Song for whistling, II

I think

things shall go this way:

You’ll marry, have children and be happy

Whereas I shall go about like the Wandering Jew.

And, cursed by Cupid

I shall creep in front of a blind wall

With not one open door.

Much better then to damp

This smoldering fire

For it won’t reach you,

But, consumed, I should soon be a skeleton.

February 1943

Chairil Anwar
after the French translation of Louis-Charles Damais