Kerja, kerja, kerja, kerja;
Dibayar, dibayar, dibayar, dibayar;
Kerja, kerja, kerja, kerja;
Dibayar, dibayar, dibayar, dibayar.
Berhenti kerja.
Berhenti dibayar.
Ahmad Zahirudin Ahmad Fauzi
Friday, June 20, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Puisi Mat Jenin
Dikayuh basikalnya ke pohon kelapa,
Mat Jenin mengeluh aduh dan duduk,
Sambil mendongak menghitung rezekinya,
Jikalau, jikalau, jikalau, jikalau masuk.
“Jika sebiji aku kocekkan seringgit,
Jika sepuluh, sepuluh Ringgit lah!
Jika tiga puluh hari aku mengait,
Aku buat tiga ratus ringgit sudah!”
“Itu baru sepokok, belum dua pokok!
Jika dua pokok, aku ajak Si Deris tolong.
Aah… upah dia cukup untuk sebatang rokok,
Dalam sebulan, enam ratus masuk tabung!”
“Eh, Si Seman pun takde kerja –
Dia pun boleh datang bantu aku.
Kalau bertiga, Jenin dan Kawan-Kawan,
Masing-masing boleh penuhkan saku!”
Mat Jenin tidak berlengah, berdiri dan lari
Menceritakan ilhamnya kepada Deris dan Seman:
Deris kebingungan dan hanya menggeleng;
Seman pula tak makan saman, enggan, jangan.
“Oh, fikirku boleh berjaya usaha ku nanti,
Tapi kalau Deris dan Seman pun tidak mahu,
Apa pula lagi sepuluh kelapa hendak dijual beli.
Lebih baik kait sebiji, jual sebiji, tak penat bahu.”
Jikalau Deris dan Seman mahu berganding
Sudah tentu Mat Jenin boleh jayakan usahanya.
Sudah dikatakan Deris dan Seman orang penting;
Usaha Jenin tak boleh niaga, tak boleh berjaya.
Kamal, Lokman, Ghani, Usop dan Amin,
(Amin pulak kenal dengan si Raja),
Jenin boleh usaha lebih empat pokok kelapa.
Ahmad Zahirudin Ahmad Fauzi
08 Jun 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A Thanks of Sort
You have enthralled me countless times
(Of which I would not say I wish not!);
And you have thawed me from icy rot,
And sing me a song of dollars from dimes!
Of this latter I owe you my present day,
But with such meager meal I hope to pay?
What manner of selfish beast have I become,
To offer the sand for your glittering diamond dust?
But what matter of unsaintly tease I will become,
If to you the diamond but to her not even a crust?
Pray I to God that I will not sway,
And lose her heart and thus my way.
Pray I God I tempt not betray
Your friendship, her infinite stay.
Originally written in 1998
Complex. Self searching. Conflict. Between my love, and again, the Dark Lady.
(Of which I would not say I wish not!);
And you have thawed me from icy rot,
And sing me a song of dollars from dimes!
Of this latter I owe you my present day,
But with such meager meal I hope to pay?
What manner of selfish beast have I become,
To offer the sand for your glittering diamond dust?
But what matter of unsaintly tease I will become,
If to you the diamond but to her not even a crust?
Pray I to God that I will not sway,
And lose her heart and thus my way.
Pray I God I tempt not betray
Your friendship, her infinite stay.
Originally written in 1998
Complex. Self searching. Conflict. Between my love, and again, the Dark Lady.
Again, The Day
To Adelina Asmawi, for such grace in friendship.
Darn! Today has arrived again.
A day, twenty-one and back,
Some child in the nearby hospital
Cried to the world, `Hello!'
Eighteen years later she walks
Into lives of (un)lucky people,
Bringing bouquets of roses for all:
The strong and weak, the big and small.
(I myself had a share of her dawns,
Lulled by her scent and cut by her thorns!
Yet who have not thorns in their gardens,
So why play God and be her judge?)
Take and cherish the beauty with all pardons:
None is total, in the least a smudge.
Accept this thorny rose with glee and love,
As today is the twenty first up her trove.
Originally written in 1996
This poem was written as a birthday parody to Adelina Asmawi, or Labyrinth, on her 21st birthday. Here are some explanation on the stanzas:
The first stanza is free flow - the lines do not rhyme, the rhythm ecstatic. It carries my message to Adelina - "You don't know poetry!".
"Eighteen years later" does not refer to her age when this poem was written, but to our first meeting in University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The unlucky souls she treaded on included me, as well as many of my friends, with her intoxicating charm which we knew not was honey or poison.
And therefore, I did not want to judge her. She might be a real poison, but then again, she might be honey which turned into poison because of me. Only God knows.
However, it seems that I decided to become more positive of Adelina Asmawi by accepting her faults and only cherish her strong points. Admittedly, even after all this years, though our idea of greeting each other is to throw insults to one another, Adelina Asmawi, all in all, is indeed one of the best friendships I have ever had (did you notice that I refer to her as a "friendship", instead of a "friend"?)
Darn! Today has arrived again.
A day, twenty-one and back,
Some child in the nearby hospital
Cried to the world, `Hello!'
Eighteen years later she walks
Into lives of (un)lucky people,
Bringing bouquets of roses for all:
The strong and weak, the big and small.
(I myself had a share of her dawns,
Lulled by her scent and cut by her thorns!
Yet who have not thorns in their gardens,
So why play God and be her judge?)
Take and cherish the beauty with all pardons:
None is total, in the least a smudge.
Accept this thorny rose with glee and love,
As today is the twenty first up her trove.
Originally written in 1996
This poem was written as a birthday parody to Adelina Asmawi, or Labyrinth, on her 21st birthday. Here are some explanation on the stanzas:
The first stanza is free flow - the lines do not rhyme, the rhythm ecstatic. It carries my message to Adelina - "You don't know poetry!".
"Eighteen years later" does not refer to her age when this poem was written, but to our first meeting in University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The unlucky souls she treaded on included me, as well as many of my friends, with her intoxicating charm which we knew not was honey or poison.
And therefore, I did not want to judge her. She might be a real poison, but then again, she might be honey which turned into poison because of me. Only God knows.
However, it seems that I decided to become more positive of Adelina Asmawi by accepting her faults and only cherish her strong points. Admittedly, even after all this years, though our idea of greeting each other is to throw insults to one another, Adelina Asmawi, all in all, is indeed one of the best friendships I have ever had (did you notice that I refer to her as a "friendship", instead of a "friend"?)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
To Whomever It May Concern
Great thoughts assail me:
Of future gains and valiant hopes;
To sort all life's knotted ends;
To start ascend tall icy slopes;
Oh! To please a mother's heart,
And at last to become a Son!
To solidly take on a brother's part,
And douse the fire of an unshining Sun.
The Minsc's witch of my bosom,
Our Diablo would soon be vanquished!
May we be Christoff and Anezka
Of eternal bliss (but darkness banished)!
My personal William's Earl of Southampton
Has come to visit me to end my frost;
But she comes also as my Dark Lady,
Who I love but would eventually lost.
Originally written in 2000.
The title "To Whom It May Concern", even after this 8 years, is still to me very apt. It mimicks the usual subject header of a general and public letter, as if to address all who would read it, making it a public writing. However, the title would sway towards the more personal - only those who are concerned, or referred to, in the poem may understand its underlying meaning - if the immediate meaning may make sense at all - making the title obtuse.
I myself had problems understanding what I meant, and I would attempt my best here to shed some light over the poem's message.
From the very first stanza, I would say even after all these years, I have not changed! Great thoughts are STILL assailing me; I'm still looking forward to a better future; my life's all knotted once again; and my paths are still slippery and dangerous. The difference is that now, my challenges are of a higher level...
The second stanza would be pretty straightforward - it talks of my mother, myself and my brother - the Unshining Sun. I noticed that I toyed with a paradox here - the ever burning object of the Universe is dark and brooding, though unshining, needed to be doused its fire. This simply means that my dark brother is so full of rage that he almost always destroys whatever he touches. So, I thought it was my job to calm him, guide him, soothe him.
Since this poem was written, my brother had written and published 2 Malay novels: "Fantasia Romantika" (with a pen-name of Rio Hermawan, sold more than 30,000 copies within its first 3 months), and "Kau Ilhamku" (means "You Are My Inspiration").
The third stanza refers to my lovely wife Hana, with metaphors from the games I liked to play then: Baldur's Gate, Diablo and Vampire: The Masquerade.
The final stanza's William, if you haven't guessed yet, is of course William Shakespeare (whaddaya expect? I was taking my masters class in English Literature), while the Earl of Southampton was his benefactor. In Shakespeare's Sonnets, the Dark Lady is his love, but also the love of his beloved Earl, which makes the Dark Lady the forbidden fruit in eden. As written in this last stanza, my benefactor and my love is the same person, who I knew would never be mine.
After 8 years, that has come to pass as true.
She now eats bubur cacas with her husband and daughter in Japan.
But at least, though she may not be mine, we did not lose each other. Still yappin' together. Online.
Of future gains and valiant hopes;
To sort all life's knotted ends;
To start ascend tall icy slopes;
Oh! To please a mother's heart,
And at last to become a Son!
To solidly take on a brother's part,
And douse the fire of an unshining Sun.
The Minsc's witch of my bosom,
Our Diablo would soon be vanquished!
May we be Christoff and Anezka
Of eternal bliss (but darkness banished)!
My personal William's Earl of Southampton
Has come to visit me to end my frost;
But she comes also as my Dark Lady,
Who I love but would eventually lost.
Originally written in 2000.
The title "To Whom It May Concern", even after this 8 years, is still to me very apt. It mimicks the usual subject header of a general and public letter, as if to address all who would read it, making it a public writing. However, the title would sway towards the more personal - only those who are concerned, or referred to, in the poem may understand its underlying meaning - if the immediate meaning may make sense at all - making the title obtuse.
I myself had problems understanding what I meant, and I would attempt my best here to shed some light over the poem's message.
From the very first stanza, I would say even after all these years, I have not changed! Great thoughts are STILL assailing me; I'm still looking forward to a better future; my life's all knotted once again; and my paths are still slippery and dangerous. The difference is that now, my challenges are of a higher level...
The second stanza would be pretty straightforward - it talks of my mother, myself and my brother - the Unshining Sun. I noticed that I toyed with a paradox here - the ever burning object of the Universe is dark and brooding, though unshining, needed to be doused its fire. This simply means that my dark brother is so full of rage that he almost always destroys whatever he touches. So, I thought it was my job to calm him, guide him, soothe him.
Since this poem was written, my brother had written and published 2 Malay novels: "Fantasia Romantika" (with a pen-name of Rio Hermawan, sold more than 30,000 copies within its first 3 months), and "Kau Ilhamku" (means "You Are My Inspiration").
The third stanza refers to my lovely wife Hana, with metaphors from the games I liked to play then: Baldur's Gate, Diablo and Vampire: The Masquerade.
The final stanza's William, if you haven't guessed yet, is of course William Shakespeare (whaddaya expect? I was taking my masters class in English Literature), while the Earl of Southampton was his benefactor. In Shakespeare's Sonnets, the Dark Lady is his love, but also the love of his beloved Earl, which makes the Dark Lady the forbidden fruit in eden. As written in this last stanza, my benefactor and my love is the same person, who I knew would never be mine.
After 8 years, that has come to pass as true.
She now eats bubur cacas with her husband and daughter in Japan.
But at least, though she may not be mine, we did not lose each other. Still yappin' together. Online.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Colors
Creep these words onto this,
A piece of ambiguities:
Painting a fine white dove,
Striking, in the dark sky above.
And through this gray vision,
Colors spread across the heaven.
A piece of ambiguities:
Painting a fine white dove,
Striking, in the dark sky above.
And through this gray vision,
Colors spread across the heaven.
Originally written in 1998, in University Malaya Kuala Lumpur
Shortlisted as finalist at the International Poetry Competition organized by www.poetry.com 1998
"Colors" is one of my all-time favorite, dedicated to a girl of my past. She is still in my present though, but constantly referred to as "The Friend My Wife Doesn't Like", ("Kawan Awak Yang Saya Tak Suka", in which "Saya" refers to my lovely wife Hana).
This poem actually refers to a pastel portrait of the Lady Who Likes To Eat The Bubur Caca, as she likes to be known now, which I painted (as to what reason I did this, I rather not remember. Let's just say it was the Free Spirit of My Youth). I don't have the painting now, but as I remembered it... it was of rainbows. Or was it. So, My Lady Bubur Caca, if you have it, can you please refresh my memory.
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