Thursday, December 04, 2008

Bidal Melayu

Hidup di dunia biar beradat,
Bahasa tidak berjual beli.


Let's live in this world by the rules of old,
For manners are not to be bought or sold.



Bagai pinggan dengan mangkuk,
Salah sedikit hendak terantuk.

Like plates and dishes clashing at the slightest lack of care.-
The continual bickerings of an ill-assorted pair.


A.W Hamilton, Malay Proverbs (Bidal Melayu)
Donald Moore,1957 (Reprinted)

7 comments:

Kak Teh said...

Is, recently, I was lucky enough to see a notebook of pantuns - written by a prisoner of war in Changi. He was British and while in prison, he wrote on scraps of papers pantuns he remembered and perhaps some he made up. There's one veryyyyyy sexy pantun which I cannot reproduce here.
And I had to translate it.

Iskandar Syah Ismail aka DR Bubbles said...

Kakteh,

Can you email me the sexy pantun plus the rest?Very very interested to learn it.

Got this very old book on Malay Proverbs in Chowrasta.

Caieja said...

Encik,

The translation comes together with the pantun kan?

How nice...

Selamat Hari Raya Qurban :)

Anonymous said...

Hahaha.. mintak pantun sexy dari mak mertua?? Nak berpantun dgn Snowbell ke?

Selamat menyambut Hari Raya Aidil-adha.

Kmaz
TX

ManaL said...

Lets continue showcasing and publicizing those beautiful malay wordings even if it has to come bilingually. The world needs to know there are a lot of things one can learn from this region.

Anonymous said...

honestly, and this is because of my kelembapan in literature melayu jugak la.. the translation makes more sense to me.. i always thought translating pantun to english would make it sounds funny.. but not..

Iskandar Syah Ismail aka DR Bubbles said...

Cik,

yup.Selamat 'Terkorban'!

KakMaz,

Salam Aidiladha to you too.

Manal,

couldn't agree more.

Syasyafina,

Try check mokciknab.blogspot.com for the pantun. Nice!