Bunga Popi ~ Usman Awang

Dari darah, dari nanah yang punah di tanah,
rangka manusia kehilangan nyawa disambar senjata,
hasil manusia gila perang membunuh mesra,
bunga merah berkembang indah minta disembah.

Yang hidup tinggal sisa nyawa, penuh derita,
kering, bongkok, cacat, tempang dan buta,
perang dalam kenangan penuh kengerian,
sekarang dalam kepahitan,
dalam kesepian.

Yang lain kehilangan anak, suami dan kekasih,
hilang pergantungan, hilang pencarian,
hidup kebuluran,
ribuan janda, ribuan kcewa, ribuan sengsara,
jutaan anak-anak yatim hidup meminta-minta.

Manusia gila perang telah membunuh segala mesra!
perang berlangsung mencari untung tanah jajahan!
perang berlangsung membunuh anak dalam buaian!
perang berlangsung menghantar lebur nilai kebudayaan!

Bunga popi bunga mayat perajurit bergelimpangan,
bunga darah merah menyimbah,
penuh kengerian.

Kami benci pada perang penuh pembunuhan!
kami rindu pada damai sepanjang zaman!

Usman Awang
1955

In English Translation :

Poppies

From blood, from pus that rots in the soil,
from skeletons that have lost their lives,
snatched by weapons,
the result of war maniacs who kill love,
the red flowers bloom beautifully,
requesting to be adored.

Those who live on are remnants of life,
full of sufferings,
wizened, bent, deformed, maimed and blind,
war in retrospect is full of horrors;
they remember now,
in bitterness,
in solitude.

Others lost children, husbands and sweethearts,
lost their sources of support, their livelihood,
they live in starvation,
thousands widowed,
thousands disappointed,
thousands tormented;
millions of orphans live on, and beg.

The war maniacs have killed all love!
war raged and found profit in colonial lands!
war raged and killed babies in their cradles!
war raged, and destroyed cultural values

Poppies are the flowers of fallen soldiers,
flowers drenched red with blood,
full of horrors.

We hate war,
full of killing!
we cry for a never-ending peace!

Usman Awang
1955