Posted 01.11.11 in Writing

“Tekan” by Helen Zhou Huiwen

Everything I say, you also bochap¹.
Like revered surya² drumming his bored tune,
Wanting to rain, boh³ wanting to rain.
Then later suddenly kena hit by lightning!
Why always kachau⁴ me?!

And then when I turn away, determined to dao⁵ you,
You knead my shadow! Goreng⁶!
Toss it about like prata⁷.
Alamak! All because of you lah, I everyday
Kena dance so wildly in my tousled dreams.

You tekan⁸ me, you do lorh!
Kay kay⁹ with me with Mona-Lisa smiles.
Picking at my hind-eyes from behind,
Ah, then morph into scornful winter
Once I turn around to look at you, a bodoh¹⁰.

Why don’t you go fly kite¹¹ leh?
Why I so suay¹² one? Kena picked this poison flower?
The lake cradles its own feathered swans;
While I nobody-wan bit of sky,
A blue-chip tumbled over a cloud too large.

A cloud that play-play with me like casino game-piece,
Which it selfishly, laughingly hoards.
A blue-chip that miserably and helplessly,
Eternally kena prodded and nudged by callous fingers.
Buay song¹³ ah, buay song me!

 

¹ bochap: indifferent, not bothered
² surya: the sky
³ boh: not/no
⁴ kachau: confuse
⁵ dao: ignore
⁶ goreng: deceive, fool, mock, ridicule
⁷ prata: an Indian flour-based pancake that is tossed and flipped to give it a springy mouth feel
⁸ tekan: bullied, ill-treated, dominated
⁹ kay kay: pretend, ‘act blur’; confusing behaviour
¹⁰ bodoh: a fool
¹¹ go fly kite: leave me alone or get lost
¹² suay: unlucky
¹³ buay song: unhappy

 

Helen Zhou Huiwen wrote Tekan in response to Liz Berry’s feature on using your own words. Helen chose to write in Singlish or Singapore-English. You can read Liz’s original feature here.

Liz Berry says: “I loved the Singlish in this poem. Little phrases like Buay song ah, buay song me! and Why don’t you go fly kite leh are just fantastic and so much more lively and exciting than their alternatives in standard English. I’d love to see more of Helen’s Singlish writing and think she’d find lots of inspiration in Look We Have Coming To Dover!”

Liz Berry selected Helen Zhou Huiwen to receive a copy of Daljit Nagra’s Look We Have Coming to Dover! in recognition of her achievement with this poem.

Comments (5)

5 Responses to ““Tekan” by Helen Zhou Huiwen”

1. B says:

   November 1, 2011 at 6:50 pm

   Hey, Helen. I loved the imagery in your poem and the way you made it look easy as you played around lightly with the words.
   Can I just ask what ‘Kena’ means?

   Reply
2. Joshua Kam says:

   November 1, 2011 at 11:22 pm

   Oh dear goodness, this is such a beautiful rendition of Malaysio/Singaporean English into poetry! I too have grown up in this culture, somewhat, but I rarely speak in it, and have never tried writing it. I knew a lot of Caribbean authors that used their cultural dialects for poetic content, but somehow or rather I never thought of applying Singlish (or, as Malaysians call it “Manglish”)as real literature. Ms Zhou, thank you so frigging much for proving me wrong!!!!

   Joshua Kam

   Reply
   • helen says:

     November 3, 2011 at 11:20 am

     To Joshua: haha whoo! You should really try writing “Manglish” poetry then, it was terribly fun writing mine

     Reply
3. helen says:

   November 2, 2011 at 10:51 am

   Thanks Liz and B for appreciating my poem!:D “Kena” mostly means “get”. It’s sort of a Singlish refrain, for example, “I kena mocked” means “I get mocked”. hahaha

   Reply
4. helen says:

   November 2, 2011 at 10:56 am

   Oh, but in “Kena dance so wildly in my tousled dreams”, it no longer means “get”, it’s just a verbal refrain

   Reply