Castle of a dreamer

Image: www.google.com

By: Yohanes Manhitu

I dream of a castle standing by the river of grace,
built with pure love on the land of real wealth.
The strong walls around it are of salvation.
Its roof is of flowing blessings of heaven.
It has three rooms: faith, hope and love.
The kitchen is full of the bread of life.
Its doors are of never-ending fortune.
Its windows are of the rain of mercy.
The ventilators are of beautiful songs.
The ceilings are of victory and glory.
The dwellers are from paradise.
Here is the castle of a dreamer.

Yogyakarta, 3 November 2003

Goddess of The Endless Dream

By: Yohanes Manhitu

By the lake, the goddess of my endless dream is sitting 
reading with content the verses of a very glorious poem.
Her eyes are of the morning star – bright and beautiful.
Her lips part like a ripe pomegranate – so red and so full.

I listen to the sound of the dancing weaves of the blue lake,
I catch every single word from the heart-moving sweet lips.
Her voice is as sweet as the voice of an early morning bird,
her gaze boils my flowing blood and shakes my holy mind.

There, I see colourful butterflies flying around the goddess. 
I also notice a group of male bees coming towards the figure.
Her body is as fragrant as a bud of rose starting to blossom.
When she is moving, I see an obvious Samba dancer in her.

I feel like I am tied up to earth and unable to take any step,
I feel like it is just a perfect perfection I am now looking at.
Only my eyes and heart are there, caressing the holy beauty.
Suddenly, an angel comes, and I am now by the goddess’ side.

Line by line we recite side by side by the lake a lovely poem.
We find ourselves in the long verses of a living poem: the life.
The poem we recite is still long to come to the end, but wonderful.
Poems will teach us how to admire lakes and avoid any sharp rocks.

Yogyakarta, 14 November 2003

To the distant angel

By: Yohanes Manhitu

To you, distant angel, I write these verses;
to you, distant angel, I will recite my poems.
Sometimes I believe that we belong to one life,
many nights I dreamt we two shared a dream.
But now I suppose that you are a distant angel.

Many moments we shared in rich happiness,
much time we enjoyed in pure togetherness.
But now I see that you are just a distant angel.
I hoped I would kiss your very fragrant flesh,
but now I see your soul dancing with the wind.

Allow me to dance with your tempted soul!
Give me a second to touch you tender mind!
Should I take your soul away from the wind?
Will your flesh stand any torture of the world?
Should my lips keep calling you "distant angel"?

Baciro-Yogyakarta, 23 June 2003

A modern bilingual text in Portuguese and Javanese in Yogyakarta with my Indonesian translation

A modern bilingual text in Portuguese and Javanese in Yogyakarta.
(Picture and caption: Wikipedia)

The following is my Indonesian translation of the text made from the Portuguese version (28 August 2014):

Proyek Pemugaran Umbul Binangun Tamansari yang dilaksanakan dengan sokongan Yayasan Calouste Gulbenkian telah diresmikan oleh Paduka Yang Mulia Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, Gubernur Yogyakarta, dan Dr. José Blanco, Pemimpin Yayasan Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal), pada tanggal 22 Agustus 2004.