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Dear reader,
It's been a while since my last Musical Monday, hasn't it? Alright, so it's been a while since my last anything. It turns out that college life gets pretty busy at times. Who knew. Before I get down to song-sharing business, I have one piece of information I would like to divulge. My father went to Singapore recently. He goes to a lot of places, for his job, you know. Anyway, this otherwise mundane and ritual business trip was heralded by an extraordinary souvenir. He came back bearing gifts. Or, rather, gift. An awesome, awesome gift. The gift in question was a...wait, are you sitting down? I think you'd better sit down. Prepare your mental faculties for the shock of your life. Brace yourself. I'm serious. This is going to blow your mind. Okay, enough stalling. He brought back a--pause for dramatic effect--tablet PC! An effing tablet PC! Can you believe it? Because I can't believe it. I'm still trying to recover from the shock. I'm typing this right now on my brand new, still-has-that-new-electronic-product-smell tablet PC, the one I'm having trouble believing is real. And to answer your unspoken question, my nosy reader, yes...it was extremely expensive. It cost a substantial amount of money, and--from the way my dad tells it--at least one limb. Ah, but it was worth it. So worth it. It has this screen, right, that can swivel all the way backwards and then down, so you can draw on a completely flat surface. And it has a little latch-thingy that makes a 'tch!' noise when you lock it in place, so your completely flat surface doesn't move around or flip open suddenly and hurt someone when you're drawing on it...or whatever. And the keypad is a joy to type on. So big and bouncy and white. It's just so effingly awesome and cool. There are no words to describe just how effingly awesome and cool it is. So I'll just post a picture of it instead.
My life is complete. Yes. If I died tonight, I'd die happy. Okay, so that's a minor exaggeration. But just a minor one. Anyway, since I can already feel scorching waves jealousy radiating off of you, I'd better switch the topic. Don't want to dwell on one subject for too long, it gets boring. Ah, my new tablet PC. Just look at it. Ahhh~
Okay, okay, switching topic. The song! Yes, the song! The song? Oh, yeah. Right, so the song I'm sharing with you today is--yet another--Malay song. This song is actually a great favourite of mine, don't know why I didn't share it sooner. It's called 'Akustatik' by OAG, also known as O@G. It's an indie Malaysian band--you know, muy mucho respect for being independent and all that--and the lead singer is Sarawakian, I believe [woot!] A word about this band: they're really into the whole wordplay thing. Which is one of the reasons I love them so much. Almost all their songs have a punny element to them, either in the title or in the lyrics. This makes them great fun to listen to, but only if you understand both Malay and English. Yup. And it also makes it hard to translate. So I settled for the song that, for me, is the easiest to translate and, as luck would have it, is also one of my all-time favourite songs...of all time. 'Akustatik' is sort of a combination of two things: 'akustik' and 'aku statik'. 'Akustik' meaning 'acoustic', and 'aku statik' meaning 'I am static'. Static, as in, not moving. Stationary. It'll make sense once you listen to the song and watch the video. *gestures flamboyantly in the air* After you, dear reader.
Akustatik
OAG
Seusia malam ku menantimu
Dihembus embun, aku tersipu
Mungkinkah kau lupa temujanji kita
Kau gembira bersama teman-temanmu
Berlari-lari ku mencarimu
Selembut salju musim berlalu
Menapa berubah sekelip mata
Hatiku gundah tiada terhingga
[Chorus]
Kau umpama merpati putih
Patah sayapnya di udara
Kau umpama merpati putih
Patah sayapnya di udara
Merbahaya
Seusia malam ku menantimu
Dihembus embun, aku tersipu
Mungkinkah kau lupa temujanji kita
Kau gembira bersama teman-temanmu
Berlari-lari ku mencarimu
Selembut salju musim berlalu
Menapa berubah sekelip mata
Hatiku gundah tiada terhingga
[Chorus] x a lot of times
Pa, pa, pa, pa...
Seusia malam ku menantimu
English translation:
Akustatik
OAG
I waited for you all night long
Breathed upon by the dew, I blushed
Maybe you forgot about our date
You're happy together with your friends
I run, looking for you
The season passes as soft as snow
Why change in the blink of an eye?
My heart is saddened beyond expression
[Chorus]
You are like a dove
That broke its wing in the air
You are like a dove
That broke its wing in the air
Dangerous
I waited for you all night long
Breathed upon by the dew, I blushed
Maybe you forgot about our date
You're happy together with your friends
I run, looking for you
The season passes as soft as snow
Why change in the blink of an eye?
My heart is saddened beyond expression
[Chorus] x many, many times
Pa, pa, pa, pa...
I waited for you all night long
There you have it. Like I said, fairly simple, translation-wise. Okay, so I tried to get the words in the video to translate them, but the stupid subtitles kept getting in the way. And I couldn't find any other video that didn't have subtitles. I know what he's saying, I have ears. I don't need the stupid subtitles. Anyway, here's what I managed to get. Some of the spelling is old-fashioned, the type used during Malaya's colonial days. I think they did that to make it look quaint and fairy-tale-ish. Nice touch, if you ask me. Here you go.
Pada suatu hari, seekor burung t'lah ditetas ke duniya.
Burung itu menjadi seekor burung yang [...] dan [...]
Dia cuba untuk menjadi burung yang paling hebat.
Puteh, namanya...
Hobinya suka berterbangan di awan biru bersama teman-temannya.
Tiba-tiba Puteh menjadi seekor burung yang ego.
Ibunya selalu berpesan supaya jangan terbang bersendirian.
Puteh tidak pernah mempedulikan nasihat orang tuanya.
Pada suatu pagi, ketika Puteh khayal berterbangan...
Malang tidak berbau...
Puteh telah dilanggar oleh burung besi yang amat besar.
cerita pendek oleh: Radhionazalim
In English: Once upon a time, a bird was hatched into the world.
This bird tried to be a [...] and a [...] bird.
She tried to become the greatest bird.
White, was her name...
Her hobby was to fly in the blue clouds with her friends.
White suddenly became an egotistical bird.
Her mother always told her, don't fly alone.
White never listened to her parent's advice.
One morning, while White was intoxicated with flying...
Disaster struck...
White was hit by a very big steel bird.
a short story by: Radhionazalim
Yay! Footnote time! I realize this is a really long post, so I'll make it short. Just for you, dear reader. I translated Dia to She because, although all the pronouns in Malay are not gender-specific, the song is probably about a girl, so...I decided the story was about a girl dove, too. I don't know if that's what they (the storywriters) intended, but I don't really care. She's a girl. Deal with it. So, the second one: Puteh and duniya. The original spelling for the words 'white' and 'world', back when writing in the Latin alphabet made its big début, along with colonization. It's pronounced that way, so. Poo-teh. Nowadays it's spelt as 'putih' and 'dunia'. And the next one: Malang tidak berbau. This is actually a Malay proverb that means, literally, bad luck has no smell, or is odourless. And it means, figuratively, that you can never tell when disaster may strike. Out of the blue. The last one: Radhionazalim. I think, but I'm not sure, that these are all the names of the band members combined into one word. I know, for sure, that Radhi is the lead singer. So the other two must be Ona and Zalim. And since I'm too lazy to google them, I'll just keep assuming that that's what it is.
And I'm done. Wasn't that exceptionally short and exceptionally sweet, dear reader? Well, I've said all that I wanted to say, so I'll be going now. See you 'round, ta-ta for now, adieu, and all that.
Yours,
Figgy, the Proud Owner of a Brand New Tablet PC
