MALAYSIAN POETRY: THE WATER GARDEN

THE WATER FLOWERS

We should learn a lesson

From the  water garden,

from the flowers that never sink

We should  learn

from the lotus 

how the muddy stems

hold the flower above

Brilliant and lustrous,

We should all learn 

From the water lily

in the water so muddy

keeping white petals  in purity

Our path may be gloomy,

As the  river is sometimes  dirty

Let us learn from the water  plants

To uphold  our integrity.

(ZURINAH HASSAN, A JOURNEY THROUGH PROSE AND POETRY: 146)

DBP, IIUM PRESS MALAYSIA,2018. 

The Water Flowers is a poem about self  integrity. One day many years  ago I was travelling in a bus through a country side , passing through padi fields and villages.

There was a small river Or should I call it a canal or a big drain

running along the road. I kept looking at the river , or more so at the water plants growing in it. The river  was like a water garden with white water lilys . The white lilys also remind me of lutos in a pond in our place. I started to think of the river and the pond that look muddy and unclear. Its amazing how the plants manage to keep their flowers white and beautiful in not so clean surrounding. The lotus was also beautiful in pink and purple. That remind me that we can learn from the flowers especially the water flowers to uphold our integrity or the quality of being honest  and holding on to a strong moral principle. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR. 

Zurinah Hassan is a Malaysian National Laureate (Sasterawan Negara). She is the first female writer to achieve this highest award in literature conferred by the government of Malaysian. She was announced a Sasterawan Negara in 2015 making her the 13th writer to be inaugerated to the rank. The other 12 Sasterawan Negara were all men writers.