Tengku Alias Taib

duniaku

kusimpan duniaku di dalam saku seluar
duniaku menyimpan seluruh perbatasan hidupku
kugolek duniaku melalui pintu hari
duniaku tiba-tiba bertukar
menjadi guli batu yang besar
kalau dipecah guliku
akan nampak peta seribu diri
terbentang sawah terbentang lembah
terbentang sungai menyerupai darah
mengalir di pinggir bukit gelisah
terbentang rimba purba tempat bercinta
segala haiwan segala kehijauan
terbentang juga malam yang hening
yang sekian lama menghilang
dari mataku
jauh di tengah kota debu kering
dan angin keras bergulingan
jauh di tengah kota kehidupan menggelepar
tercekik di dalam
tembok luka
kalau dipecah guliku
akan kelihatan serpihan diri bertaburan

Translated by Eddin Khoo

my world

i keep my world in a trouser pocket
my world keeps all of my life’s borders
i roll my world through the day’s door
my world transforms suddenly
becomes a large stone marble
if you break my marble
the map of a thousand lives will be seen
rice fields spread the valley spreads
the river like blood spreads
flowing on the edge of a restless hill
the aged jungle spreads love-spot
of every beast all the green
spreading also the quiet night
that for so long had faded
from my eyes
far in the heart of the city dry dust
and hard air trundle
far in the heart of the city life flails its wings
strangled in the
walls of a wound
if my marble if broken
the scatterings of a shattered life will be seen

Obituary of Alias Taib by Eddin Khoo
Read by Chris Merrill at the start of the 2004 residency, in memoriam

Tengku Alias Taib
3 Poems
Translated by Eddin Khoo

duniaku | my world

Penggali Kubur | Undertaker

Godot | Godot

Obituary "People's poet T. Alias Taib dies"
Utusan Malaysia, 8/19/2004, page 7

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