Pada Mei 2010, saya berusaha menterjemah sajak “Usah Gentar Tinggal di Pondok Sendiri” ke Bahasa Inggeris. Pada 7 Jun 2011, Amir Muhammad (penulis, penerbit, pengarah filem) membantu menyunting dan memperkemas versi Bahasa Inggeris sajak ini.Kerja-kerja penyuntingan itu dilakukan kerana sajak ini – selain petikan cerpen “Cat” – dijadikan teks apabila saya menyertai Writers Unlimited Tour pada 10-12 Jun 2011.
Untuk makluman, sajak “Usah Gentar Tinggal di Pondok Sendiri” sudah diterjemah ke Bahasa Jerman dengan judul “Habt keine Furcht, im eigenen Land zu leben” dan termuat dalam antologi Tautan (2011).
Petikan cerpen “Cat” pula boleh dibaca dalam versi Bahasa Inggeris (“The Painted Cat”) dan Bahasa Perancis (“Le Chat Peint”).
Fear Not to Live in Our Own Hut
How to capture a dream
With our hands still chained
Faded are memories
Of the green land
Of the blood and sweat
Building this hut in the jungle
How to have a sense of self
If our children lack self-respect
As if the earth we stand on isn't ours
But just on loan
While waiting to be driven out
Don’t talk and talk and talk and talk
Of the fight to defend the nation
When our heart and soul are stained by darkness
Of how we fought, and gave, and stood
This is not about sheltering in a grubby little hut
While waiting for the rain to stop
And then to continue back to the glass palace
Not at all
But of the little hut we built together
The hut which belongs to all of us
Oh! Not just now but since way back
Since the foundation of this hut
To its present different form
Yes, this palace we built together
Not yours, yours, yours or yours or yours alone
But belongs by right to every citizen
Look at the walls – our blood
Touch the pillars – our bones
Smell it – our sweat
Listen – our tired heartbeats
Fear not to live in our own hut
And create generations