Issue 25 | Fall 2021

After Jazz Ends

Adhimas Prasetyo
Translated by Liswindio Apendicaesar

(Take 1)
only life. you feel like a part of you is left inside jazz. you find another part that is reading this poem. you wonder, whose voice is it that is reading this in your heart. you want to stop reading this poem, but instead you try reading the same paragraph in a different way.

(Take 2)
only life. a part of you sees yourself walking away from jazz. a part of you doesn’t feel that it’s reading this poem. you feel strange with the voice you hear in your heart. until you arrive at this sentence and realize, you’ve long lost that part of yourself, even before the jazz started. you want to stop reading this even more. but there is nothing you can do, because you’ve arrived at the last word.

About the Author

Adhimas Prasetyo is an Indonesian poet and illustrator. He was invited to the Bengkulu Writers Festival in 2019 for his poem, which won third place in the best poem category. In 2020, he published his first poetry collection Sepersekian Jaz dan Kota yang Murung (A Piece of Jazz and the Gloomy Town). His works have been featured in many Indonesian literary outlets.

About the Translator

Liswindio Apendicaesar is an Indonesian poet and translator and is a member of editorial board of Pawon Literary Bulletin. He also teaches English in Myanmar International School. His works have been featured in several international literary journals such as The Thing Itself, Oyez Review, Voice and Verse Poetry Hong Kong, etc. He joined InterSastra as a literary translator for the “Unrepressed” issue in 2019 and then CERITRANS project in 2021. He was also chosen to be one of ten Indonesian emerging writers by Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2021, and invited to be a speaker. His Indonesian translation of Enid Blyton’s child poetry collection Child Whispers was published in 2021.