Seonggok Jagung

Seonggok Jagung di Kamar

WS Rendra

Seonggok jagung di kamar
Dan seorang pemuda
Yang kurang sekolahan
Memandang jagung itu
Sang pemuda melihat lading
Ia melihat petani
Ia melihat panen
Dan suatu hari subuh
Para wanita dengan gendongan
Pergi ke pasar

Dan ia juga melihat
Suatu pagi hari
Di dekat sumur
Gadis-gadis bercanda
Sambil menumbuk jagung
Menjadi maisena

Sedang di dalam dapur
Tungku-tungku menyala
Di dalam udara murni
Tercium bau kue jagung

Seonggok jagung dikamar
Dan seorang pemuda
Ia siap menggarap jagung
Ia melihat menggarap jagung
Ia melihat kemungkinan
Otak dan tangan 
Siap bekerja

Tetapi ini :
Seonggok jagung dikamar
Dan seorang pemuda tamat S.L.A
Tak ada uang, tak bisa jadi mahasiswa
Hanya ada seonggok jagung dikamarnya
Ia memandang jagung itu
Dan ia melihat dirinya terlunta-lunta

Ia melihat dirinya ditendang dari discotheque
Ia melihat sepasang sepatu kenes 
di balik etalase
Ia melihat sainganya naik sepeda motor
Ia melihat nomer-nomer lotere
Ia melihat dirinya sendiri miskin dan gagal
Seonggok jagung ia di kamar
Tidak menyangkut pada akal
Tidak akan menolongnya

Seonggok jagung dikamar
Tak akan menolong seorang pemuda
Yang pandangan hidupnya berasal dari buku
Dan tidak dari kehidupan
Yang tidak terlatih dalam metode
Dan hanya penuh hafalan kesimpulan
Yang hanya terlatih sebagai pemakai
Tatapi kurang latihan bebas berkarya
Pendidikan telah memisahkanya dari kehidupanya

Aku bertanya :
Apakah gunanya pendidikan
Bila hanya akan membuat seseorang menjadi asing
Di tengah kenyataan persoalanya??

Apakah gunanya pendidikan
Bila hanya mendorong seseorang
Menjadi layang-layang di ibukota
Kikuk pulang ke daerahnya??
Apakah gunanya seseorang
Belajar filsafat,teknologi,ilmu kedokteran,atau apa saja.
Ketika ia pulang ke daerahnya,lalu berkata :
“disini aku merasa asing dan sepi

Education makes him away from his life. So, tragic.

Sometimes, there are some exceptions in this life. There are some unusual results called outlier, while the others are usual. WS Rendra beautifully makes a painful expression of being an outlier, that is when someone fail with his education. He feels he is a stranger and lonely. Poor him.

Although he may makes some mistakes, but that’s not his fault at all. He has his fate, that he should be failed. That is not his fault. But he should not, cannt doing anything. So what to do? First, he should accept his fate patiently, cause life never gives any peace, if we dont make it peace by ourself. Second, that would be wise for someone to learn from his life—his environment where he is lived. Books are the window of the world, but without look the world by ourself we just can look the world from the window but never feel it, world isnt ours.

“Him” may refers to me, her, them, dan us. Dont makes yourself alone cause of your education. Knowing where you are, then try to adapt, but dont lose yourself J

Honestly, thanks to my english lecturer, for making me read this poem. I bet you dont realize that you have answered my one big long time question. Yeah, i live in the not well-educated society. On the same times i live in a very good-educated society too. The first society is the environment where my family are stayed—my village and the second society is my univercity where i am studied. It is hard for me to stay in the two different world with its different air. I am not a frog which can live in the water or on the ground. Someone in my village critized me,” that was in the village not in your campus, dont made it the same!”. In campus, i was not good at all. Confusing what to do, why my friends were brave and i was not, why my friends can did and i did not. Here, in the campus, i was like a villager. Poor me!

Times is growing, so do i. Life makes me learns hardly by myself. Slowly i am undestand what to do with my fate. Now i can live in my two different world peacefuly. I hope i can bring a brightness from my second world for my first world. By read this poem, finally i can make a conclusion from what i ask for before. Thanks mister!