Teaser Tuesday – Padang Bulan

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m now reading the newest book from my favorite Indonesian writer, Andrea Hirata. I don’t think this book has been translated to English yet…but, his book The Rainbow Troops had recently been translated to English. I love the Andrea Hirata tells his story.

The title of the book is Padang Bulan, in English it will be either The Field of Moon or Moon’s Field. There are so many teasers from this book…for once, I’m going to disobey the rules I’m going to share 4 teasers at once because I can’t decide which one is better.

I’ll write both sentences, in Indonesian language and in English.

From page 40

Mulut tanpa pagar rupanya membuat huruf h berhamburan dan huruf s agak susah dikendalikan

“Mouth without fence seemed to let letter h scattered around and letter s a bit difficult to control”

Note: what he means by fence is teeth. He is talking about a man who lost his artificial teeth.

From Page 127

Cemburu adalah perahu nabi Nuh yang tergenang di dalam hati yang karam

Jealousy is Noah’s ark which is flooded inside the sinking heart

Kurasa, cemburu adalah salah satu perasaan yang paling aneh yang pernah diciptakan Tuhan untuk manusia

“I think, jealousy is one of the most peculiar feelings that God had ever created for humankind”

This last one is related to me and for that I can’t let this sentence unshared, from page 144

“Sorry Boi, it’s not because of my mom …”
“So, because of whom do you not want to leave? Who is it that you have no heart to leave behind?”
Detective M. Nur raised his face.
“Jose Rizal, Boi”

Let explain who is Jose Rizal? He is M. Nur’s pet-pigeon, he had trained him so well an he love him so much.

And why is it related to me? Because I feel the same way as M. Nur toward my 2 beautiful turtles. I couldn’t imagine leaving them behind.

Andrea Hirata’s 1st book, Rainbow Troops, has already been translated into English, you can check the article about the book here.