Reader's Request

one of my kind readers thought that it would be great if i post a video of myself reciting my own poems. to make him/her feel my words better, he/she said. why not. so here it is. =/

Wahid, One, Satu,

You start counting seconds, hours and years,
After something good happens,
To see how long the good thing lasts,
And later to recall how the good thing started,
That is what normal people do

I count the seconds, hours and years,
After something good died,
To see how long I could last,
And hoping to forget how it ended,
Norm to me, abnormal to you

December 10th, 2011

We only live once

We only live once,
Youth comes and goes,
No room for grief,
No space for sorrows,
What we have now,
Are the things we'd recall later,
I want to get old without fear,
Traipsing contently towards the skies,
With nothing but my smiling eyes,
Loving, and beloved

When death parts my soul from my body,
I wish that my tomb is void of sadness,
No room for grief,
No space for sorrows,
Let the world know I was happy,
And happy enough to depart forever,
For the world was a nice place,
A nicer place awaits in the hereafter,
Let the goodbye tears be happy ones,
Because we only die once

Silly Thoughts

What could've been so wonderful,
is now buried deep deep down,
lost in memories of sad sad things,
a hope so so high,
that fell so so hard

What should've been so fulfilling,
is now an eerie eerie hole,
borderless and very very deep,
an emptiness of great great vastness,
filled with air of cold cold sorrow

What would've been my greatest comfort,
is now my terrible terrible grief,
longing for the far far away,
begging love from the wrong wrong people,
given choices with sad sad endings

if toys could talk

If toys could talk,
they'd ask you take them everywhere,
cry when you put them down,
and they'd tell you how happy they are,
everytime you play them around

when you bring a new toy home,
they'd tell you how jealous they feel,
they'd scream at the sight of the new collection,
some would try to reason with you,
and the new toy would ask "who're they?"

and if you ever break their arms,
they'd say 'its okay' but really they are afraid,
will you ever love them the same,
are u going to stop playing games,
for broken toys are left under the bed

p/s : how could toys express their feelings when humans are still learning to do so

Lagu Cinta

Ku butuh teman menulis,
Bukan beribu tetapi satu,
Satu lagu yang bisa bercerita,
Tentang hidup, tentang cinta

Indahnya Hati Melayu

Though I'm doing medicine, I'm a huge fan of the Malay literature. Its our heritage. Long before blogging and facebook were introduced, Malay culture taught us the very basic of self-expression - through poetry. There is this technique called "bahasa kiasan". It is an old Malay art of expressing one's thought without being too direct, simply said, a classy way to define one's mind.

Malays are very hypocritical to a certain extent. We refuse to wear our hearts on our sleeves (referring to the old ways), as the heart is free to feel anything, and most things felt in the heart aren't necessarily accepted by other individuals, or at times ungodly. But sometimes, we do find the need to get messages across without embarrassing ourselves. Hence the art of "bahasa kiasan".



For example,


"Anak tiong, tiong juga,
Manakan sama anak kedidi"

"Enggang sama enggang,
pipit sama pipit"

These two stanzas have but one message - You should know where you belong.




Another example,


"Bak teratai/kiambang, nampak seri akar tak jejak" 

In a nutshell - Something that shouldn't be counted on as we don't know where it stands.






The two stanzas below are excerpts from a song called "Embun Setitik" (A drop of dew). The song has a very deep meaning to it. I love these kinds of songs which seem obviously hogwash to those who don't get the messages between the lines.

Teratai taut berpayung mekar,

Putik berbalam serinya,

Hujan ribut gunung terbakar,

Embun setitik padam apinya

Mawar intan berkembang,

Sejambak budi bawa bersajak,

Datang tuan bagaikan kiambang,

Nampak seri akar tak jejak

Believe it or not, the one above describes a person who hides his/her feelings well. Sometimes anger and sadness consume the mind, but the rage would subside easily when that someone is around.

The one below tells us that when we love someone, a simple gesture of kindness from that particular person  means the world to us. Alas, the person is mysterious and might not love you the way you love him or her.

Indahnya hati Melayu.