ON MALAYSIAN LITERATURE

 MESIN BAHARU

Kerana Iklan yang tidak henti-henti

Kami yang tidak pernah puas hati

membeli mesin baharu

Yang laju menjimat waktu

Setelah ada mesin baharu

Yang lama tidak lagi perlu

Ia mengganggu pergerakan

Dan mesti dibuang

Kita pun akan menjadi mesin lama

Tersisih bila ada yang lebih canggih

Tinggal menjadi pencemar ruangan

Dan selonggok bebanan

Tiada siapa suka mesin lama.

AN OLD MACHINE

Lured by advertisements

And desire for better performance

We bought a new machine

 More sophisticated and time saving

The old one operate no more

It soon become an eyesore

It gets in the way

And must be taken away.

And  so are all of us

We will become old machine

When there is a better version

We become a stack of waste

And a pile of burden.

Nobody like an old machine

ZURINAH HASSAN

 SELUANG

(VERY SMALL FISH)

Tuhan

Berilah aku peluang

Untuk memahami

Mengapa sekecil seluang

Harus berjuang menentang pasang

Meredah batu-batu

Dan liku-liku

Hingga gugur sisik

Dari dadanya yang tercarik.

Setelah perjalanan yang panjang

Ia tiba di pantai asing

Hanya untuk dihempas rindu

Dan sesal

Lalu menghabiskan sisa usia

Melawan arus untuk pulang

Ke tebingnya yang asal.

Tuhan

Berilah aku peluang

Untuk memahami

Mengapa sekecil seluang

Sependek hayat

Sejemput nafas

Harus berhempas pulas

Di air deras.

THE SELUANG

Please GOD

Give me the wisdom

To understand it all

Why the seluang frail dan small

Made to fight the tide and to struggle

Braving the meanders

And pebbles

Tearing scales of his chest

And wounded breast.

After a long journey

He reaches and unfamiliar beach

Exhausted and lonely

Regretting and longing for home

Thus, with the rest of his life

He battles against the current

To make a return

Please God

Give me the wisdom

To understand it all

Why the fish so frail and small

With life so short

And body so tender

Must fight the odds

In the mighty water.

KOTA MELAKA

(A FAMOSA)

Perhaps we should destroy it

The bitter memory of our downfall

But on second thought

Let it remain here

To remind us that we were once defeated

And to keep on asking ourselves

What have we learn

From this humiliation.

KOTA MELAKA

(A FAMOSA)

Barangkali kita patut meruntuhkannya

Ini kenangan pada luka bangsa

Tapi barangkali lebih baik

Kita biarkan dia di sini

Bukti satu kekalahan

Untuk terus bertanya

Apakah yang sudah kita pelajari

Dari penghinaan ini.

____________________________________________________

RAJA KASSIM

I have been thrown out of the palace

Torn away from greatness

I went to the sea

To fish for my life

In the dark night I grope

Casting my net of hope

Sometimes I catch fish

At other time only wisdom.

I feel at ease here

Let Raja Ibrahim be there

All the land he can conquer

But the sea will not surrender.

This boundless water

Is no match for man

All the kings in power

And his furious warriors

Will bow down to ocean breakers.

Let Raja Ibrahim sit on his throne

As I sit in my boat alone

Under the throne there is no sea

But still there are waves and currents

In the sea there is no throne

Only water and the horizon

There is no king and no lord

Only God.

RAJA KASSIM

Aku telah dibuang dari takhta

Disingkir dari kebesaran

Lalu membawa diri ke lautan

Menjadi nelayan.

Pada malam yang gelap

Kutebarkan jala harap

Selalu mendapat ikan

Selebihnya bertemu pengertian.

Aku senang di sini

Biarlah Raja Ibrahim di sana

Seluruh daratan dapat ditakluk

Tapi lautan tak akan tunduk.

Laut ini terbentang

Kudrat manusia tak terimbang

Segala raja yang berkuasa

Segala hulubalang yang garang

Akan tunduk pada gelombang.

Biarlah Raja Ibrahim di takhta

Dan aku menyendiri di perahu

Di takhta tidak ada laut

Namun di bawahnya tetap bergelora

Di laut tidak ada takhta

Cuma air dan awan

Di laut tidak ada pembesar dan raja

Kecuali Tuhan.

 A NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW WITH ZURINAH HASSAN

AFTER RECEIVING NATIONAL LITERARY AWARD (ANUGERAH SASTERA NEGARA)

On 13^th of October 2015 I was announced  a receiver of Anugerah Sastera Negara, making me a Malaysian literary laureate. This  event was given more significance because I am  first female writer to be conferred the tittle of Sasterawan Negara . The announcement was made by Minister of Education in a press conference in Putrajaya. Several newspaper interview followed. This is an extract of one of them.

1) What and who inspired you to be a writer and poet? Tell me about your early years and your family?  

ANSWER:  

 I GREW UP in a village near Sungai Petani in Kedah. Start to love poetry from small. It all began with my hobby, that ia listenin to songs from the radio. I was touched by beautiful lyrics . Most songs use pantun (one of our traditional poetry) as their lyrics.  I listened and was attracted to the beauty of words and language. This lead me to a new hobby, that is writing short verses like pantun. I  began to write  poetry and send them to poetry pages in papers like Berita Harian which had special colomn for students. They call it Ruangan Pelajar or Students Page.  . In 1967 my poetry began to appear in news papers and magazines including Dewan Sastera, Dewan Masyarakat, Berita Minggu, Mingguan Malaysia. 

As to who encourage me? Several people, including my late uncle Ahmad Aris Eckhardt who was a writer himself . He sent me money to buy a typewriter so that I can write to newspapers. I felt committed to pay him back by producing good work. So I went writing and tried hard to improve.  This was  an obligation.  

This award will be bestowed by the Agung who is the Sultan of Kedah. That added more meaning and  happiness. As Sultan of Kedah he came to our school on Speech Day. The school held exhibition to highlight good work and talents among students. My Bahasa Melayu  teacher suggested that I wrote poetry to be compiled  in an album. After the big day,  my teacher said that the Sultan commented  my poetry. This give me much encouragement to go on.  

 2.  What is your reaction of winning sasterawan negara? 

Naturally I feel very happy to be the first female writer to hold the tittle of Sasterawa Negara. However this does not come suddenly or as a surprise. The newspapers in my country always play up the issue of who is to be the next sasterawan negara. There are usually debates and polymec. Several names (including mine) have been mentioned again and again.  My name has been mentioned and speculated  as among the writers that should be considered seriously for the award.  With the confirmation , I should say it ends up the tension . 

 Beside that I feel responsible to produce better work. The tittle comes with duty and responsibility.  I have to be more alert and more careful in writing to befit the tittle of sasterawan Negara.

 3.) What is the biggest change you like to see taking place in our society? 

 I wish to see  the general public  being  more literature conscious  or what we termed as "celik sastera". . The society should give more value and respect to literature and other arts. But our general public  are more attracted to entertainment. Because of this the entertainment industry are given priorities even by the authority.  Television stations are putting more time and money to organize maharaja lawak, and vaious singing competitions that could guarantee more viewers and advertisers. The winners will be loaded with  cash prize, much more than what a Sasterawan Negara can dream of. 

The world is reading the works of Japanese writers like Haruki Murakami, Yoko Agawa and Indian writers like Arudhati Roy. Why do you think the world is not reading the works of Malay authors yet?

ANSWER:  I hope the day will come when the world know us. Translation is very important . That is why I place much hope in Institut Terjemahan and Buku Malaysia.They are doing good job in publishing original tittles but I hope they do not slow down translating our original karya sastera into English, at least. Please go on bringing our work to the world. 

On my part,  translate my own work, some poems and short stories,  into English. Some of these have been published by ITBM  and Dewan Bahasa. Worth mentioning here is a dual language poetry book,  FACING THE HARBOUR/MENGHADAP KE PELABUHAN. What I considered significant is that the English translation version have attracted attention of other translators to put them from  English to other languages. The book is now in Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese.  

You have written short stories and novel but your favourite genre is poems. Why do you like poems better? 

ANSWER: My first encounter with literature was with poetry. This mostly came via children song an songs I heard over  the radio.  Songs that we sing in our childhood almost all of them are poetry.  Another thing, poetry is shorter. It was not possible to write  short stories and what more,  novels at that time when I did not hav a type writer.   We had to use a typewriter (if we are lucky to have one). Imagine the typing we have to do, to alter a word you need to re type the whole page. And if the page affect other page, that page also have to be repaired and retype. IIt  can break a few veins.Computer was unheard of.

TAMAN WARISAN , Kuali Hitam Enterprise, 2022, diselenggarakan oleh Sasterawan Negara Zurinah Hassan. Buku ini memuatkan puisi-puisi tradisi, Pantun, Syair, Gurindam, Seloka karya nama-nama yang terkenal dalam bidang ini.  Penulis-penulis terdiri dari Roslan Madun (Raja Syair Nusantara), Ghazali Lateh, Nazim Mohd Subari dan Shamsudin Puteh. Pada keseluruhannya buku ini memperlihatkan bagaimana puisi tradisi berkembang di dalam era digital. 

Puisi Warisan semakin diminati pada masa ini. Buku ini memberi pendedahan kepada pembaca, khasnya golongan generasi muda , tentang ciri-ciri puisi warisan . Secara khusus ia memberi panduan kepada mereka yang berminat untuk menulis puisi-puisi tradisi. 

 I have translated my own poems into English.  Most  of the translated works have been published in a book entittled Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/ Facing The Harbour. The book is first printed in 2010 by Institute of Translations and Books, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. 

The poems featured here have been written after Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/Facing The Harbour. They have been included in a book A Journey Through Prose and Poetry , co published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia and IIUM Press in 2018. IIUM stands for International Islamic University Malaysia. 

Generation Without Nostalgia speaks of our kids today. Everyday they are left behind by their parents who have to work and struggle in this modern world. The house helps are sometime not trustworthy. The parents come home late due to heavy traffic on the road and the children were confused whether their parents truly love them. 

One particular incident mentioned in the poem is when the child impatiently waited for her parents to arrive home to hand them an invitation  to the prize giving ceremony. She thought the news that she has acheived  top position in class would make them happy and proud. They seemed happy when they first heard  the news and praised their daughter  for beating her classmates. But that night the she heard them arguing as to who should attend the ceremony. Father said he has a very important appointment while mother shouted why it must be her who sacrificed all the time. She too has to take care of her career and profession. Apparently both of them are ambitious.

The poor child could not take anymore. She was heart broken.

GENERATION WITHOUT NOSTALGIA

I have heard

My Mom and Dad telling stories

Of their childhood days

In a village far away

With their parents and grandparents,

full of affections

of nights that passed by

in cradles and lullaby

Their childhood must have been

A wide field of nostalgia

Lush garden of memories

How they often said

That Childhood time

is most happy and fun

In the life of everyone

I listen and think again

When I grow up

What stories will I tell

To my offspring

No, probably I will not tell anything

Perhaps I will not mention a word

about my childhood

Let the pictures dispersed

 my little sister crying every morning

and mama restless and rushing

push her towards our maid

and the maids are always changing.

I do not want to remember

How I cuddled to my father

To say something like I miss him

I trembled when he screamed

I have spoiled his concentration

On his favourite show on television

I will not recall how the servant

Fierce and stern

Drove me and little sister to our room

Telling us to remain in silent

I was desperate when  sister said

“Kakak I am hungry my tummy ached”

But we did not dare to speak out

Just praying for mama to show up

But in the evening

Mama would phone home complaining

There is a prolonged meeting

Or traffic congestion on Federal Highway

Almost everyday

What is the use recalling the happy morning

I obtained exam result

that should make every parents proud

I was impatient, waiting for my parents

As soon  as I heard the car

I ran to hand  a letter of invitation

To the ceremony of prize presentation

I was hugged in praise and admiration

That I have beaten other children

I was full of excitement

Until later I heard my parents in argument 

Dad said 'You have to go the school alone

 That very  day I am meeting the Minister.

It's not easy to get another appointment "

And mama replied  almost shouting

"It is always me who has to do everything

Its always me who give in

Put off work, sacrifice my performance record

And not appreciated "

 They shouted at each other

 I could not bear to hear

I had hoped to bring joy with my achievement

but it brought burden and argument.

Day after day

Deprived of tender loving care

We grow up and mature

Into generation without nostalgia.

(original tittle: Generasi Tanpa Nostalgia)

                GENERASI TANPA NOSTALGIA

Pernah juga aku mendengar

Mama dan ayah bercerita

Tentang masa kecil mereka

tentang kampung nan jauh di mata

bersama nenek, atuk dan moyang

 yang penyayang

Mendodoikan  mereka

dengan nazam dan bauaian

Kiranya masakecil mereka

padang luas nostalgia

Taman rimbun kenangan

Pernah kudengar

Kata orang dewasa 

Zaman kanak-kanak

adalah waktu paling bahagia

Dalam hidup setiap manusia.

Aku mendengar dan memikir sendiri

Bila  aku dewasa kelak

Apakah yang akan kuceritakan

kepada anak-anak

Tidak ,aku tidak akan bercerita apa-apa

Bahkan aku mungkin tidak akan menyebut

 perihal masakecilku

Biar menjadi gambar-gambar yang pecah

Setiap pagi adik  menangis

dan mama dengan resah

Menolaknya

ke dukungan pembantu rumah

Yang kerap pula berubah

Aku tidak mahu mengenang

Suara ayah yang garang

Menyuruh kami diam

Ketika dia terpaku di hadapan

Rancangan kegemaran

Tidak perlu kuingat

Suara bibik yang mengherdik

Menghalau aku dan adik ke bilik

Berjam-jam tidak berani keluar

Sedihnya bila adik menggeletar

‘kakak saya lapar’

Tapi  kami tidak berani meminta

Hanya berdoa mama akan tiba

Namun seperti biasa

Telefon berdering mama di talian

Ada mesyuarat yang berpanjangan

Atau Federal Highway sesak  lagi

Hampir setiap hari

Untuk apa  bercerita tentang pagi yang riang

Aku diumumkan penerima hadiah cemerlang

Sungguh lama menunggu mama pulang

Dan sekujur mendengar kereta di halaman

Aku berlarian menghulurkan surat jemputan

Ibu dan ayah memelukku dan memuji

Anak bijak anak kebanggaan.

Aku gembira sehingga malamnya

Terdengar  ayah berkata

‘Mama sajalah pergi

 hari itu saya jumpa Menteri.

Bukan senang mendapat temujanji”

Dan mama membalas suaranya keras

“selalu saya sahaja ke sekolah

Selalu saya saja yang mengalah

Menangguh kerja berkorban apa saja

Terjejas prestasi

 tak pernah dihargai”

Mereka terus bertengkar

 aku tak sanggup mendengar

kejayaanku tidak membawa kebahagiaan

tetapi satu bebanan.

Hari demi hari

Kami tidak sempat bermanja

Dan  akan dewasa

menjadi generasi tanpa nostalgia.

 OTHER POEMS. 

OF HISTORY AND POETRY

As they have written in history books

Men have built many empires

And fought unending wars

The winners ruled  nations

The loosers staged rebellions

The winners shall write history

The loosers shall  write poetry.

 (original tittle: Sejarah dan Sajak)

SEJARAH DAN SAJAK

 Menyingkap peta dan riwayat

Tamadun demi tamadun terbina

Perang demi perang berulang

Yang menang menjadi pemerintah

Yang kalah menjadi pendesak..

Yang menang akan menulis sejarah

Yang kalah akan menulis sajak

MULTI LEVEL MARKETING

 They turned their family members

And all their neighbours

Into potential customers

They turned their neighbourhood

And streets

Into open markets

It is not product that they promote

But dreams and hopes

MLM they called the enterprise

Where the first level thrive

The middle level survive

And the lowest level victimised.

(original tittle: Tentang MLM)

TENTANG MLM

Mereka menukar kaum keluarga

Dan jiran tetangga

Menjadi pasar terbuka

Yang dijual bukan barangan

Tapi mimpi dan harapan

MLM adalah cara berniaga

Yang di atas menjadi kuasa

Yang di tengah sempat merasa

Yang di bawah adalah mangsa.