Pramoedya Ananta Toer · 400 pages
Rating: (761 votes)
“Hidup tanpa harapan adalah hidup yang kosong”
“Tidak, yang mati tidak harus bisu. Energi mereka tetap hidup melalui berbagai cara, jalan dan sarana, terutama melalui kenangan dan mulut para nyawa yang lolos dari saringannya di Buru ini. Pada suatu kali mungkin ada yang mampu mencatatnya tanpa tangannya gemetar dan tanpa membasahi kertasnya.”
“But I couldn't stop there. The call of adventure was much stronger and more inviting.”
“I came to see that man finds meaning in his existence only through the active demonstration of his human self, a cosmos comprising the entire constellation of life's factors: culture, civilization, tradition, history, ideals, facts, physical conditions, one's mental state, the ecology, and so on.”
“As hard as my life has been I have no desire for revenge. If I wish for anything it is for all the things that have been stolen from my life to be returned to me.”
“My words, my writing, my actions—these have never been for myself alone, either directly or indirectly. There is no such thing as an artist who creates art only for himself. That is masturbation.”
“People are raised to believe that happiness is the land to which they are destined to travel. But that belief, which one so easily accepts as true, might just as well be a mirage.”
“There is at least one advantage to being an Indonesian citizen: With this country's expanse of land and even greater expanse of sea, it's not difficult finding space for one's grave.”
“—So it is not your fault if people have a problem with you. That is just who you are. —Something like that.”
“Having left, for various reasons, the homeland of epic, they were uprooted like trees overthrown, they had lost their heroic character and deep-seated virtue.”
“Las palabras son símbolos que postulan una memoria compartida. La que ahora quiero historiar es mía solamente; quienes la compartieron han muerto. Los místicos invocan una rosa, un beso, un pájaro que es todos los pájaros, un sol que es todas las estrellas y el sol, un cántaro de vino, un jardín o el acto sexual. De esas metáforas ninguna me sirve para esa larga noche de júbilo, que nos dejó, cansados y felices, en los linderos de la aurora. Casi no hablamos, mientras las ruedas y los cascos retumbaban sobre las piedras. (...)”
“I hasten to mention that I have never actually solicited a catalogue. Although it is tempting to conclude that our mailbox hatches them by spontaneous generation, I know they are really the offspring of promiscuous mailing lists, which copulate in secret and for money.”
“Tallstar stiffened and his neck fur bristled. 'Windclan was driven from the forest once,' he hissed. 'Never again. Our territory is ours, and we'll fight for it. Is Thunderclan with us?”
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