ON MALAYSIAN LITERATURE

Thursday, June 25, 2020

A MALAYSIAN WOMAN POET TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE-

I have written poems about women in the legends, but I am also concerned about the present situation. What happened to the legendry ladies is happening to many women in our time, though in different ways. Even today, marriages are not necessarily a matter of the heart. There are marriages of convenience, marriages for family honour, business arrangements, social commitments, and more often to save a woman and her family from the social stigma. A girl is brought up to preserve a good name so that she will be married into a good family. It is believed that no woman would remain unmarried by choice . There is a high and often unaffordable price of living alone and remaining true to one’s identity and carving one’s own destiny. My point is what I put in the line, “A woman has to be less herself, in order to be more a woman”. This is delivered in a poem entitled “Marriage”:

Marriage

-one woman’s opinion

Marriage is the difficulty

Of changing routines and priorities

That make you less yourself

And a woman has to be less her self

In order to be more a woman.

Marriage to a woman

Is a protection

For her who dares not live

On her own identity

It is too costly and too risky.

(Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/Facing the Harbour: 82-83)

Even up to the present time some young girls sacrifice advancement in career for a marriage prospect much to the loss of their nations. In a poem “Salam Perempuan Dari Penjara,” (A Woman’s Greeting From Prison, 2010) [S1] , I looked at a woman’s journey through life as a procession which no one dares to divert from. It is a procession where everyone walked to a fixed destiny:

A woman’s greeting from prison

One Zurinah in a chamber with her sisters

She dares not go out again

Though the field is calling her name

For here they let her have

Anything except her own self

She has something to say

But she does not own a voice

A woman must be protected

Her words could harm herself

So she offers unrefined verses form her prison

In a hurry to live up to their expectation

They demand perfection

Before the evening wind

Drop petals of roses on her table

Before the last shadow

Pass by her window

Before the twilight rays

Throw lines on the glaze

And lines on her face

She and her sisters

In a procession to their dying day

While within these walls

They had never lived at all.

Original version in Bahasa Melayu

Salam Perempuan dari Penjara

Seorang Zurinah

di kamar saudara-saudara perempuannya

Dia tidak berani keluar lagi

Ke padang yang melambainya

Di sini ia bisa memiliki apa saja

Kecuali dirinya sendiri

Dia mahu berkata

Tetapi tidak punya suara

Kerana bahasa seorang wanita

Telah menjadi merbahaya

Lalu ditawarkan puisi-puisi sumbang dari kurungan

Terlalu banyak yang minta disempurnakan

Sebelum angin petang turun

Meleraikan mawar di meja

Sebelum bayang-bayang terakhir

Berlalu dari jendela

Sebelum senja menyuramkan

Garis-garis di kaca

Garis-garis di muka

Dia dan saudara-saudara perempuannya

Dalam perarakan menuju harimati

Sedang ketakutan telah lama

Membunuh mereka..

( Di sini tiada perhentian: 4)

The translated version together with the original are later published in Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/Facing the Harbour: ITBM Kuala Lumpur, 2010. The second printing is in 2013 and third printing in 2018.The collection was also translated into Spanish, Russian, Japanese and French.

As I have mentioned earlier, there are women who marry for the sake of freeing themselves from social stigma. As for choosing their life partners, the elders told their girls not to be choosy and told their boys to choose their bride properly. This depressing situation gave rise to a poem “Satu Percakapan Singkat” (A Short Conversation):

A Shprt Conversation

(with a fellow poet)

My friend

On our love for this life

We may not differ from each other

On our love for poetry

That too is similar

But you are a man

And I am a woman

That make the whole different

A man is free

to limit his choice

a woman limits her choice

to free herself.

((Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/Facing the Harbour: pp.88-89)

Born as a woman, there is not much that you can do but pray to God for his protection and guidance. I wrote a poem, “Nyanyian Menidurkan Halini” (A Lullaby to Halini), in which I told a little girl not to cry. And I wish I could teach her not to shed tears now and forever. She should grow up as a strong personality and not to cry on the wrong shoulders.

With this song Halini

I put you to sleep

Sleep will not always come easy

When you are old enough to know it

Calm down Halini

Don’t cry anymore

You must learn to value your tears

Don’t let it fall

on any wrong shoulders.

May you grow up Halini

With courage and confidence

Put your trust in God

You will really need him

Because you are born a woman.

((Menghadap ke Pelabuhan/Facing the Harbour: pp.80-81)

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

A WOMAN WRITER IN MALAYSIA (2)

zurinahhassan 12:21 AM 0 Comments

AN EXTRACT FROM MY BOOK. (page 36 to 38 )
(co published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and International Islamic University Press, 2018. It is a book about being a writer and a woman in Malaysia)

Besides poetry I also write short stories and a novel that touch on women issues. Most of them evolved around my personal experience particularly the obstacles in pursuing my ambition of becoming a good writer. I have written about the customary and domestic obligations, the burdens of child bearing and rearing that suppressed artistic talents. I have had the experience of having to stay home with my little toddlers, during which period it was impossible to produce anything of literary standard. Later, when I managed to break away, I summed up those depressing situations in a short story entitled Catatan Di Meja Makan (Writing on the Dining Table), first published in 1983 in our national newspaper. The protagonist in the short story, Hamima, was an upcoming short story writer who left her job to look after her small children. She became desperate when the routines of a housewife took her away from her writing, and from herself. When Hamima had no choice but to take an resign from her job, she thought she could manage her time. She planned her schedule properly. She tried to allocate time for the various tasks of a housewife, working the hours and minutes needed for cooking, sweeping, ironing, washing plates, tidying up the kitchen so that she could have some time left for her writing. She was determined not to lose her footing in the field of writing or to die off like many women writers before.

Hamima found out later that there is no such thing as time tabling in a housewife job because it is full of the unexpected. There was no way of telling when the child would get sick, at what time he was going to slip and fall, or when anyone would smear tomato sauce on the floor. She felt empty and depressed for not being able to write. She envied the men, for it is so easy for them to do anything. For instance, a male writer could sit at the table with his books for as long as he wanted to.

She read about a male novelist who was a big name. He said he was lucky to have such an understanding wife. Can a woman writer have the same privilege? What would happen to the children if she locked herself up in the room to write? The children would cry for her. They demanded attention and disturbed her even when she wanted to write. They have been disturbing her even when she was hungry and needed to eat, and even when she was sick and could not lift up her head.

The short story is an example of how personal experiences are put to literature. The protagonist, was an image of myself and other women writers struggling to steal sometime to be ourselves. It expressed my own desperation in a life that offered no sense of satisfaction or purpose. Those were the times when I considered myself a failed poet and a failed person. During the period, I wrote very little, partly due to the fatigue of household chores and attending to small children’s constant needs, and the fatigue of suppressed anger and dissatisfaction. I lost contact with the world and the contact with my own being.

I was also disturbed by the fact that women were usually isolated from their surrounding. They were usually confined to domestic affairs. A short story entitled Seperti Ibu (To Be Like Her Mother) relates how a village girl, Tijah, was brought up to help her mother and to become just like her mother. She got up in the morning and followed the routines set for her. She looked after the younger siblings and was responsible for everything that happened at home while her mother worked in the padi field. Tijah sometimes questioned why her elder brother Ahmad did not have to do anything, and why their parents did not treat their sons and daughters equally.

How lucky to be Ahmad. He is older but need not wash plates. Ahmad need not carry the younger siblings. Ahmad can play as he likes and can go anywhere he likes. Ahmad will not be scolded if the house is messy and dirty. Tijah will be blamed for anything wrong or not to expectations. Mother always nagged at her and mother said all is done for her own good because Tijah is a girl. Tijah will one day get married. She will be a wife and a mother with a house and children to look after.”

Tijah observed that whenever the people from the government office came to give a talk at the open space near the village headman’s house, her father would go with the men folks to listen to them. She envied Ahmad because he was free to follow them. But her mother and the other women never go since they had so much to do at home.

There are other short stories that touch on obedience and submission as the symbol of decency, dignity and womanliness . A common stereotype phrase dedicated to women is “No matter how highly educated you are, a woman’s place is in the kitchen”. This almost discourage women to pursue further studies. Mothers and grandmothers advise their girls to marry young. The elderly ladies are worried of their daughters not being able to find a husband which mean they will have no children and no one to take care of them in later life. Somehow they manage to instil fear and unnecessary worry among the girls causing some of them to forgo further studies and career opportunities for the sake of settling down. I depicted this in several short stories including Anita. Anita was brilliant and beautiful. While studying in the university she was active in community work including helping to teach voluntarily Malay students who were weak in Mathematics and Science especially in the rural areas. She was too occupied in student activities to take up serious relationship with the opposite sex. Furthermore boys prefer quiet and low profile girls for their potential wives. Anita graduated to become a school teacher, determined to do her best to help the students and help the society. She organized programmes and asked for commitments from her fellow teachers. But Anita became a victim of prejudice and misunderstanding and even rumoured of trying to steal somebody’s husband. This happen because Anita was still unmarried even though she was close to thirty.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

A WOMAN WRITER IN MALAYSIA

zurinahhassan 5:39 PM 0 Comments

A JOURNEY THROUGH PROSE AND POETRY co published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and International Islamic University Press 2018. The book was launched at Singapore National Library.

This book originates from my paper entitled “Women Writers in Malaysia: The Road I Have Taken” delivered at a seminar organized by the Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok on 9 September 2013. The seminar, The Emergence and Heritage of Asian Women Intellectuals examined the role of women in development of a nation and society. It facilitated discussion on the challenges faced by aspiring women due to gender inequality. I was called to talk on my experience as a woman writer amidst the cultural background in which I grew up. The paper started with an introduction of the development of women writers in Malaysia written by Dr. Norhayati Ab Rahman. I picked up from there to talk on my involvement in Malaysian literature.

The book is divided into two sections. The first part began with a brief introduction of the early development of modern Malaysian literature and the emergence of important women writers in the Malay literary scene. I talked of personal involvement in writing, how it began, the experiences, and the struggle that followed. The long and winding road taken manifested the hardship that a woman in Malaysia has to overcome, to pursue her aspiration of becoming a writer or to create a name for herself amidst the social and cultural situations. What sparked off writing was the suppressed feeling of being silenced by norms and upbringing, the warning that a girl should not speak or exert her voice. There was so much to say and the only way out was to write them down.

I talked about issues in poems and short stories, exposing creative processes of some selected works that have been highlighted. The issues in the writings are also common in the literary works of other contemporary Malaysian writers.

iThis will serve as an insight especially to foreign students and readers, into contemporary Malay literary scene. My focus is on the social and religious factors that mould the creativity of Malaysian writers particularly the women. I also made observations of fellow women writers, some of which did not survive and disappear especially after marriage. At the earlier stage, writings by women did not receive due attention and review. They were usually considered of lesser quality than works produced by male writers.

The second part of the book contained excerpts of short stories and selected poems. The works selected are examples to illustrate what have been discussed in the first section. There are mostly short stories and poems on the plight of women and other issues in society which include poverty, the concern for the younger generation, and the future of the nation.

This book is a source of information on the life and authorship of a Malaysian woman. It is my hope that it could enrich the material and references on contemporary Malaysian literature. I made it my objective to give an insight into the sociological and cultural background that influenced literary production of a female writer in Malaysia. The samples of short stories and poems in translation included here would benefit students of Malay literature particularly the foreigners.

I have previously written two books on involvement in writings. The first book is Memoir Zurinah Hassan Menjejak Puisi (Penerbit UKM, 2003), a memoir of childhood and younger days and the beginning of participation in writing.. Most of the poems cited and analysed were produced at the earlier stage of writing career. The second book is Catatan Perjalanan Seni Zurinah Hassan (ITBM, 2013), which concentrated on creative processes of poems inspired and influenced by folktales and legendary tales.

In 2015 I was announced as a Malaysian National Laureate. I became a first female writer to be selected to this highest level of recognition in literature in Malaysia. The award which carried the tittle of Sasterawan Negara was established by the government of Malaysia in 1981. From then up to the time of writing (2020) 14 writers have been honored with the tittles.

A MALAYSIAN WOMAN POETRY BOOK IN JAPANESE

zurinahhassan 8:06 AM 1 Comments

In Jun/July 2014 I was invited to Tokyo International Book Fair in Tokyo Japan. My book, a collection of poetry has been translated into Japanese Language by Jamila Mohamad and Professor Narita. The collection is made up of 48 poems originally written in Bahasa Malaysia and published in literary magazines and various newspapers in their literary coloumns.

The events took place at a large convention centre known as The Big Sight.We were given special treatment as Malaysia was the theme country that year. The grand occasion was officiated by a Japanese princess. Besides book exhibitions there was Poetry Reading Sessions and Wayang Kulit show by Istana Budaya.

Our Malaysian team was led by ITBM, the publisher of my book (both original and translated version). It was a memorable event in my life.

My friend and translator Jamila Mohamed presented the book to Mr Toyoda of Toyota Motor Corporation in October 2016. The book was also presented to Prof Dr Matsuo Selichi , President of Nagoya University.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

KEINDAHAN PANTUN DAN PANDUAN MENGARANG PANTUN.

zurinahhassan 5:48 PM 1 Comments

KALI INI KITA BERCAKAP TENTANG PANTUN KHASNYA PANDUAN ATAU TIPS MENULIS PANTUN. DAN SAYA TUMPUKAN KEPADA PANTUN 4 KERAT.

Sebuah pantun yang bermutu mengemukakan sesuatu Pemikiran dan berupaya untuk menyentuh emosi. Ia merupakan jalinan yang harmonis di antara penggunaan bahasa dan maksud yang hendak disampaikan.

Secara ringkas NILAI ESTETIKA PANTUN dapat dirumuskan sebagai berikut.

1. Mempunyai rima akhir yang tepat dan sempurna disamping rima tengah dan rima awal.

2. Bilangan sukukata 9-10 setiap baris.

3. Menggunakan unsur alam sebagai pembayang.

4. Menggunakan perkataan Melayu yang asal yang disebut juga sebagai perkataan yang arkitaipal.

5. Menggambarkan budaya tempatan

6. Tidak menggunakan nama orang.

7. Dua baris pembayang dapat membayangkan maksud.

8. Dua baris pembayang mempunyai satu wacana yang berlainan daripada wacana dalam maksud

Ciri-ciri dari nombor 1 hingga 6 mungkin jelas kepada semua. Tetapi perlu dijelaskan sedikit tentang ciri ke 7 dan 8. Ciri yang ke 7 bererti dua baris pembayang tidak bercanggah dengan dua baris maksud. Sebagai contoh sebuah pantun yang menceritakan tentang suasana tenang seharusnya mempunyai pembayang yang juga membawa suasana tenang.

Ada pembayang dan maksud yang bercanggah

Pokok kelapa dipanah petir

Angin kencang pokok tumbang

Saya tidak merasa khuatir

Tuan yang pergi sudah pulang.

Maksud di dalam pantun menggambarkan hati yang tenang dan tidak lagi khuatir kerana orang yang dirindui sudah pulang ke pangkuan. Namun begitu, dua baris pembayang membawa keadaan yang berlainan dengan memberi gambaran pokok yang tumbang dan dipanah petir.

Ciri yang ke lapan, dua baris pembayang mempunyai satu wacana yang berlainan daripada wacana dalam maksud membawa erti ada kaitan antara baris pertama dan kedua untuk membentuk satu wacana dan wacana pembayang mestilah berlainan daripada wacana maksud.

Contoh

Pisang emas dibawa belayar

Masak sebiji di atas peti

Hutang emas boleh dibayar

Hutang budi dibawa mati.

Baris pertama menyatakan ada pisang emas yang dibawa belayar. Baris kedua menyatakan yang pisang emas itu telah masak di atas peti.Ini bererti dua baris pembayang membentuk satu wacana atau kisah tentang pisang emas.Baris ketiga dan keempat adalah maksud dan ia membawa wacana atau kisah yang bebeza dari pembayang iaitu budi yang tidak dapat dibalas.

Ada baris pertama dan kedua yang tiada kaitan seperti:

pisang emas dibawa belayar

Pergi ke hutan menebang pokok

Ada pantun yang tidak menepati ciri-ciri ini dan boleh dianggap sebagai pantun yang kurang bermutu.

PANTUN BERMASALAH DAN TIDAK MENEPATI PIAWAIAN.

Di sini ditunjukkan pantun-pantun yang tidak menepati piawaian dan tidak boleh digolongkan sebagai pantun yang baik.Contoh-contoh pantun yang digunakan di sini diambil daripada pantun-pantun yang saya perolehi semasa menjadi hakim sayembara menulis pantun (sudah tentu yang tidak menang) dan pantun-pantun yang dihantar untuk dinilai bagi tujuan penerbitan. Nama penulis pantun tidak didedahkan. Seandainya anda adalah penulis pantun-pantun yang saya sebut ini, maafkan saya dan anggaplah ini untuk tujuan pembelajaran dan kebaikan bersama.

Ini serangkap pantun yang dikemukakan dalam satu bengkel penulisan pantun.

Berdagang samprit sampai ke Jawa

Singgah Sumatera beli cendana

Hutan konkrit menyesak jiwa

Hutan hijau sangat berguna.

Mari kita tumpukan kpd dua baris pembayang. Pemantun menggunakan Samprit sejenis kuih untuk dapatkan rima tengah sepadan dengan konkrit. Tetapi samprit ialah kuih moden sedangkan telah dikatakan bahawa pantun lebih indah jika menggunakan perkataan lama.

Justeru itu mari kita cari kuih tradisional yang lebih dekat dengan budaya Melayu. Kuih yang berima dengan konkrit ialah kuih bangkit. Bolehkah kita ganti baris pertama dengan:

“Berjaja kuih bangkit Sampai ke Jawa”.?

Ini kurang sesuai kerana baris pertama sudah menjadi dua belas sukukata sedangkan ciri pantun yang baik mengandungi sembilan sukukata pada satu baris. Seperkara lagi, berjaja kuih menggambarkan seseorang yang membawa kuih di dalam raga dan menjualnya di tempat berdekatan. Biasanya kita dengar orang berjaja kuih, nasi lemak atau hasil kebun. Jika sekiranya seseorang dapat menjual sesuatu sehingga ke Pulau Jawa, maka dia bukanlah seorang penjaja, bahkan seorang saudagar besar, pedagang atau berniaga.

Baris pertama mempunyai lebihan sukukata dan perkataan yang tidak tepat. Perkataan berjaja bolehlah ditukar kepada berniaga lalu baris-baris pembayang menjadi

Berniaga kuih bangkit sampai ke Jawa

Singgah Sumatera beli cendana

Selain mempunyai dua belas sukukata, masalah baris pertama pembayang ialah ia tidak mempunyai kaitan dengan baris kedua. Apakah hubungan berniaga kuih bangkit dengan membeli cendana? Cendana ialah sejenis pokok yang kayunya berbau harum dan digunakan dalam produk haruman atau wangian. Di peringkat ini kita mencari kaitan antara seorang yang berniaga kuih bangkit akan singgah untuk membeli cendana yang wangi

Soalnya Apa kaitan beli cendana dengan mengusahakan perniagaan kuih bangkit?

Akhirnya saya cadangkan pembayang ditukar kepada::

berdagang songket sampai ke Jawa

singgah Sumatera beli cendana

Dengan ini barulah mendapat baris yang sempurna dari segi bilangan sukukata dan hubungan harmonis antara berniaga songket dan beli cendana. Seorang peniaga kain sesuailah kalau dia juga membeli kayu cendana untuk dijadikan minyak wangi.Adalah tidak sesuai kalau dia menjual songket dengan belacan misalnya.

PENGGUNAAN NAMA ORANG.

Kalau pergi ke kedai Pak Ali

Pergi bersama Encik Husna

Emas intan tidak terbeli

Kerana saya miskin dan hina

Kesilapan pada pantun ini ialah penggunaan nama orang. Sebaik-baiknya pantun tidak menggunakan nama orang kecuali tokoh yang dikenali masyarakat seperti Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Tun Teja atau nama-nama am seperti datuk Panglima, Laksamana, Raja Muda dan sebagainya. Menggunakan nama orang di dalam pembayang lebih-lebih lagi sebagai perkataan akhir, dianggap sebagai mengambil jalan mudah untuk mendapatkan rima..

Cik Gayah menyambut tamu

Tamu bernama encik Jumrat

Bersusah payah mencari ilmu

Ganjaran diterima dunia akhirat.

Dalam pantun yang kedua, penulisnya mempunyai maksud yang baik tetapi Pemantun mencari jalan mudah dalam penggunaan pembayang:

Monday, June 8, 2020

STANDING ON THE JETTY-malaysian poem in translation

zurinahhassan 1:34 AM 0 Comments

STANDING ON THE JETTY is a translation of my poem Berdiri Di Pengkalan. It is about being a mother and raising up children. When the children are small they depend on you for everything. As a mother it is your responsibility to take care of them. When they are big enough they will have to go away from you. As adults they have to start living their own lives..
A jetty symbolize a place of departure, separating childhood and adulthood. It is a point of separation. A mother who sees off her children departing to adulthood is like a mother standing on a jetty to see her child rowing a boat into the open sea. This is.where a mother waved goodbye to her children as they sail into a river of age and a sea of live. .

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Malaysian Poem in Spanish Translatiom.

zurinahhassan 7:08 PM 0 Comments

Thinking of You Mama

Mama

if i do not come home

please do not talk about my love

for what we call the future

is making a high demand on us

I have left you mama

and you have surrendered me

for we belong to time

and there is no time for tears.

Original (in Bahasa Melayu)

Seketika Terkenang Padamu Mama

Mama

jika aku tidak kembali

jangan ditanya tentang cinta

hari esok terlalu banyak meminta

Aku telah meninggalkan mamaku

dan kau telah menyerahkan anakmu

kerana kita milik waktu

Dan waktu tidak menunggu.

When I was very young I was afraid of growing up in the modern world. In my early twenties as a village girl, I have to travel alone into the city to enroll as a University student. I spent most of my time studying and writing poems and short stories. Then I realized and felt somewhat guity for thinking less of home and my mother. I remembered lines from Khalil Gibran that says "your children are not your children/ they belong to tomorrow."

That exactly what was happening to me. I was more attached to my writing than my mother. For all these feeling, I wrote "Seketika Terkenang Padamu Mama". published in our literary magazine. Years later I translated it to "Thinking of You Mama" . This has been compiled together with several more translations in a book entittled FACING THE HARBOUR, Published by ITBM (Institute of Translation and Books Malaysia, 2010). The book was translated by Patricia Vazquez Marin as FRENTE AL PUERTO and this particular poem became Pensando en ti Mama . Later it was brought into French by Jean Severy as EN REGARDANT LE PORT. co published by L' Harmattan, Paris and Institut of Translation and Books Malaysia 2015. .