In Between, Di Antara
Kuhusu kitabu pepe hiki
cannot be captured on a flag.
And what can science explain
about your suffering?
What do the numbers say about
the memories that haunt you in dreams?
—Robin Block,
‘Inner War.’
One day,
I stripped off my childhood
to arrive at a passage
towards to adulthood
Overseas
—Angelina Enny,
‘One Day I Crossed.’
Too often, Indonesia and the
Netherlands present their shared history
as two separate stories that barely seem
to touch one another. Grand narratives
of heroes, victims, soldiers and flags. But
where is the common ground? Where
can we place the subtle twists of fate
and ambiguities of the heart? What do
we do with the personal stories that fit
neither country nor flag?
In Between brings two worlds together
in poems, personal stories and mantras.
Robin Block (NL) and Angelina Enny (ID)
create an in-between world of the past
and present, the mythical and the real,
the personal and the universal.
What happens when we share
our most personal stories?
And listen to the sounds of
our memories and dreams,
the voices of our ancestors?
