Door
Mornings are endowed with a plethora of doors
and they always kindly let us pick one to pass through.
Nights are blessed with multitudinous portals
and aren’t we enticed to push one open and leave—
to be on our way There.
No need for a knock.
Nor for a key.
: Even more so,
no need for a welcome party
or a goodbye hug.
*
Pintu
Pagi dikaruniai begitu banyak pintu
dan kita disilakan masuk melewatinya kapan saja.
Malam diberkahi begitu banyak gerbang
dan kita digoda untuk membukanya dan keluar agar bisa ke Sana.
Tidak diperlukan ketukan.
Tidak diperlukan kunci.
: Sungguh,
tidak diperlukan selamat datang
atau selamat tinggal.
Sapardi Djoko Damono (1940–2020) enriched Indonesian poetry with his celebrated collections, including
Duka-Mu Abadi (1969),
Hujan Bulan Juni (1994), and
Kolam (2009). His work has appeared in multiple English translations, including those by Harry Aveling, Hasif Amini, and John McGlynn. In the 2000s, Sapardi published his own work through Editum, which he managed with his wife, Sonya Sondakh.
Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a Toba Batak poet and translator. Their translations have appeared in
Modern Poetry in Translation, Cordite Poetry Review, Wasafiri, AAWW’s
The Margins, and
Asymptote Journal’s Blog. In 2017, Sapardi Djoko Damono picked them as the Southeast Asian Literary Council’s (MASTERA) Sastrawan Muda.