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Modern Indonesian Poetry

Last updated on January 1, 2019

Kubakar Cintaku

By Emha Ainun Nadjib

Kubakar cintaku
Dalam hening nafasMu
Perlahan lagu menyayat
nasibku yang penat

Kubakar cintaku
Dalam sampai sunyiMu
Agar lindap, agar tatap
dari hujung merapat

Rinduku terbang
Menembus penyap bayang
Rinduku burung malam
Menangkup cahaya: rahasia bintang-bintang

Kucabik mega, kucabik suara-suara
Betapa berat Kau di sukma
Agar Hati, agar sauh di pantai
Sampai juga di getar Ini

I Burn My Love

Translated into English by Iem Brown & Joan Davis
From “Di Serambi – On The Verandah, A Bilingual Anthology of Modern Indonesian Poetry”

I burn my love
Into quiet of Your breath
Slowly the song touches
my weary fate

I burn my love
Into the depth of Your stillness
So that it is hazy, watchful
from the end approaching

My longing flies
Stabs vanishing shadows
My longing is a bird of night
Catching the light: the secret of the stars

I rend clouds, I rend voices
How heavy You are in the soul
So that the Heart, so that the anchor at the shore
Reaches also this pulse

 

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