HB Jassin still in hospital

HB Jassin still in hospital

JAKARTA (JP): Writer and literary critic Hans Bague Jassin
entered his 10th day of hospital treatment yesterday. He was
admitted Friday to Cipto Mangun Kusumo General Hospital after
being transferred from Saint Carolus Hospital for stroke.

At Cipto, a team of doctors specializing in stroke treatment
were watching over Jassin, who will be 80 years old next month.

"Doctors said they would study results of tests done at
Carolus Hospital," his wife Yulico said.

"He must be frustrated because he can't write now," she said,
adding that Jassin even had speech impairment.

She said Jassin had been working on at least two translations
of Sufi poetry before he suffered a stroke to the right side of
his body. Family members said he was walking to the bathroom at
the time of the attack.

"He had worked too hard, even if we would deliberately turned
off the lights," she said. Jassin usually wrote scripts at home
and had his secretary and niece, Rita, type them.

As of yesterday, Jassin's visitors have been playwright Putu
Wijaya, writers Titie Said and Soekanto S.A., and former minister
of education and culture Fuad Hassan.

Next month the second publication of his Al Quran Berwajah
Puisi (The Koran in Verse Form) is expected. It finally gained
clearance from the Ministry of Religious Affairs last year after
the Majelis Ulama Indonesia had said a few years ago that it was
undesirable to publish the Koran in verse form. (anr)