ACEHWORLDMAGAZINE : SAJAK-SAJAK DOEL CP ALLISAH

Doel CP Allisah :

HOME

Home is where heaven is, loyally keeping you in its embrace

when you lull off, or softly say : I’m off

to the loved on, who quietly nods

each time you step out. your face is a smile

like a shadow in the sky. when you return

bringing back tiredness

the bed is warm and you lie down with your anxieties

home is your heaven you say. and I always return

to tidy up the sheets and dust off our photograps

after wandering off abroad into the night

with is disconcerting echo

good night your loved one murmur to you

maybe to myself, too

and we go off hand in hand to the creator



IN THE MIDST OF FRIDAY’S CONGREGATION


Open your heart

we will sail off together

greet the flowers on the roadside

the petals that shine so


The walls reflect a murmur

how magical

the white light and wind flows on the prayer mat

whose, we have no idea, quietly lining up with my breath


As water that devides the forest

as morning that traps the aroma of leaves

this long quiet


An alleyway, how long it is

walking it on one side (together)

and a heart, open up

as a baby getting ready for the world !


LET THE ROAD BE HOME

Let the road be home

and the night be its garden

in all that,

our lives of wandering time

will give weight to nothingness

will become a clot a prayers


Let the road be home

and the night be its garden

in the distance,

when dawn is wet with dew

do not tether our hearts

in order to not impede

the flow of understanding


Let it stand strong and independent

plying all space

all night long all road long


Let the road be home

and the night be its garden

we will exist in nothingness

provide you with understanding

for the children of future

Medan, 1986


AND YOU FINALLY REACH YOUR DESTINATION


And you finally reach your destination

after struggling through the war of feelings

from the trap of uncertainty

tracing the shabby road

with ember in your fist

may be what we did a few moment ago

togetherness and guarded feelings

seeing the day cross the yard

postponing the war till nightfall

and the destination then is reached

you then lock all doors

while breathing a sigh of relief

or stowing fear in the cupboard

from the shadow of tomorrow

it feels like the world will never conclude the drama

that is disappointment


And you finally reach your destination

smiling with your dreams

closing all doors


I am left alone outside

going back into the night

cursing for no reason

Sigli, 1980


DISTANCE

This boredom’s thickness

and the tiredness of these feet

makes even wider the distance

between you, me

Lamno, 1984



MEUGO

- at Teuku Umar’s Grave


Is this a dream that I am out of breath

bowing into your room ?

the smell of leaves and the heat of day

combine in

a sigh of breath


When feeling moved jostles up,

or is it your poignant story

which causes tears to flow in my meditation today ?

you, how peaceful your sleep !

February, 1987


IN THE SPACE WITH NO BORDERS

A spider sways near the lamp

and in a spot that becomes one

a large shadow swallows it with no qualms

dead !

Banda Aceh, 1986


AT LAKE LAUT TAWAR ONCE


The breeze went dead

on the blue clear water

while the portrait of us wavered

in the scuttle of depik of laut tawar

in a tamped-down wave of feeling

Mepar beach – Takengon, 1989


TANGSE

I heard your sigh in the noise of the rain last night

because the wayward wind slammed into

every span of emptiness

of storm when night turned furious

while we were as if inseparable

in the howl of a mounting longing


And then we pledged farewell, that death

I did not see the map of your body changing

history or the notes of a struggle

that carves the names of a journey of a people

only a lonely sketch in the coldness of leaves

on a wooden wall of a simpleton

(ah, no-one said a word)


After several eras and we meet

in dreaming journey

the cold leaves no longer noted anything

there are no pages that keep the pictures

of a past

that will never be, that to come and that which passed

not one will be remembered for having no meaning

Tangse, remain as before

the moon descends on the weeds of Jantho

in the wet dew smelling of hay

while your breath remains steady

as appropriate as the silent dark of Geumpang Forest

even I forget your face !

Mei, 1991


BANDA ACEH

This is the shady veranda in the murmur of a historic town

the clamour suddenly turns strange

becomes dreams that we do not understand

this new culture (as it should be)

have we entered in part

between time and the limit of our time together


This is the shady veranda

we have no idea how long we can keep it

in between thick understanding

and keeping it whole

as a crown that is our duty

in the long corridor of the wrestle of lifedeath


Dec 2, 1992



IN THE WIND OF BUKIT POLE ONE NIGHT


In did not bring you anything

on the hilltop a light spreads on the aron field

all that is shiny I have tamped down

so have buried all longing

about promises of time

for everything, for dreams forgotten


Behind the light that spread that night

only one thing was essential

was grandiose

in face of the thousand promises that we were to utter

(if only we did not drown in the onward racing time)

to a pledge, one thing was more meaningful in the quiet

which was going towards eternity

in our maturing in this moment

Lhokseumawe, 1992



IN ROTTERDAM WHILE DREAMING

In Rotterdam what else can I imagine

a land filled with hollow spaces for canals

or snow season that shivers your tiny body

right down to the marrow ?


In Rotterdam,

in the sevent year you send a pictures frame

with a too-loose jacket

and the bright colours of tulips in the background

hazing my vision for tears


In Rotterdam

what else can I imagine more

the edges of time (that differentiates your night)

or set you free to fly

in a wandering with no end ?


In Rotterdam

how far the distance between you and I ?

Ramadhan, 1993


LONELY SONG OF MY SOUL

Stealthily I visit Ioneliness

in rain, in the moisture of dew

then slowly I stroke its brow

cold, stiff


Cold and desolate, creeping comes the blue of sky

the cold of the season among the grass flowers

so friendly, and once gazing up at the height of hills

the tips of the pines sway

channeling all desolation towards me


Then, when dusk claims the body

shadows in one fathom

loneliness looks on quietly

in a million colours

gazing, holding hands

stealthily I leave with desolation

and chat all night


Banda Aceh, 1987



Translations by Debra H. Yatim

Doel CP Allisah was born in Banda Aceh in 1961. he graduated from University of Syiah Kuala Banda Aceh, and has worked as the Arts Editor for Mimbar Swadaya and Aceh Post. He once was reporter for TPI television in Banda Aceh. He was former vice chair of the Aceh Arts Council. He lives in Mns Papeun Lamnyong.