- Six Poems
watching a film of the malay archipelago
white ocean surf gathers, driftinghot waves, long and broad, continually risein the humble homes by a dense wood the local people residelofty peaks tower so high they disappear leaving the ocean, by contrast, leveled
who frequents the home of the disbursing officer here?through the door’s openings and closings the governor’s face is glimpsedas thousands of light boats flit awaypromising to return in time to watch the turn to the greens of spring
the sapphire sea
the sapphire sea touching the isle’s edgeechoes the tune of an oarbeat upon the placid surfaceaccompanying the fisherman’s song
he boasts to his companionsof the fish meeting in his nettheir scales’ bright hues mirroringthe young couple’s gambol on the shore [End Page 165]
xing zhou
of the many islands strung together the most prominent is Xing Zhousituated in a sea so vast that rocky mountains can hardly be seentoday’s travelers to the region will find their sojourn easier nowsteady in its role as a favorable locale a well-equipped, strident junction
xing zhou 2
a tiny island at rest in the waters that split the mountain rangeat sunset the sails of junks put away to rest for the nightin equatorial lands the furious currents flow past from the west separating north from souththere is no path leading from here through the vast seasthis place being but a mirage existing only in a phantom worldwhere hunters’ whips drive their steeds across iron bridgesand through the clouds a hawklike people fly true even in troubled times [End Page 166]
a map of singapore
holding a map of the island in handa painted landscape lies before mebewitched, the flying rodent in the imagetakes on the form of a lion*
a natural moat to defend against Western forcespreserving its original formnow a wilderness consumes the barracks we’ve madeafter a century of developmentcan the page still contain the whole of this land?
listening to local talk
speaking a language beyond my graspin this noise do they pass their quiet livesdrinking water in place of tea
roots of taro flourish under the soilabove, a bounty of coconutsblows freely in the breezes
in the fertile dewfeather palms rustlewhere lettuce and sesame open to the wind
the places I once knewso long ago, exchanged nowfor these sandy shores
Khoo Seok Wan (1874–1941) was a literary scholar, poet, education reformist, political activist in revolutionary China, and community leader in Singapore. He produced over a thousand poems, as well as articles about Chinese literature and politics. The poems in this issue of Mänoa are from “Khoo Seok Wan: Poet and Reformist,” an exhibition organized by the Singapore National Library Board.
Shelly Bryant is a teacher, writer, researcher, and translator. She is the author of four volumes of poetry and two travel guides; the translator of Sheng Keyi’s novel Northern Girls and Chew Kok Chang’s short-story collection Other Cities, Other Lives; and the editor of a collection of speculative poetry, A Demon in My View.
Wang Xinlei is a writer and photographer for That’s Shanghai, a major Shanghai-based lifestyle magazine produced for expatriates; a photo contributor to CNN’s Asian site; and a freelancer for Wall Street Journal and The American Lawyer.
Footnotes
* The shape of the land is like a bat, but rumors, like magic, turn it into a lion. [End Page 167]