Blog of Basyral Hamidy Harahap

14 February

NEW YORK IN MANHATTAN SONNET

FORD FOUNDATION REPORT
Winter 2002

New Books


Prose and Poetry
Honoring New York


Goenawan Mohamad, an Indonesian writer and poet, had long viewed New York City as a muse for countless artists and writers. In town when planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, he returned to Jakarta with an idea: to solicit works from Indonesian writers who had lived in New York or visited the city in order to create a book to honor the people whose lives were lost. The result is a volume of prose and poetry by 24 writers entitled Manhattan Sonnet. The pieces were translated into English from Indonesian.



In "New York," Basyral H. Harahap writes: *)

"from your twin buildings
I stare at the jungle of buildings that grow and thrive
steel tigers
lash out
at those making their way
through your jungle
you are noble
but also proud."


In "New York Diary," Mohamad describes Union Square as "a sanctuary of grief," but the ruins of the towers prompt him to meditate on the limits of modernity. To order the book, which was published by the Lontar Foundation, a Ford Foundation grantee, send an e-mail to lontar@attglobal.net.
-Elizabeth Coleman
_____________________
*) Note from the author: See the complete translation of this poem and my note on the translation in my Web Site: My Poems entitled Ballads of America, Ballad III: New York - BHH.



posted at 05:14:45 on 02/14/06 by rajungan - Category: General

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