Mahu jadi pendebat terbaik???

(Perbualan saya dengan salah seorang pembahas terbaik sekolah KISAS~> Kak Atiqah Nazeri)

Saya: Salam. Akak, zmah difahamkan yg akak ni pembahas terbaik kat skolah dulu kan? Blh x akak tlg zmah? Blh x akak bgtau apa ciri2 pembahas atau pendebat terbaik n apa tips2 akak sbg pembahas terbaik? N blh x citekan sket je pengalaman akak slm akak join debat skolah. Mntk tlg sgt2..... nk kongsi dgn pembaca ttg ciri2 pendebat yg baik. Maklumlah... skrg kan musim debat. Ngeee....

(pasukan debat bahasa Melayu AL-AMIN)


(pasukan debat bahasa Inggeris AL-AMIN)

Kak Tiqah: Salam zimah, pertamanya akk nk bgtau yg akk hny lah pndebat sekolah picisan yg sgt kurg pnglmn..klw nk dibandingkan dgn radin rahmah (kwn kak thia kt mesir) atau naqeb (kalau awk kenal-die stdy medik jordan). Dieorg antara figure yg bpnglmn, jd lg baik awk btnykn mreka klw bksmptn. Tapi ada bbrp poin akk boleh kgsikan spjg akk msuk dbt:

Gaya persembahan -
tidak terlalu dikawal utk elak dr menampakkan diri tidak natural, (stage-fright) tetapi pendebat yang baik akan mampu conceal / menyembunyikan riak wajah & gayanya yang menampakkan rasa gementar.

Aspek bahasa juga amat penting -
elak "terlalu serius" dan "straight-forward" dalam penghujahan. Di pentas, manfaatkan gaya bahasa yang cantik (bukannya terlalu berbunga-bunga xd salahnya jika sesekali menggunakan bahasa kiasan, dan seumpamanya selagi mana ianya membantu penghujahan dengan berkesan. Bahasa yang terlalu berbunga-bunga tetapi tidak membantu penghujahan memang dilarang sama sekali bukan sahaja dalam debat peringkat sekolah bahkan peringkat universiti pun.

Berhati-hati dgn ap yg diucapkan -
setiap pendebat/pembahas wajib bertanggungjawab terhadap apa yang dituturkannya. Maknanya, jika anda katakan 8 ciri, maka anda harus buktikan sekurang-kurangnya sebahagian ciri-ciri tersebut. Bukan ckp kosong. sbb tu pemahaman konsep thdp usul yg didebatkan sebaiknya dibawa mudah, senang difahami dan tidak berbelit-belit. lawan x pening, hakim x pening, penonton pun x pening. jauhkan juga hujah berlapis-lapis. pnggunaan analogi mbntu phujahan tp elakkn analogi yg mengelirukan. fakta kes- jgn tipu (ni selalu debater buat zmn sekolah, skrg dh universiti maka kne jd mhssw minda kelas prtama).

Ni je kot yg mmpu akk kgsi, hrp mmbntu ye zimah Miss u too dear.

(juara-juara debat)

* Mahu jadi pendebat terbaik? Ikutilah tips-tips Kak Tiqah ni. Semoga membantu bagi adik-adik yang ingin cuba menceburkan diri dalam dunia perdebatan bagi tahun-tahun akan datang.

p/s: Thanks Kak Tiqah, sbb berkongsi ilmu. May Allah bless.


Wallahua'lam.


Salam sayang,

Qamar

My own Villanelle

Waiting for You

When will we meet again in a bright sunny day?
Butterflies are free to fly on their own,
Do you see the sun, reflecting its ray?

I remembered the "run and catch" that we used to play,
When we were kids and had cute feet we'd shown.
When will we meet again in a bright sunny day?

As I recalled, Janda Baik, at the chalet we did stay,
Swimming at the river together we'd almost drowned.
Do you see the sun, reflecting its ray?

Together on the green grass we did lay,
Capturing photos creating a memory that all had known.
When will we meet again in a bright sunny day?

At Kerja Kahwin the 'uncle' enjoy playing with the clay,
Starting to make a beautiful pottery of his own.
Do you see the sun, reflecting its ray?

Waiting for your arrival - it's already May,
Within these days, refreshing our past memories and now we'd grown,
When will we meet again in a bright sunny day?
Do you see the sun, reflecting its ray?

Note 1: After I'd learned about villanelle and as I recalled Miss Sheena's lecture, I was thinking of creating my own one. Above is the first villanelle written by myself. Well, it might not look good and seems unpleasant to be read compared to other villanelles, but I will consider it as a worth try. Hey, what do you expect from a beginner poet like me, right? It's so common you know to produce a not very so-called beautiful poetry of our own at the beginning. People do mistakes and we shall learn from those mistakes to give our best in everything. So, here I want to show to all that we seek knowledge not just for the sake of examination, but for our own benefits in the future and the most important thing is, of course, to achieve His blessings because we know that seeking for knowledge is one of His commands and as a caliph we must obey Him without questioning anything. Another thing is that I want to prove to all how much I'm in love with poetry now and I dare to challenge myself in order to prove my love towards poetry or else literature. So then I'd come out with my first villanelle. When I compared mine with Dylan Thomas's, well, it's not that bad. It's a good starter I shall say. Of course I won't be able to produce as beautiful as his, but at least I'd tried my best and I bet he himself will be proud of me for trying to write my own villanelle. Please don't misunderstand from my statements. I'm not trying to show of my ability writing a poetry, it's just that I want to encourage all to value and appreciate literature (esp. poetry), inherited by our ancestors and to ensure that poetry would not die just like that and become extinct. We should preserve poetry not just English poetry or from other languages but also poetry form our own bahasa ibunda, the most wonderful and polite language in the world (in my opinion), Bahasa Melayu.

Note 2: Inspired by Miss Sheena's lecture and the poem Lonely Hearts written by Wendy Cope, I have come out with my own villanelle to practice my poetry skills. This villanelle titled Waiting for You I wrote especially to my sister, who now studies at Cairo University, Egypt doing her degree in Medication. Maybe I often think about her these days and miss her a lot until I heard a deep voice inside of me whispering to me and telling me to write a special poem to show my remembrance towards her. Well, above is the result. Waiting for You might seem very not-so-creative enough as you can see the words and sentences used in it are quite simple and understandable, yet it's my first effort in poetry. Insya Allah, I would produce the more advance villanelle next time, after mastering my poetry skills each day. In this poem, I clarified brief memories I'd built with my sister, Kak Uda, when she was still in Malaysia. In the second and third stanzas, I described our past memories playing the "run and catch" game during our childhood and swimming together in the river at Janda Baik (followed our father who had to attend his work program). I really miss those moments. We were still young girls and played together what ever we wanted. But now, things have changed. We can no longer play "run and catch" because we're already big girls and Kak Uda will be someone's wife so soon. In stanzas four and five, I explained about our memories when the moment we took photos on the grass at Perth, Australia We lied down, ignoring about our surroundings and captured as many photos as we liked and the time when we visited Kerja Kahwin exhibition at Titiwangsa and watched a man doing his pottery. It was very fascinating and we enjoyed ourselves very much. So, when will we meet again in a bright sunny day, I wonder. Perhaps, one day. It's not that long to wait for her coming. All I need to do is be patience and pray may God protect her journey from any harms. And when she come back, I'll spend all the time left with her before she moved 'out' and being with 'others' family.

p/s: Kak Uda, this is just for you!

Wallahua'lam.


With love,

Qamar

Poetry: Villanelle

Example of Villanelle: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Note: In the last semester, during the last classes before our final examination, Miss Sheena gave us a lecture about the types of closed form in poetry. In this entry, I'll recall her lecture regarding one type of closed form which have attracted me the most and unconsciously I was encouraged to create my own one. It's a villanelle. As I tried to memorise with the help of the notes given by our beloved teacher, a villanelle is the form that we have inherited today, which comes from 16th ce French pastoral (adj: describes a piece of art, writing or music that represents the pleasant and traditional features of the countryside) poetry. Originally, pastoral poetry dealt with the lives of shepherds and shepherdesses. A villanelle was primarily used for light verse (for entertainment and isn't complex in its meaning). Features of a villanell are as follows:

1. consists of odd numbers of tercets (3 lines with end rhyme) - usually 5;
2. followed by one quatrain (4 rhymed or unrhymed lines) - called an ENVOI;
3. the rhyme scheme is aba for the tercets and abaa for the quatrain;
4. the first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately as the last line of the following tercets and also make up the third and fourth lines of the quatrain.

And that will make it as a complete villanelle. Above is an example of a villanelle written by Dylan Thomas.


With love,

Qamar

Beauty

Salam.



Different types of beauty one shall have....

beauty of the look,beauty of the dress,
beauty of the hair,
beauty of the body,
visible to their sight.

But, less people look at one type,the unseen kind,like a shadow walking in the dark room,
which's being ignored by its own master,
the beauty of the heart.

A form of beauty,
one shall possess.
Even not everyone could get it,
but still it's precious, yet too much valuable
to be treasured.

In today's world,
beauty of the heart's
no longer valued.
People don't see it nor feel it.
They don't even care.
What they care most
is the beauty of the cover, rather than the fill

Do they not realise,
beauty of the heart that one owns
is an analogous to a round dark mangosteen.
Ugly skin it has, doesn't attract the eater to open it at all,
but possesses a sparkling fresh sweet content inside,
attracts the eater to taste the fruit.

Beauty of the heart,
something that's hard to keep
something that's difficult to value
something that's tough to cherish
something that's tricky to tackle with.

Beauty of the heart,
why can't men easily detect it,
why can't men have it,
why can't men hold onto it.

Lady,
why are you so passionate of being pretty?
why have you sacrificed your nature of becoming one?
what is it in beauty that pleases you?

Gentlemen,
why must you choose a pretty woman to be your queen?
why should you spend dollars to make her pretty?what's wrong with the uglys,
but those who retains the beauty of the heart?

Remember,
nothing is more beautiful,
except for one who possesses the beauty of the heart.
No matter how unattractive your outer part might look,
no matter how many people overlooking at you,
as long as you own such a beautiful and wonderful heart,like the sunshine scattering throughout the daylight,
like the moonlight glowing in the night sky,
and as long as you could take care of it,
do notice that...

you are the most BEAUTIFUL person in this world!

A beautiful heart cannot be owned easily,and it's hardly to be found too.
But,
it can be built with one's pure intention,
- to seek for mardhatillah...



Note: Well, I believe that many of you realized that people nowadays are very picky in choosing their own life partner and from the poem I've just written above indicates that majority of them, especially men are looking for someone who's pretty, beautiful or should I say who is very good-looking and handsome. Let me ask you. How many so-called cute couples (whose the husband and wife are both handsome and pretty) in this world who are known to have a happy marriage? How many of them do you think have a long marriage throughout their lives? None! Read my lips, NONE! From what I know, many of those couples ended up their marriage with divorce and their reason is as simple as "we're not fated to be together." What is that? Don't you think it's such a lie? Actually, what I am trying to say here is that in order for us to find our own future soul mate, we're supposed not to be too concerned about the physical or the outer layer of the person, instead it'll be nice if the 'chosen one' is someone who has a beautiful heart as he/she is nice, sweet, understanding, generous or everything that could make him/her the most 'beautiful' person of all. Furthermore, what will you get if you are physically beautiful but spiritually you are not? Who'll take that kind of people to become their life partner and who would want to live with someone like that for the rest of his/her life? If you ask me, I have my own opinion. Until now, I've been held the English idiom/proverb saying that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." As long as you know which part of you is beautiful, you don't have to be so anxious when people are teasing at your unattractiveness. Because the most important thing that you should bear in mind is that, there'll be no other beauty in this world which is comparable with the "beauty of the heart." Also, please note that, all God's creations are beautiful actually, it's just that we are gifted with different kinds. So, please don't get upset if you feel you're not pretty enough to attract people, because it's the beauty of the heart that counts rather than the physical beauty.

Wallahua'lam.


With love,

Qamar

Andaiku Tahu

Salam.

Andai ku tahu….
Kapan tiba ajalku…
Ku akan memohon tuhan tolong panjangkan umurku…

Andai ku tahu…
Kapan tiba masaku…
Ku akan memohon tuhan jangan kau ambil nyawaku…
Aku takut akan semua dosa dosaku…
Aku takut dosa yg terus membayangiku…

Andai ku tahu…
Malaikatmu kan menjemputku…
Izinkan aku mengucap kata taubat padamu…
Aku takut akan semua dosa dosaku…
Aku takut dosa yg terus membayangiku…

Ampuni aku dari segala dosa dosaku…
Ampuni aku menangis ku bertaubat padamu…
Aku manusia yang takut neraka…
Namun aku juga tak pantas disurga…

Andai ku tahu….
Kapan tiba ajalku…
Izinkan aku mengucap kata taubat padamu…
Aku takut akan semua dosa dosaku…
Aku takut dosa yg terus membayangiku…
Ampuni aku dari segala dosa dosaku…
Ampuni aku menangis ku bertaubat padamu…

Artis: Ungu

Nota: Kalaulah kita tahu bila kita akan pergi, sudah tentu kita akan meminta masa yang lebih untuk membuat persediaan yang lebih rapi sebelum kembali menemui Kekasih hati. Kalaulah kita tahu bila kita akan pergi, sudah tentu kita akan lebih terbuka hati untuk mengisi setiap kekosongan hidup ini dengan amal-amal kebaikan dan melengkapkan semua ibadah yang dirasakan masih kekurangan dan ada kelemahan. Andai kita tahu bila kita akan mati, tentu kita ingin lebih banyak berbakti pada agama dan ummah, agar dengan itu akan menjadi saham terbesar buat kita di akhirat kelak dan menjadi tiket untuk kita masuk ke taman firdausi. Andai kita tahu bila kita akan disemadikan, sudah tentu kita akan lebih serius beribadah demi mendekatkan diri kita kepadaNya, yang selama ini dirasakan semakin jauh hari ke hari. Inilah persoalan-persoalan yang sering menjengah fikiran. Namun, mengapakah kita tidak pernah bertanya pada diri sendiri; mengapakah aku tidak bersedia mulai dari sekarang lagi? Mengapakah aku harus tunggu sehingga Sang Pnecabut nyawa datang menarik nyawaku dari jasadku baru aku ingin menangis-nangis sepuas hati? Kenapa masa yang terluang ini tidak digunakan sebaik-baiknya?

Tanyalah kepada diri masing-masing....

Sesungguhnya bukan kita yang semakin jauh dari mati, namun mati itu sendiri yang semakin mendekati. Sahutan si kubur semakin sayup-sayup kedengaran setiap kali mata mula dilelapkan. Malaikat Izrael kan datang bila-bila masa dengan izinNya.

Wallahua'lam.

Salam sayang,

Qamar

Kecewa

Salam.

Pabila kecewa menyelubungi diri,
amat terasa diri ini berdosa,
seperti ingin mencipta satu alat
untuk kembali ke masa lalu.
Memperbaiki kembali segala kesilapan
yang pernah dilakukan,
terhadap diri, keluarga, sahabat,
malah lebih utama lagi kepada Dia.

Tatkala kecewa datang menghantui,
segala kelemahan diri terserlah.
Meminta sesuatu yang tidak patut diminta,
melakukan sesuatu yang tidak patut dilakukan,
mendengar sesuatu yang tidak biasa didengar,
melihat sesuatu yang tidak pantas dilihat.
Segala kemahuan nafsu diturutnya.
Hati memberontak,
bengkak, lebam, meronta-ronta
dek kekecewaan yang semakin menguasai diri.

Kerana rasa kecewanya pada diri sendiri,
segala jadi terlibat sama.
Segala yang dilakukan
jd serba tak kena.
Ada sahaja kesilapan,
ada sahaja kekurangan.
Semuanyaa hancur belaka,
tidak menjadi.

Kerana kekecewaan,
menjadikan diri semakin merasa berdosa,
setiap detik, setiap minit, setiap jam,
tiada suatu saat pun,
merasa diri ini patut dibanggakan
mahupun disayangi.....

Aku,
amat kecewa dengan diriku sendiri.
Di saat ku kecewa seperti ini,
seringkali aku mengadu padaNya,
alangkah lebih baik jika ini tidak dilahirkan,
alangkah lebih baik aku tidak melihat dunia yang penuh penipuan ini,
alangkah lebih baiknya mereka tidak punya anak, kakak dan adik sepertiku.

Inilah yang terjadi,
bila kecewa semakin memakan diri.....



p/s: ampunkan aku, ya Allah.... maafkan aku semuanya (esp. mak, ayah dan keluarga)


Salam sayang,

Qamar

Poetry: Figures of Speech (part 2)

Continued...

Hyperbole & Understatement

Hyperbole is a kind of an exaggeration, while understatement is deliberately describing something as being less than what it actually is. Examples for hyperbole are, "The dress is whiter than white," " His smile can make women's heart melt" and "That boy runs faster than a speeding bullet." Some sentences are provided here to illustrate the meaning of understatement; "His love could make women blind, but it could comfort them" and "This room is as cold as the ice in the fridge, but it's rather warm."


Metonymy & Synecdoche

Both of them are carrying the same function as figures of speech. They are used in poetry to replace certain words with the others.

Metonymy is replacing the name of a thing for something else that is closely related to it. It sounds similar to transferred epithet, but they actually differ from each other. If we recall back, transferred epithet is when we transfer the human or animal quality into abstract quality that is closely related to it. As for metonymy, it has nothing to do with so-called human or animal quality, otherwise it is more towards nouns, verbs or anything other than 'adjective.' For example, "He loves the bottle so much." Rather than saying, "He loves to drink a bottle of milk everyday, this is when poets come to use metonymy, to replace the word 'milk' with the word 'bottle.' Other example will be "She works with the press."

Synecdoche is when poets use the only significant part of a thing to represent the whole part of it. For instance, "Will you give me a hand?" The word 'hand' here refers to the person's help which had been requested by the the other person who asked for it. The same goes to "Nice wheels!" instead of "Nice car!" and "Her face is getting older" instead of "She's getting older."


Paradox & Oxymoron

Paradox is a statement that at first glance seems to contradict itself, but then shows a deeper logical meaning. If we found any statements in any poems that we're learning, which contain paradox in it, our first judgment toward those sentences might be, 'this sentence is nonsense!' or we might say 'How can a poet wrote such sentence which seems so impossible!" However, this is what poetry all about. The sentence contained paradox in it might seems impossible in our eyes, but if we not just reading it, but really looking deeply at it, automatically our perception would change as well. Later on, we'll find that the sentence seems illogical at the first sight, but then it will turn into something that is more make sense and not impossible at all! For example, "The child is father of the man." At first, we'll think how come a child be a father of a man, but when we think back, in the future, he'll be. The second example is "A chick comes from an egg."

How about oxymoron? Well, it is derived from a Greek word, means 'pointedly foolish.' Thus, it is a kind of compressed paradox, in which combining two contradictory terms. For example, "Bittersweet," "We could hear the sound of silence in the empty room," "His smile is too much alive to be dead," etc.


Periphrasis & Euphemism

Poets include periphrasis when they want to say something in a roundabout manner. For example, "The finny tribe....," "My mother's sister's daughter," instead of saying "my cousin" and "The pair of watery sight" instead of saying "The teary eyes."

Euphemism is a kind of periphrasis, in which it's a delicate or improper term is described in a roundabout manner. For example, instead of saying "Her father died last night," we should rather say, "Her father passed away last night." If we want to describe our friends body size, we always say, "My friend loves to eat. That's why now she's fat." Well, don't you think that it sounds a little bit delinquent to address our friend in such manner? To improve our speech, let's just say, "That's why now she's horizontally-challenged." This might avoid a big fight between you and your friend, don't you thin? :)


Pun

Lastly, pun. Pun is a play on words, which the poets use a word with two meanings or two words that sound alike or are spelled alike. Pun is usually committed for humorous effect. Example of pun is "A baker's wife, Alberta Smith, had loads and loads of fun. For every time she did her hair, she put it in a bun."


Previous article: Definition of figures of speech, metaphor & simile, personification & transferred epithet and apostrophe & allusion.


Wallahua'lam.

Poetry: Figures of Speech (part 1)

Salam.

I still remember my poetry lecturer, Miss Sheena, explained about figures of speech in poetry class. All her lectures are still fresh in my memory and I don't know why suddenly I want to recall everything that she had taught us (but today I'm only intended to talk about the figures of speech). Maybe it's because I don't want to just learn something for the sake of exams. Do you know that learning or studying for the sake of getting good grades in examinations will bring you nowhere. You'll just stand or sit at the same point without moving anywhere. It shows that how valuable knowledge are and it's our job to grab it, treasure it and utilize it for the betterment of our life. For my BENL friends, let's recall what had been taught by Miss Sheena, so that it might help us to be more appreciative towards the beauty of English literature as we had learned during the past semester 2.

What are figures of speech?

Figures of speech are intentional departure from straight-forward, literal use of language for the purpose of clarity, emphasis or freshness of expression. Based on what I understand from Miss Sheena's lectures is that, usually, poets tend to include (not all) figures of speech in their poetry because they want to make their poems looked more attractive and interesting to be read by people. In addition, including figures of speech in their poetry, poets will be able to catch the readers' attention other than trying to convey the hidden messages inside their poems.

Basically, in poetry, there are as many as 15 figures of speech used by poets in their poems. They encompass metaphor, simile, personification, transferred epithet, apostrophe, allusion, hyperbole, understatement, metonymy, synecdoche, paradox, oxymoron, periphrasis, euphemism and pun.

Let's take a look at them one by one!


Metaphor & Simile

Although metaphor and simile are different from each other, but they are actually the same thing. This is because they share the same function as the figures of speech in poetry, which is comparing two different things.

The obvious thing that they are appeared to be different from each other is that, metaphor is an indirect comparison between two things. The things which are compared in a poem could be either a thing, idea or even an action as it refers to as being something else which it shares a common quality. For example, "He is a tiger" to indicate that he is as brave as a tiger. Another examples are, "You are my sunshine" and " Emily is the rose who attracted men."

How about simile? Simile is a direct comparison between two different things, actions or feelings, with the use of a connective word such as 'like,' 'as,' 'resembles' and 'then.' Beware, if you find a statement that comparing two things with the absence of these connectors, they are no longer a simile, but a metaphor! Examples for simile are, "The surface of the table is whiter than a sheet," "She's like the moonlight during the night" and "John is as slow as a snail."


Personification & Transferred Epithet

As for these two, they are put under the same umbrella in which addressing attributes of something. Personification is when poets are transferring human qualities to an object, animal or abstract quality such as justice or love. Other than that, any inanimate objects which are given animal characteristics also known as personification. For example, "The singing birds cheer up her day" and "The moon is smiling at her."

Transferred epithet is when poets attributing a characteristic of one thing to another that is closely related to it. For example, "The angry bus honked at us as we crossed the busy street." The "angry bus" here doesn't indicate that the car is angry, instead the bus driver itself is angry with us. So, this is when transferred epithet occurs; when the attribute of an animate object (usually human's) is transferred to an inanimate object (like the bus in the above example).


Apostrophe & Allusion

Apostrophe is when poets addressing a thing or quality or even an absent (or dead) person as if it were present or alive and could reply. For example, "O Wild West Wind!" "O my dear roses!" and "O wake up all of you, dead people!"

Allusion is also used to address a thing. But the difference is it is a reference to another work of literature, an incident or a person (or character in a work of fiction). *Sorry, no specific examples for allusion. But I will include in here as soon as I've found the best example to illustrate allusion.


Next article: Hyperbole & understatement, metonymy & synecdoche, paradox & oxymoron, periphrasis & euphemism and pun.


To be continued...

Tanjoubi Omedeto Gozaimasu, Okasan

Salam.

People or even my mom herself might be thinking of why didn't I wish her Happy Birthday during her birthday, which is today, April 12, 2010. Honestly, I don't know why either. I told my friend once, "I don't know why I don't like to wish people happy birthday during their birthday, even to my own family, although I know that wishing them happy birthday is a way to make them happy and to show how much we love and care about them." Then, my friend replied, "maybe it's because you think that there are many other ways which are more important to you rather than giving them the best wish during their birthday." I bet my friend was right. Actually, I'm not the type of person who likes to wish people on their birthday because to me, there could be other things that are more meaningful to prove my love and care for them, but if I do so, I would be the last person to wish them happy birthday. Not only that. I also don't like to give them presents or gifts during their birthday. Instead, I would rather give them presents on the other days. You might question why and definitely my answer will be, I don't know. This is just my nature.

She's my one, and forever she'll be........



Lately, I'm losing my writing skill and I've no idea why is this happening. I have so many things to talk about and I wish I could share them with you. But, I don't think I will.

Ok. Let's just proceed with my story. Right. About my mom. Well, how can I describe her? My mom, she is.....

• Intelligent
• caring
• kind-hearted
• friendly
• sweet
• funny
• cheerful
• generous
• selfless
• patience
• supportive
• gentle
• always proud of her children successful
• hardworking
• good listener and
• good chatter too.

Who is my mom in my eyes? She is.....

• the moon, who always enlighten my night
• the sun, who always brighten up my day
• the star, who always showing me the right path to go
• the shoulder, where I can always lean on to cry
• the place, where I could pour out everything from the bottom of my heart
• the ears, where I could always share my problems
• the eyes, who always watch over me and take care of me
  
• the sword, which is always with me during the fight
• the shield, which is always in my hand to protect me
  
• the wave, who always sacrifice herself in the ocean to defend me
• EVERYTHING..... but no matter what, my mom's LOVE towards me is incomparable and nothing could replace hers in my heart.
  

Well, I guess this is it. This is just a summary to describe how do I feel towards my mom.

In this special day, I'm proudly to say that I'm going to be the last person to wish her happy birthday.

Okasan! Tanjoubi omedeto gozaimasu!!!! May Allah bless you! Aishiteru ne, okasan! Zutto!

(Happy birthday, mak! May Allah bless you always! I love you, forever!)

Wassalam.

Poem of the day~"Daddy" by Sylvia Plath

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time ----
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off the beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine,
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gypsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You ----

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two ----
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagersnever liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.


Daddy: Shoe Imagery

Within the first lines, Plath refers to herself as a foot, and her father as the black shoe in which she has lived for so long. When one thinks of a shoe, usually the association is made that the shoe is worn as a kind of protection. The imagery of her father in this way would imply that she has felt protected living in his memory.

The color black is thought of as the absence of light, darkness, and desolation – obviously the nemesis of purity, light and protection. Assuming that the association between the two is accurate, it would be safe to attribute the speaker’s depressive thoughts, and haunting images, to feelings that she is bound to her father’s memory despite the anger and resentment that she feels. Using this type of association one can feel the animosity with which Plath writes of her father, as distinct from her father in the flesh. On an unconscious level, Plath could blame her father for leaving she and her mother alone.

Read more at Suite101: Sylvia Plath's "Daddy": An Examination of a Father's Influence over Brilliant Poet