Freedom

I want to free myself from everything

To be free

Even from you, o Ida mine.

There was a time

When I believed in vows and love

That had become my blood and marrow

That all day long I chewed over and over

While full of wrath

Forsaking all

I followed a mirage

But nowadays

My life is only too calm

Being out of the hurricanes

Of defeat and victory.

O my soul that try to cling

Why, if you will leave here

Shall I only taste you in death?

July 14, 1943

Chairil Anwar
after the French translation of Louis-Charles Damais