Poetry and translation from Malay by Isa Kamari
THE KING
I bow to you, King.
I bear the torment of your sadness
in the embrace of my sleep.
May it transform into glad tidings
for the days of your people.
This exploration is to find your throne,
which has disappeared from our hearts.
For my love to you, King.
JASMINES
Earth jasmines, sky jasmines,
a string of jasmines encircles the heart,
jasmines poured with water from the hills,
jasmines sprinkled by a pinch of compost.
Seven rivers, seven clouds—
rain pelts onto forlorn petals.
Beauty is in the form,
beauty to the eyes,
beauty is the hand that tends to the soil,
beauty is the fingers that caress the leaves,
beauty is the cut on the arms of the gardener.
The scorching sun,
the shade from the foliage,
bountiful is the soul of the tree that delivers,
witness to a life devoted to hard work,
with the laws of nature as the axis.
Strong roots clench the earth,
shoots look up high to the sky.
Stand firmly, the soul sings.
Blossoms waft fragrant dreams.
Earth jasmines, sky jasmines,
bloom in the early morning.
Say your prayers,
introduce yourself.
BETEL LEAVES
To be at the top
is to function at the bottom,
upholding responsibilities and trust,
strengthening shared roots.
The fragile branches are free to stretch,
the green leaves spread wide.
Wild betel, untouched betel,
covers the soil, climbs the trellis.
To be at the peak
in essence is to grow shoots,
carrying fertile hopes and dreams,
giving way and space to grow,
to climb each posting energetically,
to qualify for the position when seasons change.
Lofty betels, heavenly betels,
reach for the stars, greet the clouds.
To be in the ceremonial receptacle
in essence is to uphold tradition,
surrendering to the preservation of culture.
Typically chewed with lime, slicing problems,
mature-red in speech,
tracing the lives of roots and shoots.
Wild betel, untouched betel, lofty betel,
heavenly betel, courtship betel, customary betel,
weaving values and the essence of leadership
entrenched in tradition.
HOME
Free souls wouldn’t be easily bored
by mentoring and demands,
for it’s the stable self
that gives rise to liberation.
And that’s called freedom —
it isn't about release without aims,
just like city folks,
released from home or work,
wander aimlessly at shopping malls,
seek excitement from novelty and transience.
It isn't that Life doesn’t require variety,
or it isn't that the soul doesn’t long for fun.
It’s just that we who claim to be free
are easily entrapped in useless pettiness
that we spread in the city
without ever realising
that we haven’t returned to the doors of our hearts,
although we’ve stepped afoot
onto the compound of the house.
Isa Kamari has written 12 novels, 3 collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, a book of essays on Singapore Malay poetry, a collection of theatre scripts and lyrics of 3 music albums, all in Malay. His novels have been translated into English, Turkish, Urdu, Arabic, Indonesian, Jawi, Russian, French, Spanish, Korean, Azerbaijan and Mandarin. Several of his essays and selected poems have been translated into English. Isa was conferred the S.E.A Write Award from Thailand (2006), the Singapore Cultural Medallion (2007), the Anugerah Tun Seri Lanang (2009) from the Singapore Malay Language Council, and the Mastera Literary Award (2018) from Brunei Darussalam.
He obtained a BArch (Hons) from the National University of Singapore in 1989, an MPhil (Malay Letters) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2008 and is currently pursuing a PhD programme at the Academy of Islamic Studies, Univeristi Malaya. His area of research is on the problem of alienation and the practice of firasat (spiritual intuition) in selected Singapore Malay novels.
The Lost Mantras is a collection that blends spirituality, Malay cultural heritage, and universal human experience. First published as part of Menyap Cinta (Love Greetings, 2022, Nuha Books KL), these poems are like a bridge between mysticism and everyday life, where traditional images (betel, jasmine, kris[1], oil lamps, setanjak[2]) are woven with Qur’anic echoes, prayers, and existential questioning. The collection carries a Sufi resonance—always circling back to longing, humility, surrender, and beauty as signs of God. The poems are not only lyrical but also function as cultural memory: they preserve Malay traditions, communal practices, and village life, while situating them in a cosmic framework of faith, sin, and redemption. The use of Malay customs, rituals, and objects is powerful: it asserts that spirituality is not abstract but embedded in heritage. This makes the collection uniquely Southeast Asian while still universal in appeal
[1] A dagger
[2] Malay headgear
PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles
Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International
Borderless 