Editor’s Note for SUSPECT’S Malay Translation Portfolio
By Sharmini Aphrodite
Sahana Ramakrishnan - Sunset Beast (2022), Oil, gold leaf, graphite, and rhinestones on canvas, 10 1/2 inches × 12 3/4 inches × 2 inches
Image description: The brightly-colored painting features a beast-like creature that has blue, patterned skin and a long tail. A red tongue extends out of its open mouth. The beast stands on all four legs, atop a translucent nude figure who is lying amidst purple, spiraling clouds. In the background is a detailed, black-and-white rendering of a large, open mouth. It is lined with gold-petal patterns.
When we were thinking of a theme for SUSPECT’s Malay Translation Portfolio, Succession seemed most apt to us for a variety of reasons. Call it the Malay World, Nusantara, the Malay archipelago, or Maritime Southeast Asia—this complication of names reflects the polyphonic histories of this region. Although ‘succession’ might at first seem to connote a linear progression, the history of our region is anything but straightforward. The ideas of ownership, of citizenship, of nationhood, of lineage, have always been contested—marked by an array of precolonial kingdoms, colonial occupation, wartime occupation, reoccupation by colonial powers, independence from that occupation, and subsequent, dizzying political sleights-of-hand.
The four stories in this portfolio anchor this complex past to an equally complex present through the art of translation. They reveal echoes of this history that continue to resonate today. Along with this Editor’s Note, we publish Ng Yi-Sheng’s ‘Schizosinga’, a translation of Hassan Hasaa’ree Ali’s ‘Skizo Singa’. The other three stories will be published each week over the next three Fridays.
Hassan Hasaa’ree Ali’s ‘Skizo Singa’ plays with the myth of how Singapore got its name. In language that adds a layer of mischief to a rather courtly vocabulary, the work destabilises a founding fable and the historical ‘great man’ rhetoric, as Ng’s translator’s note acutely captures. It prompts questions of mythmaking, a key strand in the idea of succession.
Sahana Ramakrishnan - Mother, Flower, Secret of the Flesh (2022), Oil and stitching on canvas, 80 inches x 60 inches
Image description: The painting features a female figure and a child. The woman wears an orange shirt and blue shorts. She sits on red flower petals. She looks at a child who is standing by her. The child’s mouth is open. A long, green cord extends from the child’s mouth towards the branches of a tree behind them. Three figures perched between the tree branches stare at the two figures; their eyes are wide open in shock. The background is almost entirely filled with wave-like patterns rendered in thin lines. A tiger, a crocodile, and a mermaid peek out from between the lines. This rectangular composition is framed by ornamental patterns depicting different forms. On the top, blue, spiral clouds surround a human head and hands that seem to grow from a red-and-gold frame; one hand holds a red flower. On the bottom, a pair of feet extends from the same frame. In the bottom right corner is a crocodile with an open mouth. In the top left corner is a bird-like creature with a sharp beak.
Our next three works, translated by Chang Shih Yen, take us across the border into Malaysia. They include ‘Celebrating Eid at Grandmother’s Grave’ and ‘The Last Will and Testament of a Nobleman’ by the late Keris Mas, and ‘A Flag is Lowered’ by the late Usman Awang. Both Keris Mas (1922-1992) and Usman Awang (1929-2001) were Malaysian National Laureates, feted for their knowledge and skill in letters. All three works are earnest pieces, well-captured by Chang’s translations.
‘Celebrating Eid at Grandmother’s Grave’ brings us to a rather idyllic scene—preparations for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, or Eid, in a rural setting—but the situation of its narrator is less than ideal. This story stands out in the portfolio for its domestic inclination, making room in its heart for a fatherless child. Smaller in scale than the other three pieces, which are grounded in grander historical narratives, the work reflects the daily and the domestic—representing a personal time that matters just as much as a historical one.
‘The Last Will and Testament of a Nobleman’, in contrast, is a love story spanning Malaya and Sumatra, one that transcends class and geography. It maps the intimate onto a wider web of political dynamics, both interrupting lineage and prolonging it. Both stories are written—and translated—in an almost folkloric style, illustrating both the context in which they were written and the histories the originals were attempting to evoke.
Finally, the last story in this portfolio, Chang’s translation of ‘A Flag is Lowered’ by Usman Awang, is written in a language that blends the plainspoken with poetry: it is a straightforward rendering of Malaya’s Merdeka—31 August 1957. Published in 1958, a mere year after independence, the story would have been written in the thrall of idealism, one that for many may have been shattered or reinforced by the 66 years that have transpired since.
Yet reading it 66 years on, we were struck by Usman Awang’s hopefulness, and we believe that to be another element of succession—the continuation of dreams, hopes, and stories that resonate long after they were first told. Usman Awang’s story includes a line about ‘people who are hungry and suffering, the people who are oppressed, who are cursed and born enslaved in the heart’, echoing one of his famous poems, ‘Jiwa Hamba’ [The Enslaved Soul/The Soul of a Slave], which is not so much about a soul enslaved but about a soul that breaks free from the slavery of colonialism. Written in 1949, it yearns for a yet unrealised Merdeka. Although formally Merdeka was achieved by the time ‘A Flag is Lowered’ was written in 1958, many continue to strive for the spirit of Merdeka in 2023.
Sahana Ramakrishnan - Jackal Brings a New Era (2023), Oil, beetle wings, graphite, seed beads, and gold leaf on wood panel, 47 1/2 inches x 30 inches x 11/2 inches
Image description: The painting features the head of a jackal looking to the right, rendered in fine lines. Its ears are perked, and its mouth is open, showing its sharp teeth and long, red tongue. Spiraling, cloud-like patterns rendered in brown and gray are beneath the jackal. The jackal is surrounded by black birds; each bird carries a small, green, teardrop-shaped pendant in its beak. On each pendant, a fetus is rendered in gold. On the top of the painting are three eyes. Gold rays surround the central eye. Above the central eye is a black circle fringed with rays, with spiraling, cloud-like patterns on its left and right.
To approach the idea of ‘succession’ another way, we may ask what dreams and desires do we hold onto in the present that were a part of our past—that collapse the borders between the past and the present. The four works in this portfolio gesture towards this question and form the start of a Malay Translation Portfolio, to be augmented and enriched by more submissions in the years to come. We were heartened to receive works by Malay writers translated by non-Malay writers, and we look forward to receiving works translated by Malay writers, which we had sought this round, works originally written in Malay by non-Malay writers, and works from beyond West Malaysia and Singapore—all to further complicate, gleefully, our understanding of what it means to be part of this region.
Sharmini Aphrodite was born in Kota Kinabalu, and raised between the cities of Johor Bahru and Singapore. Her short fiction and writings on art, literature, and history have appeared online, in print, and as part of an art exhibition. She is the fiction editor for SUSPECT.
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Sahana Ramakrishnan was born in Mumbai, India and raised in Singapore. She traveled to the United States to complete her BFA in Painting at RISD, and has participated in residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Gateway Project Spaces, the Robert Blackburn Workshop, the Yale/Norfolk Summer program. Ramakrishnan currently lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.
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According to his translator Atar Hadari, the late Israeli poet Avraham Chalfi was “a character actor, a clown, a dandy, and a man about town in Tel Aviv.” He was also a poet beloved by the people for his romantic and mystical verses.