ErCh’s Blog

Penulis: Dr Ang Swee Chai
Penerjemah: Dina Mardiana
Penerbit: Qanita Mizan
Tebal: 656 halaman

Musim panas 1982. Ang Swee Chai, dokter asal Singapura, tengah menonton televisi bersama suaminya di flat mungil mereka di London. Keduanya terhenyak menyaksikan -pesawat-pesawat Israel membom-bardir Beirut. Bangunan-bangunan tinggi roboh menimpa anak-anak, wanita, dan orang tua.

Seorang pemimpin Israel kemudian memberi pernyataan. Ia menyesalkan jatuhnya banyak korban sipil. Tapi, kata sang pemimpin itu, untuk membuat telur dadar, cangkang telur ha-rus terlebih dulu dipecah. ”Memecahkan telur?” Dokter Ang mulai geram. ”Apakah orang-orang tak ber-dosa di Libanon itu adalah telur-telur yang harus dipecahkan?”

Hatinya tertohok. Ia pun segera memutuskan berangkat ke Beirut untuk menjadi relawan medis. Tapi ia masih menyimpan rasa takut jika berjumpa dengan pejuang PLO, Organisasi Pembebasan Pa-lestina. Ia masih menyangka merekalah b-iang kela-di serangan Israel. Stigma PLO sebagai teroris masih melekat. Tapi, setiap berjumpa dengan orang Palestina, ia mulai bertanya dalam diri, ”Mengapa mereka ramahramah?”

Sebagai seorang Kristen fundamen-talis, Ang mengaku men-dukung Israel, membenci orang Arab, dan me-mandang PLO sebagai teroris. Keyakinannya perlahan-lahan mulai pucat ketika dokter bedah ortopedi itu mengabdi di Rumah Sakit Gaza. Ia menyaksikan langsung tentara Israel membantai warga Palestina di kamp pengungsi Sabra-Shatila, yang berada di sekitar rumah sakit itu, pada 15-17 September 1982.

Kejadian yang berlangsung di depan matanya ini membuatnya lancar me-nulis. Ia rajin me-ngi-rim surat kepada suami-nya di London. Surat-surat dan kecamuk rasa yang ia a-lami saat menjadi relawan itu kemudian ia terbitkan dalam buku From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989). Penerbit Qanita Mizan meluncurkan edisi terjemahan buku itu—dengan judul Tears of Hea-ven: From Beirut to Jerusalem—dan me-ngundang Ang pekan lalu.

”Aku menyaksikan seorang tua ditembak kepalanya dan ke-dua mata-nya dicungkil,” kata dokter kelahiran Penang, 26 Oktober 1948, itu mengenang kejadian 24 tahun lalu tersebut.

Ia juga menyaksikan Israel menya-lahi gencatan senjata yang telah di-sepakati. Ibu-ibu dan istri pejuang, yang dengan sukarela menyerahkan senjata anak-anak dan suami mereka, pada akhirnya juga dihabisi Is-rael. ”Saya ingin mata publik terbuka, siapa sebenarnya teroris di dunia ini. Bukan Palestina, bukan orang Arab, melainkan Israel yang disokong penuh Amerika,” ujar Ang kepada Tempo.

Sejak tragedi kemanusiaan di S-abra-Shatila itu, Ang tak cuma berubah sikap. Ia bahkan menjadi juru bicara perjuangan Palestina, terutama di lingkungan Kristen. Pada 1987, pemimpin Palestina Yasser Arafat pun memberi penghargaan Star of Palestine.

Ang menuturkan, semula buku-nya itu diterbitkan oleh Harper Collins pada 1989. Tapi buku itu hanya setahun beredar. ”Mereka menyesal mener-bitkan buku saya yang isinya menye-rang Israel,” ucapnya. Peng-hentian per-edaran itu justru menguntungkannya. Tiga tahun kemudian ia menerbitkannya sendiri di Singapura, lalu diikuti penerbit di Prancis, Arab, Malaysia, dan terakhir Indonesia.

Tears of Heaven terbagi dalam lima bab: Perjalanan ke Beirut, Pembantaian Sabra-Shatila, Dari Jerusalem ke Inggris, Kembali ke Beirut, dan Dari Beirut ke Jerusalem. Ang berada di Libanon pada 1982 dan 1985. Ia kemudian menuju ke Yerusalem hingga 1988. Buku ini dituturkan dalam gaya berkisah orang pertama.

Tak tertarik ke Libanon setelah Israel kembali menyerang negeri itu? Ang mengungkapkan, sejak terakhir ke Beirut pada 2003, permohonan visa masuknya ke Libanon dipersulit. ”Entah mengapa. Tapi secara rutin saya masih ke Palestina.”

Istiqomatul Hayati/MBMTempo and http://alchemize.multiply.com/reviews/item/10

Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, to the Maronite family of Gibran in Bsharri, a mountainous area in Northern Lebanon [Lebanon was a Turkish province part of Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine) and subjugated to Ottoman dominion]. His mother Kamila Rahmeh was thirty when she begot Gibran from her third husband Khalil Gibran, who proved to be an irresponsible husband leading the family to poverty. Gibran had a half-brother six years older than him called Peter and two younger sisters, Mariana and Sultana, whom he was deeply attached to throughout his life, along with his mother. Kamila’s family came from a prestigious religious background, which imbued the uneducated mother with a strong will and later on helped her raise up the family on her own in the U.S. Growing up in the lush region of Bsharri, Gibran proved to be a solitary and pensive child who relished the natural surroundings of the cascading falls, the rugged cliffs and the neighboring green cedars, the beauty of which emerged as a dramatic and symbolic influence to his drawings and writings. Being laden with poverty, he did not receive any formal education or learning, which was limited to regular visits to a village priest who doctrined him with the essentials of religion and the Bible, alongside Syriac and Arabic languages. Recognizing Gibran’s inquisitive and alert nature, the priest began teaching him the rudiments of alphabet and language, opening up to Gibran the world of history, science, and language. At the age of ten, Gibran fell off a cliff, wounding his left shoulder, which remained weak for the rest of his life ever since this incident. To relocate the shoulder, his family strapped it to a cross and wrapped it up for forty days, a symbolic incident reminiscent of Christ’s wanderings in the wilderness and which remained etched in Gibran’s memory.

At the age of eight, Khalil Gibran, Gibran’s father, was accused of tax evasion and was sent to prison as the Ottomon authorities confiscated the Gibrans’ property and left them homeless. The family went to live with relatives for a while; however, the strong-willed mother decided that the family should immigrate to the U.S., seeking a better life and following in suit to Gibran’s uncle who immigrated earlier. The father was released in 1894, but being an irresponsible head of the family he was undecided about immigration and remained behind in Lebanon.

On June 25, 1895, the Gibrans embarked on a voyage to the American shores of New York.

The Gibrans settled in Boston’s South End, which at the time hosted the second largest Syrian community in the U.S. following New York. The culturally diverse area felt familiar to Kamila, who was comforted by the familiar spoken Arabic, and the widespread Arab customs. Kamila, now the bread-earner of the family, began to work as a peddler on the impoverished streets of South End Boston. At the time, peddling was the major source of income for most Syrian immigrants, who were negatively portrayed due to their unconventional Arab ways and their supposed idleness.

In the school, a registration mistake altered his name forever by shortening it to Kahlil Gibran, which remained unchanged till the rest of his life despite repeated attempts at restoring his full name. Gibran entered school on September 30, 1895, merely two months after his arrival in the U.S. Having no formal education, he was placed in an ungraded class reserved for immigrant children, who had to learn English from scratch. Gibran caught the eye of his teachers with his sketches and drawings, a hobby he had started during his childhood in Lebanon.

Gibran’s curiosity led him to the cultural side of Boston, which exposed him to the rich world of the theatre, Opera and artistic Galleries. Prodded by the cultural scenes around him and through his artistic drawings, Gibran caught the attention of his teachers at the public school, who saw an artistic future for the boy. They contacted Fred Holland Day, an artist and a supporter of artists who opened up Gibran’s cultural world and set him on the road to artistic fame…

Lebanese-American philosophical essayist, novelist, mystical poet, and artist.

Gibran’s works were especially influential in the American popular culture in the 1960s. In 1904 Gibran had his first art exhibition in Boston. From 1908 to 1910 he studied art in Paris with August Rodin. In 1912 he settled in New York, where he devoted himself to writing and painting. Gibran’s early works were written in Arabic, and from 1918 he published mostly in English. In 1920 he founded a society for Arab writers, Mahgar (al-Mahgar). Among its members were Mikha’il Na’ima (1889-1988), Iliya Abu Madi (1889-1957), Nasib Arida (1887-1946), Nadra Haddad (1881-1950), and Ilyas Abu Sabaka (1903-47). Gibran died in New York on April 10, 1931. Among his best-known works is THE PROPHET, a book of 26 poetic essays, which has been translated into over 20 languages. The Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life.