I’ve been
watching and love spoken word poetry ever since I was young and always wanted
to watch one live. So when I knew that my favorite Indonesian poet, M Aan
Mansyur going to perform live in Malaysia I just had to drag my best friend, Farah
along with me to Fesrival Bahasa& Persuratan Melayu.
Festival
Bahasa& Persuratan Melayu that for the first time organized by the Selangor
State of Government and PUSTAKA which held from 7 until 10 December. I got a
chance to meet Goenawan Mohamad as well as Malaysian’s well known poet, Prof Muhammad Haji Salleh which is among the special guests of the evening.
The theme of the festival is 'Yang
Berani Hidup' - a reference to the poem of Chairil Anwar. The festival explores
various aspects of history, experience and the use of Malay language across the
ages. Not just that, it also enriching and enhancing the knowledge in good old traditions of verbal and written Melayu Nusantara Literature.
And of course, as expected Farah slept all through the show. But she did watched some of the performance from Sapardi Djoko Domono, Halina Usman and Nukila Amal before dozing off. I do feel a tiny bit guilty for always dragging her with me but sometimes, she also make me do things I don't want to do so I guess that's what friend is right? Friends complete each othe like Ying Yang and black and white. But all in all, I do feel grateful for her and all of the existence of my friends. And yes, an evening that well spend and occupied with malay literature.
