Lost Art

Jikalau merpati sudah terpikat
Jangan terlepas ikatan benang
Jikalau hati sudah terikat
Lekas, lah, lekas masuk meminang

from "Tiga Abdul", 1964.

After a heinous foray into HT-land, I took a break into Malay-land and rediscovered the lost art of "berbalas pantun" (an exchange of wit through verse) in "Tiga Abdul", a film by P. Ramlee. Which I have never watched (believe it or not). Finally, I got the jokes my JC (mat!) friends made - amongst which "Isketambola" and "Isketambatu" (fictional countries - the joke lies with the pun made by "ketam" (crab) and "batu" (stone) which makes it a type of crab. Jeez. It's funnier unexplained!), and "Oi, di sana" (hey, there). An apt demostration of intertextuality and jokes. Anyway, the quoted pantun above had charmed me so I put it up on my blog. Don't ask me to translate though. I can do literal but it would totally spoil the prettiness of the verse. Never has "kata beralas" looked so good.

A side-note: My favourite "Bujang Lapok" has always been Ajis. He's responsible, has a steady job, gentlemanly...and most of all, sensible! Ha ha. And they say Malay men are useless. Rewatching the show, I realized, I still like him best. Funnily enough, there are enough similarities with Nazir. :D V weird.