Tuan Tata, Song of Uda - 1
Some dogs bark to warn men
of dangers that await them;
Others look on in wonder
at those struck by thunder.
Anjang now says my Semai blood stains
the tall Temiar strains
out of the ruwai
wherefrom my stricken gunig strays
Akob now roves in search of the stiffest bamboo pole
high on fuzzy blue mountain tops
the eight-foot blowpipe
the buloh seworr of Gunung Swettenham
four times the length of Akob's right arm
the rightful arm.
You cannot imagine
No, you cannot know
How my gunig prodded me on:
'Once to the right - step back
Take a turn and bend your back
Cup your hands: thus to the mouth
And Watch! No spirit slips your breath!
Tohat na med: saka senoi selamat!
If only you had come to take notes
And weave our dance to applause at the Musée de l'Homme
Or sat high on a consecrated Cambridge Chair
I, Uda, would have no cause to despair
over the shameful hush
closing in on our saka
For who will know how decrepit
I've become in Busu's eyes
I, the only rising halak of the tribe!
Listening to you sniggering - awake nights
on the creaking longhouse bamboo floor
No coughing tiger kept me up so!
Did not Busu knock your firing-arm
down with his stout rokap stave
Nor Anjang eye me as a knave:
‘You Shaman, shame, sham-Shaman! '
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poem by T. Wignesan
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