Flow on, River

flow on, river, calmly to your sea

the time I stood here upright in blue

Who said: look

the air is ready. The fog could be heard descending the slope...

the time when someone forgot to wait

the news arrived and the wind suddenly floated above you

washing away the river, a thousand words, songs and momentoes

not yet addressed to the World

A Park in the Evening

from the wings of that small bird

silence, my silence, falls

a moment arrested in a park in this city

leaves fall on the bench, as if in a dream

between arrival and eventual departure

a thousand bells peal

eternity when talking to the heart

and then to the earth. I wait here

Someday When

Listen: we have to part. Because

we have loved too long, because our children

have banished their parents

and because no house remains

still open.

At first, tears, that soon turned cold,

then we left, just as it is said in those books,

after the evening repast.

Who accompanied us?

Our own hearts, prevailing over suffering

prevailing over hopelessness, prevailing

even over silence; they planted a citrus three

in the garden of our former home and scratched the doorway

with lime to ward off calamity,

and then we gouged out both our eyes

so as not to see such scenes of love,

so as not to feel the pain of remembering them.

Leaving the city we crossed the river

and felt time still flowing there

outside ourselves. Be careful, don't look back

there is no one there who needs us,

no one calling us back;

this affair of ours does not end here. Come along...

When the Flower Petals Opened

when the flower petals opened

we suddenly felt; the intensity

of Our love

a light like mist, a misty light; in the sky

the day's clouds skirt away; on the earth

primeval quiet thrives;

when we feel even in our eyelids, the dry season one morning

on a butterfly's wings, on wings of color

the whisper of birds on branches of light

feathers of light; how hopeless

Our love

a drunken stroll among the screams of opening flowers

Marriage Poem

Who is it, this light

(night's petals fall)

the room's horizon blurs

in Bodily Union

grain by grain

(you and I

I and night's pollen) fall

into one

a marriage of

nowhere and never

petal after petal opening

and nights becomes perfection

-- Sapardi Djoko Damono

Translated by John H. McGlynn

(Taken from Suddenly the Night by courtesy of the Lontar Foundation)