Circa 1979-1980:
I do enjoy a bit of poetry, though I guess most likely it was after the disaster with the self-learning guitar lessons. By then, I had memorized this poem by Latif Mohidin (for no apparent reason actually). I love the elegiac wordings of this poem (kan kuhanyutkan hatiku ke kalimu, namaku ke muara, suaraku ke gunung etc etc). To me, Latiff Mohidin is a charismatic, multi-talented person, as beyond being a well-known poet, he’s also an accomplished artist, writer and thinker. Unfortunately he is not in the mainstream entertainment business, or else he would be a popular as M.Nasir. Well, that's our loss actually!
I remember too that one day our BM teacher, Cikgu Nik Man, asked us to write our own poetry. Huh, me writing poems? He must be joking, right? What do we know about writing poems? So I contemplated plagiarizing - against my better judgment, this poem by Latif Mohideen. But luckily I consulted our in-house poet Zai, who advised me against it (‘It’s too well known”, he said). That was his way of saying I should not do it.
I don’t remember what I came up with. I am sure it was no masterpiece, but at least it was original. But this Sungai Mekong poem will always be in my heart. I have traversed the Saigon River from Saigon to Vung Tau many times (even when there were few foreigners around in the mid-90s), but Sungai Mekong has eluded me so far in my travel.
Sungai MekongSungai Mekongkupilih namamukerana aku begitu sepikan kubenamkan dadakuke dasarmukaki kananku ke bulankaki kiriku ke matarikan kuhanyutkan hatikuke kalimunamaku ke muarasuaraku ke gunungSungai Mekongnafasmu begitu tenanglenggangmu begitu lapangdi tebingmuada ibu bersuara sayumencari suara puteranya yang hilangwaktu ia merebahkan wajahnyake wajahmukau masih bisa senyum senangSungai Mekongakhirilah tarisiang riakmukulihat di dasarmukuntum-kuntum berdarahbatu-batu lukamalam iniribut dari utara akan tibatebingmu akan pecahairmu akan merahdan arusmu akan lebih kerasdari Niagara
(Latif Mohidin - Vientianne 1 Feb 1966)
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