below is the materials for Poetry Recital Contest 2008
Presented by English Student Association
Lambung Mangkurat University
La Condition Humaine
Abdul Hadi W.M
In the forest on my ancestor
I was merely a mango tree
- without fruit, without leaf –
My father said, “Truly, my child, the land
On which you grow is not fertile” while eating
With great relish fruit from my grandfather’s tree
And sometimes late at night
Without my wife knowing
I too steal and steal and eat the unripened fruit
From the tree of my own child
Narrow River
D. Zawawi Imron
Narrow river, narrow river! Where did I see you?
Between Cirebon and Purwokerto or only in my dream?
Upon you, pebbles as hard as my yearning and on your banks
leaves shaked, sowed something that I asked in my
prayer
Narrow river, narrow river! Explain to me, where is the country
you belong to?
Upon you I will make a bamboo bridge so that it will be easier
For the peasants to cross you and I will clean up your
deep pool so that the bulgars who take a bath within you
can alo feel the coolness of your water
Narrow river, narrow river! Keep on flowing in my hearth, and if
your tired, take a rest inside my sleep! You
the beautiful, are the song I sing for my lover
There is Death
Matori A. Elwa
There is death
Passing outside my door
I can see her from my ninety windows
How beautiful she is!
There is death
Strolling in my afternoon
Tomorrow morning, she said,
She will come by
There is death
Visiting my noon
Tonight, she promise
She will come to me
: ah!
A Poem of in The Name of
A. Mustofa Bisri
Some of people despise God, in the name of God
Some of people rob a country, in the name of country
Some of people suppress other people, in the name of the people
Some people prey of human, in the name of humanity
Some people demolish justice, in the name of justice
Some people destroy a unity, in the name of unity
Some people disturb peace, in the name of peace
Some people restrain freedom, in the name of freedom
So, in the name of whoever or whatever
Send your curses
or by my name, antagonize them
With compassions!
In My Prayers
Supardi Djoko Damono
in my prayers in the morning your become the sky that the whole night
did not close its eyes an unspotted spread ready to receive the
first light, a curve of silence in wait of sound
as the sun drifted above my head, you became in my prayers the tips
of pines, eternally green and forever provoking abstruse questions
to the wine that hisses from directions unknown
in my prayers at dusk you became a sparrow that fluffed its feathers
in the mist, alighted on the branch and felled the tassel of the
guava flowers that in sudden excitement flew away to alight on
the mango branch
this evening in my prayers you become a distant wind that
descended ever so slowly, tiptoed down on the path and slipped
through the cracks of the panes and door to press its cheeks and
lips against my hair, chin and eyelashes
in my prayers tonight you became the beating of the heart that has so
patiently endured what seems limitless pain and faithfully revealed
I love you, and for the reason, will never stop praying for your well-being
