Rokiah Binti Hashim

Rokiah Binti Hashim (Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim) (Malaysia)

 

Rokiah Hashim from  Malaysia writes  using  the name of Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim. She graduated from University of Science in Malaysia in Theatre and Drama, then continued her studies in University of Sydney and obtained Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from Institute of Translations and Books in Malaysia. Starting from  1987 her poems and short stories were published by mainstream literature magazines and newspapers.  She is also prolific in film and theatre critics and wrote since 2007 in her column in a major national daily in Malaysia and published a film critic book in 2015 titled Kritikan Filem Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim and some 250 articles. A bi-lingual anthology of her poems titled  Catharsis/Katarsis in English and Bahasa Melayu was published in 2015 and Spanish in 2016. Her bi-lingual anthology together with 12 other world peace poets titled News From Strasbourg was published in 2017 in E Book form. All translation into Bahasa Malaysia was  done by Siti Ruqaiyah herself. Her bi-lingual  second World Peace Poem anthology titled Peace Be Upon You Davos was published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb, Croatia in June 2019.

 

Her collection of poems were translated and published in Albanian recently by Ditet E Naimit 2019.  Her latest bi-lingual book is translations of Shaip Emerllahu poems In Bahasa Melayu and English titled Epal Tetovo/Apples of Tetovo published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb, Croatia. Her works also appeared in numerous other anthologies together with other poets from all over the world and in foreign magazines and newspaper. Her poems were translated into Mandarin, Serbo-Croats, Uzbekistan, Arabic, Mongolian, Spanish , Albanian, Turkish, Russian and French. She attended numerous local poem festivals in Malaysia  and all over the world including Peru, Taiwan, Czechoslavakia, Morocco, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Tunisia and Croatia. She is currently living in Balkans, Europe and an associate author with International magazine Diogen Pro Culture for World Peace (USA), Poetrybay(USA), Greenwatch Bangladesh and many others.

 

Rokiah Hashim  writes  using  the name  Siti RuqaiyahHashim  was born in Pulau Pinang , Malaysia. She obtained Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Drama and History in 1977, from University of Science, Pulau Pinang. She continued her studies in University of Sydney, Australia in 1984. Andobtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from Institute of Translation and Books, Malaysia with specialization in Literature Translation.  She worked as a teacher and lecturer in Institute of  Teaching Education for 20 years before retiring  early  in 1998  to be a full time writer.

She taught in  Institute of  Translation and Books Malaysia and Academy of Arts and Heritage  (ASWARA) in Literature Translations for few years. Starting from  1987her poems and short stories were published by mainstream literature magazines and newspapers.  She is also prolific in film and theatre critics and wrote since 2007 in her column ‘Variasi’ in a major national daily in Malaysia and published a film critic book  Kritikan Filem Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim in 2015. She also wrote some 250 films and theatre articles.

A bi-lingual anthology of her poems titled ‘Katharsis’ or Catharsis in English and Bahasa Melayu  was published in 2015. The English – Spanish version was published in 2016 and launched in Argentina. Her bi-lingual anthology together with 12 other world peace poets in English and Bahasa Melayu titled News From Strasbourg was published in 2017  by a leading digital book publisher PerbadananKota Buku, Malaysia. 20 of her poems are in the anthology and 40 more are from 12 other world poets. All translation into Bahasa Melayu was  done by Siti Ruqaiyah herself.

Her  second bi-lingual anthology in Bahasa Melayu-English  under  peace poem  series together with 16 other world poets titled  Peace Be Upon You Davos was published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb recently. She is now working on a third peace poem series with other world peace poets. It will be published in Zagreb by Kultura Snova in Croatian and English language. Her works also appeared in numerous other anthologies together with other world poets. Her poems were translated into Mandarin, Croatian, Uzbekistan,Arabic, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mongolian, Italian, Macedonian, Russian, Turkish and Albanian. She is a prolific poetry translator and her works appear in many International magazines. She is a member of World Congress of Poets (WCP), Union of Bosnian Artists (UBU) and Perak Creative Association. Her poems won in poem festivals outside Malaysia. Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim is also a peace and anti-war,human rights and environmental activist and is an Associate Author of Diogen.Pro Cultural Magazine published in USA and writes in many international magazines.

 

 

AT TIME LIKE THIS

 

At time like this

I want to hold your hands

hug you tightly

and cry on your shoulder

as loud as possible

and let you cry

on my shoulder as much as you want

because the wave of pain

not decreasing at all

in fact they are more

humiliations after humiliations

thrown at us

and we could only watch

as words are useless

 

Palestine oh Palestine!

Since young I heard stories of your pain

and we grew up

approaching sunset

with your tears

 

My man

times and times again

I had said

your pain is my pain

at times like this

my restlessness

are united with yours

and we the defeated ones

inseparable and remained together

the way you want it.

 

NOT MIRAGES

 

Your pain

and my pain

are not mirages

of parallel roads of two worlds

but are dotted lines

that linked our souls

and united

in your gibberish

and mine

and there is no amount of verses spilled

that could heal this wound.

 

 

BIRCH LEAVES

 

The birch leaves

green in the beginning

becomes yellowish

dried and then fell to the ground

next season

young fresh shoots grow

 

That’s how life is

barren unproductive phase

ended with death

but eventually we are reborn

and started stepping forward

not bothering and remembering

all the heartaches and dissapointments

carrying with us

a piece of seed called faith

 

It’s true what Fowles* said

and we keep walking

and we keep walking

and we keep walking

Cheerio!

 

__________________

*John Fowles is an English writer who wrote the novel: The French Lieutenant Woman. And the words in the last stanza were from the same novel.