Sunday, August 16, 2009

Si Anak Kecil (A Little Child) by Usman Awang

A moving poem on the waste and senselessness of war. Yesterday, August 15, was the 64th anniversary of the end of World War 2.

Di atas runtuhan batu-batu bangunan itu

Si anak kecil sendiri berdiri

Dengan luka-luka di kepala dan kaki

Menatap keliling yang sepi.


Peperangan itu membunuh ibunya

Membunuh seluruh keluarganya

Ayahnya entah di mana.


Dengarkan suara si anak kecil bertanya

Mana ibuku mana kakakku?

Mana rotiku mana bajuku

Mana bukuku mana sekolahku;

Dan jawabannya adalah itu

Ledakan bom dan peluru

Angin luka dan hujan debu.


Berapa luaskah pusara

Berapa bukitkah tulang selangka

Berapa lautankah air mata

Berapa jutakah nyawa

Yang mesti disediakan

Sebelum peperangan dihentikan?


O pejuang kebenaran

Berapa banyakkah lagi para shuhada

Akan kau kapankan

Tanpa bunga tanpa pusara?


Si anak kecil mengusapi luka bertanya

Manakah embun pagi yang jernih itu,

Manakah kicau burung senja lembayung

Manakah lembut jari ibuku,

O manakah dunia yang hasanah itu?

Manakah dunia yang hasanah itu?



English translation:


Among the ruins

A little child stands alone

With wounds on his head and legs

Staring at the surrounding emptiness


This war had killed his mother

Killed his whole family

While his father is still missing


Let us hear the little voice asking

Where is my mother, where is my sister?

Where is my bread, where are my clothing?

Where are my books, where is my school?

And the answers are

Bullets and exploding bombs

The wind hurts and poisonous rains.


How vast is the graveyard

How high the piles of skeletons

How many oceans of tears

How many lives

Must be sacrificed

Before this war ends?


Oh fighters of truth

How many more martyrs

Must you bury

Without flowers without graves?


The little child, caressing his wounds, asks

Where has the clear morning dew gone to,

What has happened to the chirping of birds at dusk,

Where are mother’s gentle fingers

Oh, what is happening to this fine world

What is happening to this fine world?


from Cempaka: An Anthology, published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1994

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