Pohon yang Kuat

Sajak Douglas Malloch

Pohon yang tidak pernah berani menantang
matahari dan langit dan angin dan petir
Tapi tumbuh di tanah yang datar terbuka
Selalu saja mendapat limpahan air hujan,

Ia tidak akan pernah meraja di hutan
cuma akan tumbuh dan mati sebagai semak. 
Lelaki yang tak pernah keras bekerja
menggaru dan membajak sepetak tanah,

Yang tak pernah merebut haknya dari
matahari dan langit dan petir dan angin,
tidak akan jadi lelaki yang lelaki
Tapi ia hidup dan mati, seada-adanya

Pohon yang kuat tak tumbuh dengan mudah:
Makin ganas angin, makin kuat cabang,
Makin jauh langit, makin menjulang tajuk,
Makin liar badai, makin kukuh batang

Pada panas dan dingin, hujan dan salju
Di situ pohon dan lelaki, tumbuh kukuh,
Di hamparan lebat, subur tumbuh hutan,
Kita temukan leluhur datu kedua-duanya, 

Dan tetap mereka memohon kepada bintang
Menunjukkan bekas luka pada dahan patah
Tersebab angin dan kerasnya pergesekan,  
Begitulah kaidah wajar dalam kehidupan.
 

 

Good Timber

by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.