoyed
By too much interruptions
disrupting our concentration
But we come to understand
The sponsors right
To schedule our viewing
And we come to compromise
As it dictates our live

More often we are carried away
While the characters of our people
And the landscape of our land
Being shaped by advertisers’ hand



Life from a train window


Life, is it what I see outside a train
Moving fast on its railing
the ever changing faces
the ever changing scenes


Oh self, are you that great mountain
Standing indifferent and proud
to the caressing wind
to the approaching clouds
or are you just that wild grass
condemned, but thrived
hated, yet survived


Are you that rushing torrent
Flowing down in violence.
Bitter and puzzled by the jungle
Only to fall down as bubbles
Laughing at itself amidst the pebbles


Are you that old river slow and calm
Surrendering services to fields and farms
Following turns and meanders loyally
With heart heavy and gloomy


The rain that fall suddenly
Obstruct all views from this train
Telling us we are all lonely
Each on his own journey
Meeting and departing
Happen without any warning


Searching for myself outside a moving train
Among strange faces
And ever changing colors
Before I could make up a vision
The train pulls on its alien coaches
To another station

Looking For Space

Suddenly he got up and switched off the light
Saying, “This room is bigger in the dark
Since we cannot see the walls”

I switched on the lights again
Saying “This light is actually the space
And we are more often imprisoned
By the walls that we cannot see”



Marriage
- one woman’s opinion

Marriage
is the difficulty
of changing routine and priorities
That make you less yourself
And a woman
Has to be less herself
In order to be more a woman

Marriage to a woman
Is a protection
For her who cannot afford the high price
And the high risk
Of living with her own identity

Marriage to a woman
Is a protection
For her who dare not live
In her own identity
It is too costly and too risky

Cerita peperangan tidak pernah menggembirakan. Hari ini saya terharu dan terganggu. Betapa sedihnya mendengar cerita peperangan di Bukit Nanas yang dikisahkan oleh Encik Siri Ning Buah. Pengkisahan ini dianjurkan oleh Persatuan Sejarah Selangor dan telah berlangsung di Kompleks Kebudayaan, Shah Alam.

Begitulah nasib orang-orang Melayu Mandaling yang telah berada di Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 1873. Mereka diserang oleh tentera British, Cina, Bugis, Kedah, Melayu Batu Bara dan Rembau yang dipimpin oleh Tengku Kudin, dan Yap Ah Loy. Penyerang-penyerang telah membedil dan membunuh lalu menghanguskan bumi Kuala Lumpur.

Di Bukit Nanas itulah penduduk-penduduk yang masih ada di sekitarnya mencari perlindungan. Mereka bertahan dan melawan dengan berani. Namun akhirnya hancurlah pertahanan mereka. Mereka dikepung, saluran air minuman dibedil dan pelbagai lagi rupa kekejaman. Orang tua, kanak-kanak yang tidak berdaya telah mati kebuluran.

Bukit Nanas oh Bukit Nanas
Maafkan aku
kau menyimpan luka bangsa
yang selama ini aku kurang tahu


selama ini kisah ini kurang didedahkan. Sejak kecil saya hanya diajar tentang Yap Ah Loy yang digelar "the founder of Kuala Lumpur".

I drop a little honey on the ground
a few ants get around
a few minutes later
more ants gather
and in no time
hundreds of ants
are walking in a line

I watch and wondered how
without voice and without sound
they must have passed the words around
whenever food is found
this fact I have read
that animals communicate

I watched and was carried away
until I heard what an ant has to say
'like men we communicate
tell each other as we pass by
but unlike men
we cannot tell a lie"

It says
'In animal world there is communication
but only men can tell untrue stories
animals don't have such talent"