MALAYSIAN LITERARY LAUREATE

 A NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW WITH ZURINAH HASSAN

(AFTER RECEIVING ANUGERAH SASTERA NEGARA)

On 13^th of October 2015 I was announced  a receiver of Anugerah Sastera Negara, making me a Malaysian literary laureate. This is event is significant because I am and the first female writer to be conferred the tittle of Sasterawan Negara . The announcement was made by Minister of Education in a press conference in Putrajaya. Several newspaper interview followed. This is an extract of one of them.

 

1) What and who inspired you to be a writer and poet? Tell me about your early years and your family?  

 

 I GREW UP in a village near Sungai Petani in Kedah. Start to love poetry from small. I listen to songs from the radio and touched by beautiful lyrics esp. pantuns  and began to write short poetry and send them to poetry pages in papers like Berita Harian which had special pages for students to write, call RUANGAN PELAJAR. . In 1967 my poetry began to appear in news papers and magazines including Dewan Sastera, Dewan Masyarakat, Berita Minggu, Mingguan Malaysia. Who encourage me? My late uncle Ahmad Aris Eckhardt who was a writer himself . He sent me money to buy a typewriter so that I can write to newspapers. He want me to pay him back by producing good work. So I have to go on writing as obligation.  Can say I felt in debt to go on writing since he had bought me an expensive thing i.e. the typewriter.

 

This award will be bestowed by the Agung who is the Sultan of Kedah. That added to happiness and meaning to all this. As Sultan of Kedah he came to our school on Speech Day. The school held exhibition to highlight good work and talents among students. As usual I will be writing poetry, Next day my teacher said Sultan commented  my poetry. This give me much encouragement to go on.  

 2) What is your opinion on the Malay serious literatures?  What changes would you like to see taking place in the Malay serious literature scene?  

 Serious literature should be encouraged and supported. Itu yang membina pemikiran bangsa.I said  Must be supported because serious literature wont sell in market like novel popular. Popular novels widely read making the writer rich. But they have to do something for writers who really write literary and serious work.

 

 3) What is your reaction of winning sasterawan negara? 

Tentu saja very happy. Paling penting it end up the tension. Nama saya sudah disebut2 sejak beberapa tahun. Ada yang sudah congrats before hand. Ramai yang harap. So it end up speculations.

 Beside that I feel responsible to produce better work. Well the tittle came with duty and responsibility.  I have to be more alert and more careful in writing to befit the tittle of sasterawan Negara.

 

 4) What is the biggest change you like to see taking place in our society? 

ANSWER. For the general people to be more literature conscious  (celik sastera). Give more value and respect to literature and other seni/arts. But pur masyarakat is  asyik dan leka dengan hiburan hiburan hiburan. Sasterawan Negara will get wang tunai 60k, maharaja lawak , penyanyi kilauan emas half a million.

 

5)What is your opinion of the development of Bahasa Melayu in the country?

ANSWER: The higher authority must do more. Be firm in enforcing BM as national language. Ministers and top people must speak BM on tv. But theY seldom speak Malay on tv.

 6) The world is reading the works of Japanese writers like Haruki Murakami, Yoko Agawa and Indian writers like Arudhati Roy. Why do you think the world is not reading the works of Malay authors yet?

 ANSWER:  I hope one day. The day will come when the world know us. Translation is very important . That is why I place much hope in Institut Terjemahan and Buku Malaysia.They are going good job in publishing original tittles but I hope they do not slow down translating our karya sastera.

I translate some poems into English. They are published by ITBM (FACING THE HARBOUR/MENGHADAP KE PELABUHAN). From English translation other translated have picked up. The book is now in Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese)

 

7) You have written short stories and novel but your favourite genre is poems. Why do you like poems better? 

 ANSWER: My first encounter with literature came from poetry. From children songs that our elders taught us . Songs that we sing in our childhood. A lot of them are poetry . another thing, poetry is shorter. I felt writing short stories and what else novels very hard and tiring work at the time when we had to use typewriter (if we are lucky to have one). Imagine the typing we have to do. To alter a word you need to re type the whole page. And if the page affect other page, that page also have to be repair. Bagaikan nak putus urat bahu.

 

Place birth : Bakar Bata, Alor Setar, Kedah.