Category Archives: Language

Ambil galah jolok keranji

Pulasan grows at branch’s end Harvest keranji with a wooden rod O Man! Do not seek to be praised. Know that all praise is only for God. Ambil galah jolok keranji Buah pulasan di hujung dahan Manusia janganlah suka dipuji Segala puji kepunyaan Tuhan   As durian season peters out, a couple of marginal fruits make […]

Malay Garment Technology

Last weekend featured the most exciting Malaysian cultural event I’ve heard of in a long time:  a flash mob of people wearing sarongs descended on the LRT lines in Kuala Lumpur.  I would have joined in solidarity from Kuching, but, alas, we have no trains.  We have Jalan Keretapi, but the train, tracks and station […]

Of Dukes and Datuks

Malaysia has a peerage system comparable in some respects to what is practiced in the UK, whereby Malaysians of common origins can be conferred a non-hereditary title of honor by the monarch.  Like in the UK, this is given out to exceptional artists, athletes, statesmen, men of learning, and to the exceptionally wealthy.  It gets […]

The Year in Chickens

The last two weeks saw a number of milestones pass for me.  20 years as a muslim. 10 years in Malaysia. 10 years running this website.  6 years of keeping chickens! In Malaysia, my first personal encounter with chickens beyond the dinner table was over 12 years back, when a  neighbor’s rooster attacked my firstborn […]

International Poetry Translated

If you’ve enjoyed my feeble attempts to translate Malay poems and songs over the years, perhaps you’d like the Poetry Translation Centre.  Contemporary poets of Asia, Africa and South America are translated into English by a two-step process: a native speaker translates the words literally, then the poets of PTC render it in poetic English. […]

On Flunking a Nice Boy Out of School

A mimeograph of John Ciardi’s poem was waiting on each boy’s desk as we took our seats for the first class on the first day of 7th grade at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy.  I nearly fainted.  Amazingly, my mother kept the sheet of paper all these years.  RIP, Wendell Hall: […]

Di dalam kuali bertemu juga

  Garam di laut, asam di darat Di dalam kuali bertemu juga — Limes* from dry land, salt from the sea In the pot may meet eventually After ten years, I’ll finally be returning to the motherland with my whole family.  Five of my children have never set foot in the US before.  Of all […]