The Downfall of Our Surau

By A.A. Navis

HAD you come to my hometown several years ago by bus, you would have stopped near a market. Just about a kilometer from the market, you would arrive on the street of my village. At a small intersection to the right, the fifth intersection, turned to that narrow street. And on the end of the street you would find an old surau¹. In front of it, there was a pond in which the water flew through four shower baths. 

And at the left porch of the surau you would find an old man who used to sit there with his all decrepit behaviors and religious observance. It had been years he served as garin², the keeper of the surau. People used to call him Kakek³. 

            As a keeper, Kakek bargained nothing. He lived from alms collected once a week every Friday. Once a month he earned a quarter of gold fish harvest of the pond. And once a year, people brought fitrah eid⁴ to him. Yet as garin he didn’t really well known. He was actually known as knife-sharpener. As he did excellent at his work, most people used to ask him for a help, while he never got payoff at all. Women who asked him for a help sharpening knives or scissors gave sambal as its payoff, while men gave him cigarette and, occasionally, money. However, the most he got from them as payoff was gratitude and a bit smile.       

Uma #2

Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your Teacher.

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

British poet.

Subtitled "An Evening Piece on the Same Subject," referring to "Expostulation and Reply," to which it is a companion piece.

Lyrical Ballads, "The Tables Turned"

Puisi

Di Depan: Tungku

Siapa lagi yang mesti kutemui selain engkau

Ketika hari membawa gelembung-gelembung pagi?

Aku pun diam di depanmu tungku penuh abu

Menciptakan anak panah memecahkan gelembung itu

Sedang, betapa tabah kau menjaga merah kayu

untuk tetap nyala bagai matahari, dan di belakangmu

anyaman-anyaman bambu pasrah endapkan dosa

Purbapun menjadi waktu yang tak kenal usia

Dalam gairah batu angkuh tubuhmu

kesetiaan tak lagi punya malu

2011

Nature in D. Zawawi Imron's Poems: An Ecocritical Study

ABSTRACT

This paper, Nature in D. Zawawi Imron’s Poems: An Ecocritical Study, deals with textual analysis on three selected poems in ecocritical framework with the employment of ecocriticism, a theory that relates literature and physical environment. The study is intended to find the representation of nature and its meaning constructed within the text. Based on the findings, it is reveled that the three selected poems represent nature as background images. It means that nature functions as physical setting. Furthermore, these images also create symbolical meaning to the poet in his position as man and as part of the environment. Nature becomes a self-reflection to the poet to worship The Almighty God.

Keywords: nature, poems, ecocriticism, background images, symbolical meaning.