39 Comments Add your own

• 1. Lisa Cheah  |  March 7th, 2010 at 3:10 pm

  Oh wow! I never knew it came from a Malay poem! :)
  Thanks.

  I remembered the poem differently though. I remembered having to memorize the words instead of understanding what it really meant. It wasn’t till I was much older did I understood what message he was trying to convey.

• 2. Michelle Chin  |  March 7th, 2010 at 3:43 pm

  Revisiting PMR. ;)

• 3. Michelle Chin  |  March 7th, 2010 at 3:46 pm

  i see a new header! the barn!

• 4. WP  |  March 7th, 2010 at 4:17 pm

  I don’t understand why they wanted to put the poem in English literature. Why not Malay, since the original is in Malay? It’s not like we don’t learn Malay…

  Oh, and by the way, do you know who translated the poem?

  (I didn’t have literature in Form 1, I started in Form 4 ;) )

• 5. quaintly  |  March 7th, 2010 at 4:37 pm

  lisa, did you also have to memorize the “suggested answers” from those reference books? i did. :) and at least you understood the message he was trying to convey when you were older. for the longest time i thought his poem was still about pollution and damned fools ruining our forests

  michelle, indeed, the elusive houses that seem to creep further backward into the horizon

  wp, exactly. by dumbing down the poems of our national laureates, they are dumbing down the students’ ability to think about literature. education should be about educating, not placating. why do they have to butcher wonderful Malay works instead of just giving us more shakespeare, byron, eliot, wordsworth? and, really– there isn’t such a dearth of english language poetry by Malaysians either.

• 6. kevin/pinkshirtz  |  March 7th, 2010 at 4:48 pm

  I use to have to memorise that darn BM version with all the meanings! Bloody long for my short term memory, but i did it anyways!

  I suddenly feel a bit older reading your blog. I just relized i’ve been reading for years. My god, you’ve aged! Xp

• 7. kevin/pinkshirtz  |  March 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm

  oh and another thing!! the banner has changed! what happened to elisha cuthbert!!! X)

• 8. damned fools = dungu  |  March 7th, 2010 at 5:45 pm

  so… the English version is a propagandic (?) piece?
  seems like there’s a “gain” in translation going on here

• 9. Patricia  |  March 7th, 2010 at 5:46 pm

  thumbs up for the new banner & new pic on the sidebar! :)

• 10. flory  |  March 7th, 2010 at 6:37 pm

  the original sounds better than the translation even when i’m not really understanding half of it no thanks to my terrible malay (the english tranlation — i always thought it was was kind of amateur and clunky). time to find a dictionary so i can understand what it actually means :( and WTF where did that part about the politicians come about!? I DEMAND A PROPER RE-EDUCATION SANS PROPAGANDA!

• 11. flory  |  March 7th, 2010 at 6:38 pm

  also, your header! Andrew Wyeth!

• 12. nileey  |  March 7th, 2010 at 7:28 pm

  Love your new banner :)

• 13. songjun  |  March 7th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

  i think malay is such a beautiful poetic language, evidenced by the lyrical strength and imagery portrayed in music and poems like above.

  the english translation is horrible o.O

  and the ending is so weird lol

• 14. sieutheng  |  March 7th, 2010 at 9:38 pm

  ahhh like the header but not so sure abt the background..not very ‘you’ if u know wat i mean ;p
  and why are u still 20 years old?!

• 15. KY  |  March 7th, 2010 at 9:44 pm

  burung gagak tua, gigi tinggal dua

• 16. Lily  |  March 7th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

  no more pink? LOL. Still pretty and quaintly though! :)

• 17. amber  |  March 8th, 2010 at 1:07 am

  i like the new design! good work!

• 18. brucesharky  |  March 8th, 2010 at 2:48 am

  OMG. THE MALAY POEM IS AMAZING! But than again it’s A. Samad Said. I seem to forget that and besides, they did no justice in teaching that poem in english >.<

• 19. Michelle Chin  |  March 8th, 2010 at 3:44 am

  I checked your blog four times because my top sites page on safari keep showing a star on your page.

  And each time I come back, something is different. Something is orange.

  You’ve been orange-d. :)

• 20. Michelle Chin  |  March 8th, 2010 at 3:48 am

  I think we all did memorize those silly words to pass our pmr. Basically, everything is a formula. It is there. It is unlike the barn house, which is so far, you see it, yet you don’t see it, you need to get there by inching your body to grasp the barn
  ( I know it sounds ambiguous )

  our education system is like: here, you have this, it makes our lives easy, it makes yours easy.

  Which is why I am in Melbourne. And right now, I am being taught this: Don’t take interpretations at their face value. We want to hear what you say.

  It may seem that I am spamming your blog but I am not.

• 21. Michelle Chin  |  March 8th, 2010 at 3:50 am

  And I read your profile. It says dorian gray. All art is useless…

  Why don’t those darn politicians do something about our education!

• 22. caffy  |  March 8th, 2010 at 5:41 am

  Wow.
  Who translated it into the horrible English version?

• 23. PaperPlanes  |  March 8th, 2010 at 7:07 am

  i LOVE the new look of your blog :)

• 24. Jun  |  March 8th, 2010 at 7:20 am

  lovin’ the new background, tho missin’ the old one (and the previous post too). surprised some elements of pink remain ;) if this is a metaphorical allusion to ur current state, i hope everything’s well with u *hugs*

• 25. Grace  |  March 8th, 2010 at 7:58 am

  Wow, the poem sounded way nicer in BM. The english translation is pretty much crap :/

• 26. sarah  |  March 8th, 2010 at 9:40 am

  i stalked A. Samad Said for his autograph on the LRT once! the picture his long gandalf beard in the english anthology was a more striking memory than that clumsy crow poem. and he was very sweet and obliging in real life :)

• 27. Jules  |  March 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am

  I find it hard to believe A.Samad Said would’ve allowed the translation to be published nationally for the viewing of young minds without his approval.

  I reckon he would have some form of input – particularly as things get lost in translation. Personally I just think that around Form 1 not many kids would understand his tacit point. As opposed to dumbing down perhaps its just accommodation for the target audience?

  I suppose its more interesting to start drawing conspiracy theories and I know this will sound pretty apologist, but I find it almost impossible to conceive that any author would allow a translation of his work to be so butchered without being allowed a say.

  On an unrelated note, his son’s a great musician.

• 28. xing ji  |  March 8th, 2010 at 3:18 pm

  What’s he trying to say in the second stanza?

• 29. Waifon  |  March 8th, 2010 at 3:57 pm

  everytime albert approaches a samad said to wassup him, i just freeze in my tracks and giggle like stupid. aih jatuh saham.

  maybe i’m a little dungu but i don’t see how the word politician comes to play in the BM version. the original version seems to have been butchered but could it have been translated the way it’s supposed to be? why didn’t pak samad protest if the translation threw his puisi totally out of context?

  oh ya in reference to jules’ comment, Az is a terrific musician. eh im sure u have heard him! he is also a walking and breathing Na’ vi human version esp when he runs. He is sooooo tall and long wtf. he has long hair too minus the USB port.

• 30. Waifon  |  March 8th, 2010 at 4:00 pm

  eh pau can you bring back quaintly.net ori version? i get my daily dose of giggles and pink from this blog how could you take that away without notice :( sungguh dahsyat dan mengejutkan wtf. i like this new banner though but i prefer elisha cuthbert.

  oh i just realised that “blog” is no longer underlined in red. the world has changed *teary eyed*

• 31. Silverwolf  |  March 8th, 2010 at 9:30 pm

  su ann, i am usually a lurker but your new header prompted me to comment – this painting is one of my favourites works in moma! the delicacy of the brushstrokes, the cramped horizons, the inaccessible, haughty houses! did you crop christina out of your header on purpose?

• 32. ArtieL  |  March 9th, 2010 at 5:30 am

  I remember this!!!

  Although I don’t rmbr the “damned fools” part.

  Is it me or is the English translation abit off???

  Oh btw…I forgot to give you back ur Sociology book last time around -_-

• 33. quaintly  |  March 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

  kevin: really? which school did you go to that let you read the BM version? hehe and thanks for sticking around :)

  damned fools = dungu: well i suppose they dont ever do anything they dont win something from

  patricia: thank you! the background’s gonna change soon though. as will the banner. they’re just temporary as i figure out how to work my code

  flory: the original is such a well written piece. i’m still very stunned at how diff the english language version is form the original. not only did they truncate, they also added in random things like the rivers and the trees bit. -_- and yes andrew wyeth!

  nileey : thank you :) though it’s going to go soon

  songjun: i agree, pongie

  sieutheng : it’s very me cos it’s essentially just a photoshop brush :P

  ky : burung kakaktua, sir!

  lily : haha for the benefit of judgy people, and also for the benefit of my dear working friends who have to skulk around viewing pink blogs while at the office.. :)

  amber : thank you! it’s just a temporary fix though, as i learn to navigate my code

  brucesharky : aiyaaa careless me, i knew i forgot someone. i’m going to forward you a conversation about this poem. sorry sorry :( recently changed email accs so i dont have a good number of ppl in my contact list

  michelle, brown-ed, actually! :) sandy, musky brown. and yes i hear you about the making life easy. and that wilde quote is actually one of his epigrams that i just never got.

  caffy, i’d like to know too

  paper planes, really? but it’s kinda just temporary…

  jun, the colour scheme is not intentionally metaphorical , if that’s what you mean.. but the painting in the header has always had a lot of personal significance to me :)

  grace, i know. it’s awful

  sarah, haha it seems like everyone has an A Samad Said LRT or MPH story!

  jules, i actually am very curious as to how he felt about his poem being hacked to bits. i hear that he didnt care too much. but i’ll try to find out :)

  xing ji, i’m no expert and the line dituntutnya usah is a transition that threw me off, but it seems to me to display a sense of hopelessness in beseeching the dungus to do something

  waifon, yes i’ve heard of az but have never met or heard him play. he’s based in the US though, no? haha no la no ori version for now. working on a new layout that’s unfortunately not going to have any elisha cuthbert

  silverwolf, yes i cropped her out because the houses are more important (to me) and there’s only that much space for a header :\ it’s one of my fav paintings too. are you from NYC btw?

  artie, haha how can you not remember damned fools! in form 1 as we read it out loud, someone would always giggle when that phrase was recited. eh u can keep the book la!

• 34. Waifon  |  March 9th, 2010 at 3:13 pm

  yup, he’s based in san francisco. UNFORTUNATELY no elisha cuthbert? :( then you better make sure you pose like her and tampal your face there okay. *threatens* :D

• 35. quaintly  |  March 9th, 2010 at 3:37 pm

  waifon, :)

• 36. Albert Ng  |  March 10th, 2010 at 2:51 am

  Best comment ever on #35!

  I shall remember to ask him. Admittedly this is the first poem of his I have ever read (which is why I am not all shy with him.)

  When I was in school literature was not wajib so I didn’t have to read this. It just seems like the English version makes it obvious that the poem is about politicians while the Malay version just says the “dungus” are “merancangnya” (as it is an entire sentence). Perhaps he could have intentionally rewritten it to be more direct, as it is the Malay version was not so straightforward. Does it frustrate you when people don’t understand your hidden message? I get that sometimes. Of course the translator chickens out by putting Politicians in a separate sentence making one not necessarily associate them with “damned fools”.

• 37. bryan  |  March 10th, 2010 at 6:09 am

  Holy crap, I’d never given a thought to the malay version. What a scam! ): Makes you wonder how much other stuff gets minced up before our nubile young minds take it in.

• 38. hazwan..  |  May 31st, 2010 at 7:55 am

  susah bace bm..!!!!!!!!!!! tp snng bace bi!!!!!!!!!!!! owang maju k dpn lah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ape2 pon thanks…. 4 this web site…… :D

• 39. df  |  July 19th, 2010 at 4:43 am

  we should take care of our nature more…. long live the green style living…. !! ^_^

  p/s: have a nice day

  i’m gonna use this poem as an intro for my next presentation for my green course … huhauahuahuahuahuahuahuahuha.. wish me luck. *fight for the green planet*

Leave a Comment

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed