Mutu tantu jenti lembrah
Trabalu mbes pra ingkontrah,
pra Lonchil, ke Blangkang, ke Drakar
(ke koitadu Kabelaza, agora lonzi di nomi strelapedra sa bista)
mas trabalu mbes pra ingkontrah
Eli otru poesiaderu ja chomah
"Akeh Yurikadang Turkeza";
Eli chuma nus jenti Kristang
pun nteh nada di kal sorti di ngua kaza
dretu. The Green Parrot
makes their home whereever it likes.
Or rather, that was a bit too poetic.
A device used to elide
a history occasionally far more fucked up, and very often far more tragic.
But hey, it's Labour Day.
The public holiday of magic
undi Pedragayu nteh.
Mparti-mparti, Eli sa Okel di Prau teng;
mas nteh Eli.
Falah palabra xamandra,
"Bos pun podih!"
Eli pun nadi beng naki.
Even if you take your big ol' polymathic Labour Gay—
(that's me, by the way—)
and put him on a podium, and ask him to speak about
what's really been on his mind—
all you will get is ISD agents,
and a sense of a great deal of time wasted.
It is sad to say, but Pedragayu nadi beng;
They need to know, first and foremost,
that they will not be hated.
Desah reglasang dretu tokah sigih di tudu.
They need to know that Their rights are not fated
to one day be accidentally, or purposefully maligned.
They need to know that They are not slated
for one day being caught, and entrapped, and tortured,
and literally or metaphorically executed.
Why?
Oh, because this has happened thousands of times.
Away from the public view.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Can you write this part of the poem in Kristang, Kevin?
I'd rather not have to be reminded
of what I gave up,
not by choice, when I denied
who I would have tried to have been invited
to be, once upon a time.
Na pasadu, jenti hierosa ja chomah kema jenti
Uranian.
Na Pedragayu sa rostu,
nus gadrah eli sa speransa,
protecting everything sentient
from an over-reliance on their own image.
From a gentle strengthening of resolve
that everyone has a part to play
in building a city, a town,
a village.
Then maybe, just maybe,
They will come back.
Only time will tell
whether it really will be
our privilege.
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