Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Kota yang Tak Pernah Tidur

Federico Garcia Lorca



Di cakrawala, tak seorang tertidur.

Tak seorang pun, tak seorang pun.

Tak seorang pun tertidur.

Binatang malam mengendus bulan,

mengincar mangsa di kandangnya.

Ada iguana yang kelak menjelma

dan mengerkah engkau yang tak bermimpi,

dan sia-sia engkau yang menghambur kabur

dengan jiwa hancur, di sudut jalan itu

    diam-diam sudah menunggu: aligator

di langit, bintang-bintang menggerutu.



Di bumi, tak seorang tertidur.

Tak seorang pun, tak seorang pun.

Tak seorang pun tertidur.

Di lapangan kuburan, ada jerangkong

tiga tahun sudah: merintih meraung

tersebab negeri yang kering di lututnya;

dan arwah bocah yang dikubur tadi sore

keras menangis, sejadi-jadinya tangis.

Lekas panggil anjing datang, biar lolongnya

mengembalikan mereka kepada sunyi.



Hidup bukanlah mimpi. Awaslah! Awaslah!

Kita jatuh dari itu tangga, menyantap basah tanah.

Kita memanjati mata pisau itu salju dengan

suara kelopak mati bunga-bunga dahlia.

Tapi, tak ada khilaf, tak ada mimpi-mimpi;

kecuali aroma daging!

Ciuman menambatkan mulut kita

pada belukar urat-urat darah,

dan siapa pun yang mengekalkan duka

    kelak merasai itu duka selamanya.

dan siapa pun yang takutkan kematian

    ancaman itu terus ada di pundaknya.



Suatu hari nanti

kuda-kuda terikat kekangnya di depan salun.

Dan semut-semut yang meradang

melemparkan diri sendiri ke langit kuning

sebelum mengungsi di mata sapi-sapi.



Lain hari

Kita saksikan, bangkit bangkai kupu-kupu

lalu terbang di atas bunga karang kelabu

dan perahu-perahu mengapung bisu.

Kita saksikan cincin berkilat dan mawar

bersemi di lidah-lidah kita.

Awaslah! Awaslah! Berhati-hatilah!

Dia yang masih mencagar tanda cakar

dan masih menabung bagai bertarung,

dan bocah lelaki yang menangis meraung

tersebab tak pernah tahu siapa

yang lebih dahulu menemukan jembatan,

atau orang mati itu yang kini tinggal kepala

dan sepasang sepatu,

kita harus menghalau mereka ke tembok

di sana iguana dan ular menunggu sabar,

di sana gigi-gigi beruang menunggu tenang,

di sana potongan tangan bocah menunggu resah,

dan bulu-bulu unta tegak meremang,

sebelum akhirnya cekam lagu biola biru.



Di cakrawala, tak seorang tertidur.

Tak seorang pun, tak seorang pun.

Tak seorang tertidur.

Bila ada yang memejamkan mata,

ada cemeti, ah bocah, ada cemeti!

Biarkan terbentang pandang mata nyalang

dan pedih luka-luka di api nyala.

Tak seorang tertidur di dunia.

Tak seorang pun, tak seorang pun.

Sudah kusebut itu sebelum bait ini.



Tak seorang tertidur.

Tapi bila ada yang membiarkan tumbuh lumut

di kuil-kuilnya sepanjang malam buta,

buka saja pintu rahasia, agar dilihatnya purnama,

gelas piala, dan peracun nyawa, dan

di panggung itu: tengkorak kepala.



--------



City That Does Not Sleep



In the sky there is nobody asleep. Nobody, nobody.

Nobody is asleep.

The creatures of the moon sniff and prowl about their cabins.

The living iguanas will come and bite the men who do not dream,

and the man who rushes out with his spirit broken will meet on the

    street corner

the unbelievable alligator quiet beneath the tender protest of the

    stars.



Nobody is asleep on earth. Nobody, nobody.

Nobody is asleep.

In a graveyard far off there is a corpse

who has moaned for three years

because of a dry countryside on his knee;

and that boy they buried this morning cried so much

it was necessary to call out the dogs to keep him quiet.



Life is not a dream. Careful! Careful! Careful!

We fall down the stairs in order to eat the moist earth

or we climb to the knife edge of the snow with the voices of the dead

    dahlias.

But forgetfulness does not exist, dreams do not exist;

flesh exists. Kisses tie our mouths

in a thicket of new veins,

and whoever his pain pains will feel that pain forever

and whoever is afraid of death will carry it on his shoulders.



One day

the horses will live in the saloons

and the enraged ants

will throw themselves on the yellow skies that take refuge in the

    eyes of cows.



Another day

we will watch the preserved butterflies rise from the dead

and still walking through a country of gray sponges and silent boats

we will watch our ring flash and roses spring from our tongue.

Careful! Be careful! Be careful!

The men who still have marks of the claw and the thunderstorm,

and that boy who cries because he has never heard of the invention

    of the bridge,

or that dead man who possesses now only his head and a shoe,

we must carry them to the wall where the iguanas and the snakes

    are waiting,

where the bear's teeth are waiting,

where the mummified hand of the boy is waiting,

and the hair of the camel stands on end with a violent blue shudder.



Nobody is sleeping in the sky. Nobody, nobody.

Nobody is sleeping.

If someone does close his eyes,

a whip, boys, a whip!

Let there be a landscape of open eyes

and bitter wounds on fire.

No one is sleeping in this world. No one, no one.

I have said it before.



No one is sleeping.

But if someone grows too much moss on his temples during the

    night,

open the stage trapdoors so he can see in the moonlight

the lying goblets, and the poison, and the skull of the theaters.



Translated by Robert Bly