Friday, January 23, 2009

Puisi Alexander untuk Barack Obama

Elizabeth Alexander, profesor studi Afrika Amerika di Yale University dan teman pribadi Barack Obama, membacakan sebuah puisi bertajuk "Praise Song for the Day" di hadapan jutaan orang dalam acara pelantikan Obama sebagai presiden pada 20 Januari lalu.

Tapi, orang tampaknya lebih terkesan pada puisi Maya Angelou, The Pulse of Morning", pada pelantikan Bill Clinton, dan Robert Frost, yang membacakan "The Gift Outright" pada pelantikan John F Kennedy. Puisi Alexander kurang diapresiasi. Los Angeles Times menyebutnya "kurang layak dipuji" dan The New Republic menyebutnya "birokratis". Bahkan, ada yang memberinya nilai D-.



Tapi, penerbit Alexander, Graywolf Press, buru-buru mencetaknya dalam sebuah buku paperback seharga US$ 8 dan akan keluar 6 Februari nanti. Kini saja 100.000 edisi pertamanya sudah ludes dipesan dan buku itu sudah menjadi buku terlaris di Amazon.com.

Dalam susunan 14 bait stanza 3 baris tanpa rima dan satu baris koda, karyanya tidak menyinggung Obama atau masalah politik, tapi gambaran keseharian masyarakat Amerika Serikat. Berikut ini puisi tersebut.

Praise Song for the Day


Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

2 comments:

  1. oh... baca puisi ini dah tradisi ya di pelantikan? aku pikir cuma pas obama...
    wektu itu lihat live di tv, sempat terkagum2...
    seingatku aku lebih terkesan puisi ke-2... ntah siapa itu yang mbaca...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Halo Bung, apa kabar dikau? Semoga sehat-sehat, ya.

    ReplyDelete

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