Three Poems by Ook Nugroho

OOK NUGROHO was born in Jakarta on April 7, 1960. He has been awarded Hadiah Sih from Jurnal Puisi. Ook Resides and works in Jakarta. The three works translated here first made appearances in Kompas, Sunday, February 4, 2007


OOK NUGROHO:

Time melting

Time melting once again
The room resumes my name
You a mere shadow
Obscured across the weather

We must talk
You say, at the threshold of words
But language seems
A mere wall

Towering divide between us
Time keeps on melting
The room still wearing my name
You I know not who, nor where

© 2007, Ook Nugroho.
Translated by TQ


OOK NUGROHO:

Improvisation

I have left you an empty plot
right here. Please enter and select any corner
that you like. Perhaps you’d feel good

near a comma, a foggy niche
before a period becomes dotted. Or you
may as well play with a number

of question marks. Whichever; but
I certainly won’t suggest you coiling near the title—
it’s a deception. You know it, don’t you?

© 2007, Ook Nugroho.
Translated by TQ


OOK NUGROHO:

To Whom I am Talking

I will never know
Whom these words
Will ever reach finally
I have of course not written
Them for the sake of nothing
You are the one I’ve aimed
But who actually are you
Do we not know each other
Do I not have your address
In the shrubs of my memories
Eventually beyond this poem
Is the world of orange dusk
Where you may then be
In a city far away anywhere
While it'll remain unconfirmed
As to whom I am talking

© 2006, Ook Nugroho.
Translated by TQ