An editor for socio-culture of Tempo
Faithfulness is
The unobstinacy smile of child
Faithfulness is
The cordiality people
Lenient and solidarity
Faithfulness is
You within my soul
And we reciprocate
Understanding the love
As clear as the dew
In the morning
A poem titled The Faithfulness dedicated to Baden and Cut Tiwayla above is the oldest poem in this anthology. That poem was made in 1976-1979. I anticipate, this rhyme is written first time in 1976, and then probably got its final revision in 1979. At the first time he wrote this rhyme, he was still 15 years old. Doel was born in Banda Aceh on May 3rd 1961. Doel has started his creative journey with the oldest rhyme in this book at fifteen years old.
Might be his first rhyme was still rough. Hence, he revised that rhyme. The result is what we read in early. And this rhyme although in a simple form has an amazing philosophy. He expressed something, what might be not yet been thought up to adolescents in his age.
Doel defined the faithfulness with a smile as a symbol for disappointed child, the lenient people with a good understanding of each other. For 15 year old poet this rhyme is well to submit the meaning of faithfulness. This rhyme showed the strength of him in writing poetry.
He also wrote another rhyme when he was young such as Putroe Phang. This rhyme made when he was in Gunongan of one evening in 1979. He wanted to submit about his desire to see the beauty of Putroe Phang face. "There is untouchable and will never end," he said. He realized that a history can not be repeated neither can the time.
From the idea, this rhyme (Putroe Phang) could be very simple. But this rhyme succeeds in the way of expression. It has good rhythm and words. This poem also shows more specification character of Doel as poet. The color of poet from Doel is clearly shows the romantic.
He also defined the romantic sides of his poems in One Evening When We Through the Seulawah Bevel with a Frightening Silent in The Morning:
I was holding your hands
The red sun formed a crossing dot in west
In a moment we would bury these things in a heart
Something has separated (us)
In a frightening silent!
From the title, can be anticipated, he made it for someone. It also can be anticipated that he defined about a woman. But in this case a woman is not a thing that he wanted here because he was considering that woman as a complement. He just wanted to make it as more adorable and wider than a simple thing of man and woman.
There is a strong conflict in this rhyme that he wrote in 1980/1981, behold this line:
I was holding your hands
The red sun formed a crossing dot in west
A symbol of "a crossing dot" is not expressing a good sign. He wanted to talk about a crucial thing that must be terminated. There is something that must be finished. It drawn clearly, so hurt.
He could get a lot of sympathies from the reader and invite them to face the problem in his life. He revealed an imaginative problem of love which is considerably and personally. Behold this line:
No, the rain was not here
When the slums were sleeping in silent
Or the smell of hay burnt
Readers, unconsciously were invited into his problem, they could smell the scent of hay in their imagination, conceive the slums fall asleep in a real silent, and also feel the heavy rain.
As a loyal picture, what revealed with desires and the rhythm, can we get from The Hymn of Lebaran’s Night:
When takbir broke the silence at night
And left me behind
This street as death as an old monument
Shaped a crossing line, red and blue
And your pictures
Entering the five senses of mine
One by one
Dragging me in sorrow, ah
This poem was made in Medan 1985. The time and place of its rhyme are important. First, the place. We can understand that Doel missed his family and hometown because he was living in abroad. Second
, the time of its rhyme showed his creative journey. We can see about “Doel’s character as a poet” when he wrote this poem.
About the place, this poem could invite the reader to get his feelings as a poet. And about the time, that poem has convinced Doel to open an esthetics and romantic field. And the following poems of him are strengthening that choice, until today.
Besides, The Hymn of Lebaran’s Night shows that Doel is one of Chairil Anwar admirers, who also wrote romantic poems. So, he wrote a famous idiom from Chairil subconsciously which is "....as death as an old monument", to define a "lonesome" of ‘Me’.
His poems have more than a picture but also the attitude of something. Such as, Let The Street Becomes The House. A poem which was made in Medan 1986 defines the maturity of Doel, not only in writing poetry but also in conceiving the life.
Let the street becomes the house
And the night becomes its garden
A far, on a dewy dawn
Do not fasten our heart
So that unimpaired
Conducting a congeniality
This rhyme affirms an adventure of Doel. There are two important matters in this rhyme: “street” and “night”. Likely, those important words are familiar for Doel. Both of them define an adventure, which might become the seedbed farms for his poems. This poem was made in Medan 1986.
It seems that all the poems that he wrote in Medan have helped him to extend his vocabulary. In previous, he used the nature symbols and vocabulary. That can be understood, because Doel who used to study at Saree, the mount of Saree, the mount of Seulawah, the important episode for his creativity.
But in this Medan episode, and after, he started to add new vocabulary and symbols for his poems, such as, “the street becomes the house”. There is also “greedy” (In the Silent of Sibayak’s Night), that he did not use in his other poems. There is also “on your hated jurisdiction” (A Snare XIV). “Jacket” (On the Lau Sidebuk-debuk’s Street), “overseas marketing, blue jean, merchandise” (The Landscape of Sabang).
All of his poems are talking about social problem, such as, Teunom that dedicated to Rengga and Hasyim KS, also has a good rhythmic.
Maybe it’s the last time for us to cross
With a raft that connecting time
And a through years hope
The rhythm, words, and symbols are fit and able in melting the feelings of reader
That poem was made in 1987 and Doel defined his anxious of the west cost condition that still connected by a raft. But he seemed to know about a program of Aceh governor Ibrahim Hasan, which has started in 1986, releasing the west coast from raft.
But sometime, he got boredom and lost. This time called “the darkest hours’ for his creativity. We can find it in some of his rhymes, such as Non Lis in my rhymes 1and Teungku Paya Bakong si Teungku Seupot Mata. Both of them could submit the meaning of life although in a simple form. They are just like an ordinary picture, the report of a condition, and “naked”.
In fact, this is a normal thing for a poet. There is a moment called “the wind death”. However most of the poets will ignore them. They want to prove that they are good and have a big progression in their career, constantly.
However Doel acts in the opposite way. He figures them in this anthology. And we respect his attitude as well. He does not want to hide all his life and his creative journey in writing poems.
As an excellent anthology – some of these poems were loaded in his previous anthology, which is The Song of Wind – all these poems will define about Doel, with all his ability and disability.
The low graphic of the strength of his poetry appears in Transe (from the word of trance). The words order and the rhythm of it are not really strong even very simple just ordinary words that people say everyday. Behold this line:
The faithfulness was mute
Meaningless
For a note in the future
The reader will see: sometimes his poems are so strong, and the other time they are low but then up again at the same time. Sometimes he is so sentimental and the other time he is so heroic. Sometimes he is afraid of something, and the other time he screams his happiness out loud. Sometimes he whispers and the other time he screams. This is a whole image of him.
However the definitive is that he always defines romantic aspect for all poems which have we seen above. We can hear his scream in Tangse:
I heard your swoosh in the noisy rain last night
Because the wild wind dashed against the emptiness
The storm at night was angry
While we were unseperated
In a blasting desire
The first couplet of it defines his scream for a place named Tangse. We can see the symbol of “the wild wind” which has a bad meaning, dashed against the emptiness. If we have a few references about Aceh, we will find out what he wanted to say: he was talking about a conflict that has happened in that place. Tangse was a beautiful place with an amazing view of its mountain and from the rainforest but then was impure by the scent of death. Doel finished his poem that he wrote in 1991 with:
Then we said farewell, that death
I didn’t see that the map of your body has changed
History or the notes of it
That carves the struggling name of nation
Besides a lonely sketch among the leaves
On the wall of an innocent dweller’s board
(Ah, everyone was quiet)
That couplet defines the situation when he was writing this poem: blurry and horrible. Nobody talks. And it is what he felt that time, especially when they made a curfew in Aceh. Everyone was numb, no words or actions.
In some of his poems, he keeps suffer. We can see it in When I was Dreaming in Rotterdam:
In Rotterdam, in the seventh year when you sent
A frame of your picture in a big jacket
And the fair color of tulip behind
Blurring my gaze in tears
The "tears" symbol, definitely defines a sorrowful although he was expressing a beautiful memory.
His incredible hurt and doubts, appears in The Sadness Song. Once again, this poem defines a conflict that has happened in Aceh in 1994. Doel said:
In the noisy drizzle, you came home
An endless silent and the span of fog
The tears of thousand deities melt the blood pond
At the opened sky
We can feel the sense of mourn when we read the first row of it. There are “tears” (mourn), “an endless silent” (death), and also “blood pond” (victims). All of them define a sorrowful, tragedy, and horrible.
I think The Sadness Song is the one of Doel’s masterpiece. He gave the right symbols, good rhythm, and he used the suitable Dixie and symbol to describe a “rebellion” of his heart and mind
This poem has become his attitude and witness of the conflict in the land of Rencong. He has a boisterous scream but soft for my ears.
Reading this poem that made in 1994 can be anticipated that someone has gone and then made him write it out. Absolutely, there was a special person in his life and had a personal relation with him (he used to know this person very well) it could be Aceh people (whom he loves). So the lament sounds so loud:
Releasing you to a long tunnel of history
My heart was tired, drizzles and tears
Remind me of the wet road
Trembling between the bound of the existence and destruction
Sometimes, Doel becomes so religious. Behold this line from his poem You 4 :
What can confine my love for you?
The starry night
Or a wide and unlimited room
Wherever I have been, you will be in my heart
It seems relevant with Ramadhan the time when he wrote this poem.
Ah, we always repeat the important of the place and time of his poems. It is not only a small note below the words, but a sign to inform the reader when and where that poem was made. And each of them defines the event behind it
It also gives us an explanation that The Memory 1 defines the tsunami that has happened in Aceh on December 26 2004. In other way the reader can also see the date when he wrote that poem (December 31, 2004), or a devoting comment below that poem (for the victims of earthquake/tsunami), the reader will also know that this poem defines a losing hope for the beloved people and the strength also the willingness to let them go.
However, nowadays Doel gets a low. It shows in some of his recent poems, such as The Memory 1, and another his recent poems. It seems like he is letting those words randomly. So he loses the strength of his words. And it proves that his previous poems are better than the new ones.
Nevertheless, in that journey of his creativity, Doel becomes wiser for his life. For conceiving the strength and destiny of god :
What is the remain from all the memory of you
Besides our incessantly tears and prayers
Only a prayer-only a prayer
(And us who are still alive) suffering
In His unlimited power!
Depok, April 16th 2007
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