Black pepper is the quintessential spice of the Spice Route, the ancient trade routes across the Indian Ocean that have brought merchants and travelers to the Nusantara since antiquity. Pepper was once as valuable as gold, and even now, it is the world’s most traded spice. Piper nigrum is well suited to cultivation in Sarawak: pepper […]
Tag Archives: poetry
Gurindam 12 Fasal 1
This is the gurindam of the first issue:
Whosoever to his faith holds not
Is a man whose name will be forgot …
Traveler, the path is your footprints
By Antonio Machado Traveler the path is your footprints and nothing more Traveller, there is no path You make the path by walking When walking you make the path And when you turn to look back You see the path that you will never trod again Traveler, there is no path Only sparkling reflections on […]
International Poetry Translated
If you’ve enjoyed my feeble attempts to translate Malay poems and songs over the years, perhaps you’d like the Poetry Translation Centre. Contemporary poets of Asia, Africa and South America are translated into English by a two-step process: a native speaker translates the words literally, then the poets of PTC render it in poetic English. […]
On Flunking a Nice Boy Out of School
A mimeograph of John Ciardi’s poem was waiting on each boy’s desk as we took our seats for the first class on the first day of 7th grade at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. I nearly fainted. Amazingly, my mother kept the sheet of paper all these years. RIP, Wendell Hall: […]
Brotherly Love
Two of my three amazing and talented sisters visited me a few months back. To get here they had to layover in Jeddah for 8 hours. I was worried sick they'd get harrassed by the Mutaween or just have an icky time in general and was working on my "we think they're crazy too" speech. […]
Kekasih by Usman Awang
Beloved I would spin the sea-spray into a belt that binds you I would braid the rolling waves to spread a sleeping mat for you I would weave of the clouds a shawl to cover the hair of you I would
Selections from the Hikam
Selections from The Hikam of Ibn Ata’Allah al-Iskandari: If you want the door of hope opened For you, then consider what comes to you from your Lord, but if you want The door of sadness opened for you, Then consider what goes to Him from you. || One of the signs of relying on one’s […]