Don't question

A thousand night like this have passed

Drowned together with the stars

Which for you and me

Will return in a new haze

A gray dream forever rising

In the light of the marble moon

And when you and I are no longer there

What's left in a dream is the light of day

Don't question night's secrets

What use is there in unveiling dreams

Though may be, someday

Someone will mention our names

With tears of anxious longing

Wishing for us to return from the place over there

Or merely pass through memory,

silent names on a piece of paper

Crumpled and tossed into the corner to be forgotten

If so, then when, where, and why?

Moonlight will not reveal

Everything shall remain concealed

This hand but notes the wounds

A tale of stars and the fool moon

-- By Sitor Situmorang

Translated by John H. McGlynn

Taken from To Love, to Wander, courtesy of Lontar Foundation.