Rizal Tanjung, Poem (Translated by Anna Keiko)
Moderator 
RIZAL TANJUNG
I WANT US TO BE ETERNAL
Beneath an ancient, brooding sky,
where time hangs like a dead moon,
and the wind whispers softly like a spirit
who’s lost its way home—
so does my heart call out to you,
from a silent dimension
untouched by footsteps,
except those of memory with spectral wings.
I stand upon the edge of a shattered horizon,
gazing at shadows of the past
on the trembling surface of time,
where once you spoke to me—
before fate turned into a storm
so fierce that even the heavens
couldn’t bear its tears.
We are two stars
fallen into the spiral of destiny,
yet I swear upon the weeping nebula:
even if all galaxies collapse,
and the night devours all light,
my love for you shall never fade
like the last glimmer at the edge of the cosmos.
Let dimensions freeze,
let the flowers of time wither in a vacuum,
let ancient tomes turn to ash in cosmic blasts—
still, I will carve your name
with the light from wounds
that refuse to heal,
for the sake of eternity.
You know, Beloved,
even if the moon shatters
and the sky is torn by the curse of time,
I will seek you
through the dust of ruin,
in the splinters of a soul
that once was ours.
For this love is not a bird,
that may fly and vanish with the seasons,
nor a flower,
plucked by the cycles and forgotten.
This love is a stone
at the bottom of the universe—
silent, dark, unmoved
by the floods of fate.
If the final day arrives,
with the drums of time echoing
from the edge of illusion’s sky,
I want to be with you in that fleeting moment:
to hold your hand,
not to save the body,
but the soul—
the soul that believes
to die with you
is more eternal than life without love.
Beloved,
if the solar system fractures,
and space-time drifts into nothingness,
still, I will row
through the fires of stars
and the dark river of longing
to reach you,
even if our love must drown
so that it may live
forever.
For true love
does not tremble at endings,
for it is itself
eternity—
dwelling within a shattered heart
that never stops loving.
West Sumatra, 2025
(Translated by Anna Keiko)
