As a little child, you built a paper boat and sailed it down the river; the current was slow and your boat rocked its way to the ocean.
“It will stop in big ports,” an old man said. You were excited and went home as your world gleamed in colors.
You have been waiting to hear from the boat ever since; you never stopped thinking about it.

One day, you got a message from the same old man, Noah:
“I’ve sailed your boat in a great flood, and now it’s stranded on a hill.”

1982

To read the poem in the original (Indonesian), sail your own boat to this page.