i promised myself that i would come back here at least once a month, in the name of consistency, so here goes. it is quite dampening sometimes to have always someone to talk to, your material (or memory) to write elsewhere is just gone.
it is five am in Frankfurt, and i am unable to sleep since 3 am since either a intake of ibuprofen (with caffein) finally kicking in after 12 hours, or the fact I have spent the whole of Sunday being sick. this being set off by two occasions 1) food poisoning of mi kari 2) NLG’s cough which is probably brought over from Malaysia for all I know. this has, of course, caused a set back on my translation work, which I need to complete 9000 words in 48 hours, but of course, the inability to sleep plus the anxiety to work has put me in that terrible mood of procrastination, here I am.
she tells me she writes about the eroticism in English-written contemporary Malaysian literature. or gender. or sex. or the feminine. while I have no mind for difficult literary/sociological/philosophical theories history or timelines, nor have I read/know about her entire literature review to lead to this overwhelming question, I know not to discard an entire body of work due to language, claiming eroticism is scarce/not explored in Malay-written works.
What is Malay eroticism anyway? //tukar Bahasa//
Mungkin ada perbezaan di antara apa yang dikira sebagai lucah eksplisit (?) dan lucah berkias/puitis. atau dalam kata lain, antara yang tersurat dan tersirat. adakah erotika moden itu sebenarnya menekankan gambaran fizikal/explicit sesebuah perlakuan seksual? Ini mungkin juga secara tradisinya, berevolusi, daripada gerakan modernism awal abad ke-20 (yang menolak hanya yang cantik layak diabadikan dalam sesebuah karya estetika – lantas meraikan the ugly, the weird, the banal).
Kebanyakan karya orang sastera orang Melayu (sebelum sastera moden, katakan sebelum waktu perang) mempunyai tradisi sastera islam yang jauh lebih puitis dan berkias, dan mempunyai lapisan-lapisan maksud tersembunyi. Maka, meskipun terdapat pernyataan tentang sesuatu yang berbaur erotik, ianya mungkin mengambil tempat di bawah berbanding hal-hal berkepentingan yang lain. Ini atau unsur erotika itu atau diselitkan/disamakan cinta terhadap wanita/ tuhan or tauladan-tauladan sufisme/Islam/lailamajnun dan yang sewaktu dengannya. Mungkin juga, kerana pengetahuan menulis dan membaca itu terhad kepada golongan-golongan terpelajar/kerabat diraja (manakala rakyat dengan bentuk pelisanan/oral) maka bahan bacaan juga terhad kepada hal-hal formal.
Lantas, sastera melayu moden yang muncul (sewaktu perang/pasca perang) dan mungkin karya seni yang lain juga, mungkin lebih berani dalam menimbulkan hal-hal bilik tidur (huhu), namun tetap setia bersembunyi di sebalik kelambu sastera lama dalam penulisan secara berkias (secara simbolik atau metaforikal) dan melalui peredaran zaman moden, semakin lama semakin mencerobohi dinding alam tersirat (alusi), dan akhirnya penyataan secara eksplisit, atau yes, lucah. dan, bukanlah bahasa melayu itu terlalu seronok dan meluas dalam kosa kata erotiknya?
//
Therefore, my problem is,while English literature (American/UK/what have yous) have run through a similar course on a different timeline, works written in the English language in/about Malaysia, may owe to a different literary tradition, or a different historical perspective and narrative.
While I believe writers or fiction/poetry can be released from the burden of tradition (as the case with many writers being more popular internationally with a different audience), a researcher who does embark on the subject owe it to himself/herself to consider the overall canon of Malaysian literature and all its historical/cultural/political baggage before embarking in such a specialized topic.
anyway, two hours later, saya patut mandi, makan sarapan dan ubat deman saya, dan bersiap-siap untuk pergi kerja dan membeli tiket ke Bonn besok, sambil cuba menyiapkan kerja-kerja penterjemahan saya yang telah lama ditangguh.
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