Malaysian Literary Laureate

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 A NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW WITH ZURINAH HASSAN
AFTER RECEIVING NATIONAL LITERARY AWARD (ANUGERAH SASTERA NEGARA)

 
On 13th of October 2015 I was announced  a receiver of Anugerah Sastera Negara, making me a Malaysian literary laureate. This  event was given more significance because I am  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?  
 
ANSWER:  
 I GREW UP in a village near Sungai Petani in Kedah. Start to love poetry from small. It all began with my hobby, that ia listenin to songs from the radio. I was touched by beautiful lyrics . Most songs use pantun (one of our traditional poetry) as their lyrics.  I listened and was attracted to the beauty of words and language. This lead me to a new hobby, that is writing short verses like pantun. I  began to write  poetry and send them to poetry pages in papers like Berita Harian which had special colomn for students. They call it Ruangan Pelajar or Students Page.  . In 1967 my poetry began to appear in news papers and magazines including Dewan Sastera, Dewan Masyarakat, Berita Minggu, Mingguan Malaysia. 
As to who encourage me? Several people, including 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. I felt committed to pay him back by producing good work. So I went writing and tried hard to improve.  This was  an obligation.  
 
This award will be bestowed by the Agung who is the Sultan of Kedah. That added more meaning and  happiness. As Sultan of Kedah he came to our school on Speech Day. The school held exhibition to highlight good work and talents among students. My Bahasa Melayu  teacher suggested that I wrote poetry to be compiled  in an album. After the big day,  my teacher said that the Sultan commented  my poetry. This give me much encouragement to go on.  

 
 2.  What is your reaction of winning sasterawan negara? 
Naturally I feel very happy to be the first female writer to hold the tittle of Sasterawa Negara. However this does not come suddenly or as a surprise. The newspapers in my country always play up the issue of who is to be the next sasterawan negara. There are usually debates and polymec. Several names (including mine) have been mentioned again and again.  My name has been mentioned and speculated  as among the writers that should be considered seriously for the award.  With the confirmation , I should say it ends up the tension . 
 Beside that I feel responsible to produce better work. The tittle comes with duty and responsibility.  I have to be more alert and more careful in writing to befit the tittle of sasterawan Negara.
 
 3.) What is the biggest change you like to see taking place in our society? 
 I wish to see  the general public  being  more literature conscious  or what we termed as "celik sastera". . The society should give more value and respect to literature and other arts. But our general public  are more attracted to entertainment. Because of this the entertainment industry are given priorities even by the authority.  Television stations are putting more time and money to organize maharaja lawak, and vaious singing competitions that could guarantee more viewers and advertisers. The winners will be loaded with  cash prize, much more than what a Sasterawan Negara can dream of. 


 
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 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 doing good job in publishing original tittles but I hope they do not slow down translating our original karya sastera into English, at least. Please go on bringing our work to the world. 
On my part,  translate my own work, some poems and short stories,  into English. Some of these have been published by ITBM  and Dewan Bahasa. Worth mentioning here is a dual language poetry book,  FACING THE HARBOUR/MENGHADAP KE PELABUHAN. What I considered significant is that the English translation version have attracted attention of other translators to put them from  English to other languages. The book is now in Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese.  


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 was with poetry. This mostly came via children song an songs I heard over  the radio.  Songs that we sing in our childhood almost all of them are poetry.  Another thing, poetry is shorter. It was not possible to write  short stories and what more,  novels at that time when I did not hav a type writer.   We had to use a 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 repaired and retype. IIt  can break a few veins.Computer was unheard of.







 

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