Image: © Darwis Triadi
Note
The poems “Bayangkan Seandainya”, “Kolam di Pekarangan”, “Pintu” and “Bulu Burung” were first published in Kolam (Editum, 2009). “Aku Ingin” and “Hujan Bulan Juni” were first published in Hujan Bulan Juni (Grasindo, 1994). All source texts were accessed by the translator from reprinted editions published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Translations were arranged with the permission of the estate of Sapardi Djoko Damono.
Suppose
Suppose you go to your mirror this morning and you find
not your face but a bird kiting in the sky along with a school of clouds
pouring a gentle updraft into the rooms between her feathers;
suppose you go to your mirror this morning and you find
not your face but a cloud that catches the bird taking a sudden dive
right above our town, wagging out the stubborn smog from her feathers;
suppose you go to your mirror this morning and you find
not your face but the rambutan tree in the back yard of your house
singing out to the bird to take a temporary shelter on one of their arms;
suppose you go to your mirror this morning and you find
your face so unchanged, refusing to let himself be dismantled
as you’ve been stubbornly peeling him out layer by layer day after day
*
Bayangkan Seandainya
Bayangkan seandainya yang kaulihat di cermin pagi ini
bukan wajahmu tetapi burung yang terbang di langit yang sedikit
berawan, yang menabur-naburkan angin di sela bulu-bulunya;
bayangkan seandainya yang kaulihat di cermin pagi ini
bukan wajahmu tetapi awan yang menyaksikan burung itu
menukik ke atas kota kita dan mengibas-ibaskan asap pabrik dari
bulu-bulunya;
bayangkan seandainya yang kaulihat di cermin pagi ini
bukan wajahmu tetapi pohon rambutan di halaman rumahmu
yang menggoda burung itu untuk hinggap di lengannya;
bayangkan seandainya yang kaulihat di cermin pagi ini
wajahmu sendiri yang itu juga, yang tak kunjung habis meski
telah kaukupas dengan ganas selembar demi selembar setiap hari.
