To Sumba, To Savanna

Rinduku pada Sumba adalah rindu padang-padang terbuka
Di mana matahari bagai bola api, cuaca kering dan ternak melenguh
Rinduku pada sumba adalah rindu seribu ekor kuda
Yang turun menggemuruh di kaki bukit-bukit yang jauh

My longing to Sumba is yearning for the wide open savanna
Where the sun is like a fireball, season dries and cattle moo
My longing to Sumba is yearning for horses of a thousand
Which rumbling down in the distant mound

I may not be able to translate the last stanza of Taufiq Ismail’s “Beri Daku Sumba” (Give me Sumba) into a perfect poetic and rhythmic stanza. The entire poem I found some times ago do really make me want to meet the nature and culture of Sumba, an island in the middle-south Indonesia, the province of East Nusa Tenggara.  

I can see myself sitting down on grass under a tree while looking at the vast savanna. I imagine it to be like English village prairie or New Zealand meadow wrapped by the heat of typical tropical weather of a country under the equator line.

I am pretty sure that there will also be dozens or even hundreds of horses herded by the locals. Hearing the galloping of their feet and watching them running and racing in the grassland ridden by their masters looking like cowboy may lure me to ride one of them. I want to walk among the shoot of the wild grass and savor the touch of the afternoon wind.

As horses have been parts of the Sumbanese everyday life overtime, until the tradition of “Pasola” to collide muscle and power upon the horse’s brisket with a stick or “sola” now being a folk games attraction which should not be missed for everyone visiting the island, including me.

I don’t exactly know since when I love prairie, pasture, grassland, meadow, lea, sward or whatsoever it is called and picture me laying down on it. But, hey! I do not wish for laying under the heat of the sun on it for sure.

Dream, i dream about Sumba.