A Malay Poem

A Malay poem "Selepas Kapur Barus" ("After the Camphor") by Rosli K. Matari.
マレーシア詩人ロスリ・K　マタリ作マレー語の詩『樟脳の後』。




"Selepas Kapur Barus"/ oleh Rosli K. Matari


Setiap hari 毎日
Tanpa memilih waktu.時間を選ばずに

Kau tergesa-gesa datangあなたが慌てて来て
Mengetuk-ngetuk pintu. 私の門を叩いた

Kaubawa apa-apa sahaja あなたが何でも
Untukku. 持ってきてくれた

Sesekali kaubawa mawar 時々　あなたが
Entah dari taman mana. どこかの花園のバラを持ってきてくれた

Sesekali kaubawa kemboja 時々　あなたが
Entah dari makam mana. どこかの墓のプルメリアを持ってきてくれた

Apa-apa sahaja 何でも
Kauhulurkan padaku. あなたが手渡してくれた

Sesekali kaubawa akar 時々　あなたが根っこ、
Ranting dan benih.枝と種を持ってきてくれた

Sesekali kaubawa ilalang 時々　あなたが茅、
Pakis dan daun tua. シダと枯れた葉を持ってきてくれた

Aku selalu serba salah 私はそれらを受け取るかどうか
Untuk menerima. というジレンマに陥った

Kaubawa karang dan kerang あなたが珊瑚と貝、
Tiram dan mutiara. 牡蛎と真珠を持ってきてくれた

Kaubawa api dan cahaya あなたが火と光
Salji dan embun. 雪と露を持ってきてくれた

Apa-apa sahaja 何でも
Kauberikan kepadaku.あなたが私にくれた

Kaubawa serpihan tembikar あなたが磁器の破片
Dan logam berkarat. と錆びた金属を持ってきてくれた

Kaubawa serpihan nisanあなたが 墓碑のかけら
Dan sisa selangka. や残留する鎖骨を持ってきてくれた

Aku selalu gelisah gelabah それらを拒絶するのに
Untuk menolak. 私はいつも不安を感じていた

Cengkerik dan lelabah コオロギも蜘蛛も
Juga kaubawa. あなたが持ってきてくれた

Nanah dan darah 膿も血も
Juga kaubawa. あなたが持ってきてくれた

Segala-galanya すべてが
Berlonggok begitu sahaja.そのまま山積みになった

Pasir dan kelikir 砂も石も
Juga kaubawa. あなたが持ってきてくれた

Debu dan tanah 塵も土も
Juga kaubawa. あなたが持ってきてくれた

Setiap kali kubuang jauh 毎回私はそれらを遠くへ捨て
Esok kaukutip kembali. 翌日あなたが再び拾ってくれた

Apa-apa sahaja 何でも
Kautinggalkan kepadaku.あなたが残してくれるた

Aku tidak ingin menunggumu 私はあなたを待ってはいない
Tetapi pintu itu kauketuk lagi. しかしあなたがその門を度々叩いた

Berulang kali 何度も繰り返し
Berulang hari. 何日も繰り返していた

Sekali ある日
Kaubawakan pula kapur barus.あなたが樟脳を持ってきてくれた

Segala-galanya すべてが
Berlonggok di hadapanku.私の前で 山積みになった

Tetapi selepas kapur barus itu しかし　樟脳の後は
Mengapa kau tidak datang-datang lagi? なぜかあなたが　もう来てくれない？


Japanese translation/日本語訳： Charlottell

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


"After the Camphor" 《樟脑之后》


Everyday 每一天
without considering the time不定时地

You came to me in rush你匆匆忙忙到来
Knocking at my door轻敲我的门

You brought everything 你为我带来
To me 许多东西

Sometimes you brought me roses有时候你为我递上
From an unknown garden从不知名的花园中摘下的玫瑰

Sometimes you brought me plumeria 有时候你为我带来
From an unknown graveyard从不知名的墓地里折下的缅梔花

Whatever it was任何东西
You held it out to me你都为我献上

Sometimes you brought me roots有时候你为我带来树根
Branches and seeds枝丫和种子

Sometimes you brought me wild grasses有时候你为我带来茅草
Ferns and old leaves羊齿植物和凋零的叶片

I always faced the dilemma of为了是否该收下这些东西
accepting them or not我常常陷入两难

You brought coral and shells你带来珊瑚和贝壳
Osyter and pearl 牡蛎与珍珠

You brought fire and light你带来火与光
Snow and dew 雪和露

Whatever it was无论是什么
You held it out to me你都为我献上

You brought pieces of porcelain你带来瓷器的碎片
And rusted metal和生锈的金属

You brought pieces of tombstone 你带来墓碑的破片
And leftover of collarbone和残留的锁骨

I was always nervous为了推辞这些东西
To reject them我常常觉得焦虑不安

You also brought cricket 你也带来了蟋蟀
And spider和蜘蛛

As well as 还有
Pus and blood脓与血

Everything that you brought me你为我带来的所有东西
Piled up just like that就这么样的堆积在那里

You also brought me你也为我带来了
Sand and gravels沙和石

As well as 还有
Dust and earth尘与土

Everyday I threw them faraway每一次我将它们远远地扔掉
But you picked them up again for me隔天你却把它们都捡回来

You left for me 你为我留下
Everything所有的东西

I wasn’t expecting you我并没有在期盼着你的到来
But then again you knocked at my door你却不停地来敲我的门

Repeatedly重复着
Day after day一天又一天

Once 有一次
You brought me camphor你为我带来了樟脑

Everything所有的东西
Heaped up in front of me堆积在我面前

But after bringing the camphor 可是 樟脑之后
Why didn’t you come again?为何你不再来了呢？


English & Chinese translation/英語・中国語訳: Charlottell

Setting of the Female Protagonists in The Blithedale Romance/ by Charlottell

It is very obvious that the female protagonists portrayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) in The Blithedale Romance (1852) are a kind of significant comparison. Despite sharing the same father, Zenobia and Priscilla are completely different in their outlook and appearances, such as the dresses they wear, the accessories Zenobia uses, the way they speak, their behavior, way of thinking and other aspects. The first has inherited her uncle’s wealth by his sudden death, therefore she is always dressed elegantly, full of self-confidence, embracing feminist thoughts, the star in the public’s eyes; while the latter is no more than a seamstress who cannot afford to live in luxury, she doesn’t have her own thought but depends upon another’s order; the ghostly and timid character makes her even invisible if she is staying quietly in the corner.

Since Zenobia was brought up till girlhood by her rich uncle, “she grew up in affluence, with native graces clustering luxuriantly about her” (p.189) while Priscilla was brought up in poverty by her father old Moodie, and “grew up so pallid and so slender, and with much unaccountable nervousness, and all the weakness of neglected infancy still haunting her” (p.186). Perhaps how they were brought up is the fundamental reason for their difference in those aspects above mentioned.

Of course it might be also due to the story itself that this kind of arrangement was made by the author, but these two women are perhaps the only female protagonists in the The Blithedale Romance, therefore to make a full use of these two characters, probably there is a need to enlarge the gap between the two so that it can create a kind of impact on readers.

As we know, Zenobia is portrayed according to the image of the feminist writer, Margaret Fuller, a leading intellectual of 19th century America. As a writer, Fuller was admired as a literary critic and for her sympathies for the condition of the Native Americans. Her writings covered such themes as transcendentalism, women's rights, critical theory, gender roles, and political reform in Europe. Although she has been identified as Zenobia in Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance, she was never in sympathy with the Brook Farm experiment upon which the book is based.[1] In 1850, while sailing to the United States, Fuller was drowned with her husband and infant son when the ship was wrecked off Fire Island, New York. 40-year-old Fuller’s life was ended in the sea, regardless of the ambiguity as to whether Zenobia was murdered or committed suicide; her young life is finally ended in a river.

From the argument of Zenobia regarding the feminist thoughts in chapter 14, Eliot’s Pulpit, it is very obvious that there are some similarities between Zenobia and Fuller. But unfortunately no matter how much Zenobia emphasizes her feminist thoughts that Hollingsworth disagrees with, and finally lets go of him and Priscilla, and tries to accept the fact that Hollingsworth loves Priscilla more than her (in fact he was only using her to provide him with the financial support for his unpractical program of reforming the criminals), if the fact is that she really committed suicide by drowning herself in a river, perhaps she can be described as an incomplete feminist who cannot be able to hold on to her thoughts till the end but defeated is by her own emotions because she cannot bear the sadness that Hollingsworth leaves her for Priscilla.

On the other hand, Priscilla who is controlled by others doesn’t have an explicit and strong thought about feminism and the fate of women (which should not be controlled by men but by women themselves), she was let go by Zenobia, her half sister and allowed to be together with the man (Hollingsworth) who claims to love her no matter whether he loves her truly or not. In fact two men, Hollingsworth and Coverdale himself, who realizes it in the end, love her at the same time. The proud, clever and dazzling Zenobia ended her life with a tragedy; while the vulnerable, plain and pallid Priscilla may have a chance to spend the rest of her life with someone who loves her, truly or not.

Zenobia’s feminist thought doesn’t help her in winning the affection of Hollingsworth, even though Coverdale agrees with her thoughts. I believe both Hollingsworth and Coverdale do embrace some affection towards her, but no matter how appealing she is, she is finally “defeated” by the poor Priscilla in winning those men’s love. Zenobia has all the advantages that make her superior in all circumstances, but unfortunately she is facing the men who are more attracted to a weak creature without realizing it themselves, especially Coverdale. Coverdale maybe attracted to Zenobia for her inner character or appearance, but he loves Priscilla maybe due to his eagerness to correct the moral problems of others and protecting the weak people, while in the story it seems as if Priscilla and he are the only two who are flawless, and Coverdale may come to think that Priscilla is always used and controlled by others and needs to be protected by him.

By embracing this kind of thought he himself also overlooks the fact that he falls in love with her during the process or while they spend their days in Brook Farm. Even Coverdale describes the scenes where Hollingsworth and Priscilla are together in a calm way, but as he says in the last chapter, he himself as the narrator also doubts his own words, therefore if it is true that those scenes really do happen, he may ignore his jealousy towards Hollingsworth because Priscilla seems to like to be together with Hollingsworth but she treats Coverdale coldly. The narration by Coverdale is no doubt very weird when he comes to describe some scenes. There is not too much reaction from him and Hollingsworth when they found that Zenobia was drowned in the lake. Foster is the one who reacted, as they should when they found her dead body.

Failure is not only inevitable in the program of Brook Farm to create a utopian community because not only the program itself is unpractical, but also the members themselves have their own hidden intentions. Even though there is no clear description about the future scene of those protagonists; failure is also unavoidable in the relations of these men and women in which it finally ended in tragedy. The circle between these men and women is the point of romance that I find in The Blithedale Romance. Perhaps this is the romance in a romantic and unrealized utopian community. Even though there is not much description regarding the love story between those men and women, the way of narration, or perhaps shall I say the analogy of something or some happenings is really beautiful. Despite the uncertainty as to whether the narrator can be trusted or not, the whole story is like a daydream in which it is really difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, reality and imagination. Maybe it is this quality of ambiguity that makes the novel a kind of itself.


Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1840 and 1860s.

[1] The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001.
Text based on The Blithedale Romance, Oxford World’s Classics, 1998.


(Written on February 12, 2004 for Seminar on Studies of Fiction in English: The Blithedale Romance)

Significant Symbols and Images in W.B. Yeats’s Poems/ by Charlottell

Some significant images and symbols such as Irish heroic figures, Celtic and Christian symbols, and many more are found in William Butler Yeats’s poems. Heroic images in Yeats’s poems are perceived as a vehicle for protesting against the religion, social structure, political principles and cultural standards of modern Ireland. The definition of a hero is: one who possesses authority over the average, who is admired by others for his or her noble quality or courage.

Heroes are morally worthy men or women who have the courage to protest against the unfairness of society and rebel against occupation, just like Yeats’s discontent with the modern Ireland and Britain’s occupation of Ireland, its industrialization, secularism and so on. He obviously longed for a simpler and more primitive world (like India). According to “Yeats and the Heroic Ideal”, there are many possible kinds of hero—the historical hero, literary hero, mythological hero, epic hero and others. The mythological hero is considered as possessing the supernatural power while the epic hero is more clearly human and pursues worldly glory and success.[1]

Perhaps the heroic figures in Yeats’s poems are more mythological heroes and historical heroes such as Cuchulain the paramount hero of Irish mythology, Edward Fitzgerald the Irish patriot fatally wounded while resisting arrest, Wolfe Tone, leader of the United Irishmen who committed suicide after his capture by British forces and many more. Other than those real or unreal heroic figures, many of the great people who were really existed such as Pythagoras the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Empedocles the Greek philosopher, Callimachus the Greek sculptor and others also appear in Yeats’s poem.

The usage of lots of historical and mythical figures in his poems requires the readers to have such kinds of knowledge about those figures otherwise it is difficult to comprehend or obtain clear images of those poems. Repetition of the same words is also frequently found in Yeats’s poems; perhaps it is due to his aim of creating a kind of atmosphere as a means of emphasizing his thoughts and also to create the harmony of rhythm in his works.

When the world is getting more civilized, it is inevitable that the lost heroes are being forgotten. Yeats’s “September 1913” is like a picture of a broken society that has entirely forgotten the heroic individual, he seemed to be reeducating the world in the appreciation of the heroic individual, and aimed to revitalize the Irish culture as it had been in former times.

Many of Yeats’s poems are also connected with long dead civilizations like ancient Greece and Celtic Ireland. Those ideal cultures in Yeats’s eyes had vanished together with the flowing of time and been buried in history, and he was eager to find a suitable culture to replace the present modern Irish culture that he treated as his enemy. When he couldn’t discover the ideal one in Ireland and Europe itself, it was natural that he tried to search for it somewhere else. And he seemed to have found it in the Eastern world, India, the country that possesses a long history and is full of mysterious aspects in Europeans’ eyes.

Due to the fact that India and Ireland were also occupied by Britain, perhaps Yeats found a kind of brotherly feeling towards India. India is a simpler and more primitive world that he was longing for. Perhaps he was also dissatisfied with the usage of the English language that was replacing the original Indian and Irish languages. Therefore he encouraged writers to write in their own original languages instead of English in order to protect the primitivism or the originality of the country. Other than India, Yeats was interested in one of the countries in the oriental world—Japan. But perhaps it was because there are more similarities between India and Ireland in terms of being occupied by Britain, that he seemed to have more interest in India compared to Japan.

As in his famous poem “The Secret Rose”, the combination of Christian and Celtic elements together with myth and tradition, and as the title of this poem --the word “rose” itself is often used by poets to symbolize Ireland in which it is a “recurrent symbol in Irish poetry and in religious and mystical iconography”[2]. According to “Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture”[3], the image of the rose is “usually shown in stylized form, has been a common Christian symbol since the 1200s. It may be used to represent the Messianic promise, the nativity of Christ, the virgin Mary (her rose is white for purity), or martyrdom (a red rose). It is used often in Gothic architecture.” Even though in this poem Yeats didn’t mention any colour of the rose, the phrase “inviolate Rose” perhaps suggests that Ireland should be pure from earthly violation, as pure as the virgin Mary, and keep all those elements of impurity such as those mentioned above that he disagreed with away from Ireland.

How desperately Yeats wanted to revitalize the old Irish identity and culture but unfortunately the modern and industrialized Ireland failed him. When a country is moving towards a new era and experiencing revolution, it is inevitable that new concepts such as materialism and modernization will take over the old systems. Just like what he mentioned in “September 1913”: “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, it’s with O’Leary in the grave.” No matter how desperately he wanted to preserve the old culture, he is ultimately defeated by the flowing of time.

His poem entitled “He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” sounds: “…I would spread the cloths under your feet: but I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” His aim of revitalizing the old era and its culture is unfortunately like the word in this poem—dream, in which it is as if his dream of preserving the good old qualities of society is being trodden on by the evil elements of the modern Ireland but he could do nothing about it at all.

[1] Zwerdling, Alex. Yeats and the Heroic Ideal, New York University Press, 1965.
[2] Yeats, W.B., W.B.Yeats, ed. John Kelly, Everyman J.M. Dent, London, 1997.
[3] http://home.att.net/~wegast/symbols/symbols.htm




William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) in 1908 and 1933.


(Written on February 12, 2004 for Seminar on Literary Criticism of Literature in English: Hopkins, Yeats, Hardy)