"The Yaslehs
Since 1968, when his first poem Sebuah Sumpah Derhaka was published in Majalah Mastika, our dad, yassinsalleh, has written voraciously, but at the same time is so disorganized that we could hardly keep track of what he has written. It is even worse now that he writes his poems in his phone and sms it to us his children. Believe you me, he spent a lot of money on smsing long poem to us that is sometimes lost to accidental deleting. So we, his three children - Yasleh Rita Ayu, Yasleh Hani Wati, and Yasleh Khaliff Amri - decided that enough is enough, we need to keep some kind of record of his poetry, thus the creation of this blog. This will be a cache to collect all his old poems and a safe to keep all his future ones. In the film world, mentioning my dad's name will immediately brings to mind his 10 awards winning film Dia Ibuku in which he personally won 2 - Best Director and Best Screenplay- but in the literary world the poem ikan-ikan di kaca is synonymous to him, hence the name of this blog.
ikan-ikan di kaca
(buat adik-adikku tom dan ani)
pun mentari sudah tiada api
dan bulan yang merdu
sudah sejuk nyanyinya
di hujung jari jemari embun
kita masih belum terlalu lewat
untuk menerima satu hakikat
ia,
kita anak-anak satu keturunan
yang menganuti escapisme
selama ini
hanyalah
ikan-ikan di kaca
ia
ikan-ikan di kaca.
ikan-ikan di kaca indah alamnya
ikan-ikan di kaca gemulai renangnya
ikan-ikan di kaca manja hidupnya
ikan-ikan di kaca terpenjara sebenarnya.
tidak lama lagi
embun
akan kering
dan mentari
berapi kembali
kuharap
kalian sudah mengerti
bahawa kita
selama ini
hanyalah
ikan-ikan di kaca
esok
masihkah kita
ikan-ikan di kaca?
yassinsalleh
Kuala Lumpur akhir 1969
Dewan Masyarakat, April 1970 "
(dari blog ikanikandikaca)
Dan inisiatif anak-anakku tersayang ini, aku abadikan disini.
Terima kasih Abang, terima kasih Along, terima kasih Adik.
What a wonderful world. - yassinsalleh
