A rousing poem in Bahasa Malaysia from student of agriculture Chairil Aswad, on twitter as @schwarzenmann.  First published in E-Sastera Sajak Facebook group, 30 April 2015. Translation into Inggeris mine.  Views expressed are not etc etc.

Celebrating May 1

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(For Lia)

The city is no longer the place
for me to record my poems of struggle
slogans, banners or observations
and it is not the place
for a degree in agriculture
stuffed and mounted like a corpse
on a mahogany cabinet
in an air-conditioned office

the city is no longer my home
long have I left the air-conditioned office

in front of me today
farm-folk and fisher-people
awaiting their stories
to be scrawled upon pages and pages
to become a single poem of advocacy

this far corner of the world is my home now
a banana packing shed for an office building

I have left the city
to liberate farm folk
from the control of the greedy
who freeze their subsidies
and replace them with GST

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(untuk Lia)

Kota itu bukan lagi tempatnya
untuk aku merakamkan puisi perlawanan
slogan-slogan, sepanduk serta tangkapan
seperti juga bukan tempatnya
sekeping ijazah pertanian
dibingkaikan dan dipamer
atas kabinet mahogani
bilik pejabat berhawa dingin

kota itu tidak lagi menjadi rumahku
bilik pejabat sudah lama aku tinggalkan

di hadapanku hari ini
kaum tani dan nelayan
menantikan cerita mereka
dicoret pada helaian-helaian
menjadi sebuah puisi pembelaan

ceruk perdesaan ini adalah rumahku kini
pondok pisang sesikat sebagai bangunan pejabat
aku tinggalkan kota
untuk memandiri kaum tani
ketika penguasa rakus
menghentikan subsidi
diganti dengan GST

[/two_second]

Published by bingregory

Official organ of an American Muslim in Malaysian Borneo, featuring plants, pantuns and pictures from the Malay archipelago. Oversharing since 2002.

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