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Bones – written by Jen Hughes April, 2000

I wrote this poem in 2000. I rang the East Timor Human Rights Centre to make an appointment. Ana Noronha told me that they were compiling a register of names of people who died and who were missing. She also told me that women in East Timor were picking up bones from the ground and secreting them in tais (the traditional cloth of East Timor), until they could conduct remembrance ceremonies with dignity. I was moved to write Bones (Ruin).

I have learned that though few of us are poets, when circumstances in life move us very deeply, the need to speak from the heart can become overwhelming and often it comes in poetic form. This was one of those moments for me.


Available in Tetun and English.

Ruin(Bones)
Translated into Tetun by Eric da Sena

Ema nia ruin hakoi iha inan rai nia laran
Inan sira mak hakoi falun iha tais nia laran

Inan no fen sira hein ni-nia oan,
maun alin no aman hein atu fo sai buat nebe sira hare’e.

Lia-subar nakukun sai ba uut, nahe ba rai hanesan buat aat
Ema sala laek, mate ba dame la tuir nia hakarak

halo iha inan sira nia liman tais nee sei fila atu tane ita.

hanesan sira halo ona iha moris sira halo tan iha mate
domin fila fali ba dalan moris nia

ita moris iha ema nia ruin nebe falun iha tais
ita hein dame atu fila ba inan

atu selebra ita nia domin ho sakrifisiu
ita moris iha ema nia ruin nebe falun iha tais

Bones

Bones buried in mother,
in the earth,
buried by mothers
in woven shawls

mothers and wives wait,
children,brothers, fathers,
wait to bear witness

dark secrets,
turning to powder,
piled violently tenderly innocent, in death
loved unconditionally

passionate holes,
ripped through woven love
crafted in mothers’ hands
these shawls return to hold you

as they did at birth
they do again in death

love returns the circle of life
we live bones of people
secreted in shawls

we wait, for peace
to return you to mother
to celebrate our love
and your sacrifice

we live
bones of people secred in shawls
I weep deeply for you
for our agony

we live
bones of people
secreted in shawls
the world is enlightened
it looks at last
to your sacrifice
for peace and truth


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One Response to “Bones – written by Jen Hughes April, 2000”

  1. JEN,
    Great to see you guys again at the Glasshouse.
    I agree poetry emanates from an inner Source quite often ,if not always.

    EG:
    WHEN MEETING SOULS WITH VARYING PURSUITS
    INTROSPECTION MAY FLOW
    PERHAPS A RECOGNITION OF A KINDRID SPIRIT
    WE ARE NOT THAT DIFFERENT YOU KNOW.

    QED

    PLM
    2008

    PS CANT RAISE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS YET!!MAY BE YOUR U S LOOK LIKE VS.
    LOL