A Poem So Surreal

I think Salleh Ben Joned truly captured the mood of Latiff Mohidin's poem," In the Midst of Hardship," which was written in Bahasa Malaysia. The words used may not be the best but it brings to the fore the stoic nature of rural folks in Malaysia, perhaps in the early days where life was simple and greed was not strong.

The poem describes the humility of rural folks. The nature of their wealth is limited to bare essentials which include a few farm animals.Happiness is also easy to attain and pleasure comes just from joking and rolling home-made cigarettes and smoking in a social context between husband and wife. Despite returning empty handed, they did not show despair on their face;they accept the failure at face value.If they should lose their albino buffalo,they will take it in stride as fate.

As the title suggest, this poem is obviously trying to convey the hardship that a family in a village is facing after a big flood and how the family handle it. However, the big theme is not only the hardship itself but the optimism of the unfortunate”. Lines 6 and 7, "but on their brows there was not a sign of despair" reflects just this. This was accentuated by the happiness within the despair in the last 2 lines of Stanza 3 which reads, "now they are in the kitchen,making jokes while rolling their cigarette leaves".It takes a lot of courage and strength to see the silver lining and to move on after that. Yet, that is exactly what this family is doing. They’re spending time together, enjoying each other’s company and may be gratifying on the fact what they still have themselves against what was lost.

As a plantation boy, I can associate with the poverty of rural life and the difficulty of looking beyond the monotony and hopelessness of each passing day.

Let us appreciate Latiff Mohidin's classic, "In the Midst of Hardship"

At dawn they returned home
their soaky clothes torn
and approached the stove
their limbs marked by scratches
their legs full of wounds
but on their brows
there was not a sign of despair

The whole day and night just passed
they had to brave the horrendous flood
in the water all the time
between bloated carcasses
and tiny chips of tree barks
desperately looking for their son's
albino buffalo that was never found

they were born amidst hardship
and grew up without a sigh or complaint
and they are in the kitchen,making
jokes while rolling their cigarette leaves.