In Hana Bira, or "The Petal", Mas Ruscitadewi has chosen to follow a very fragile and feminine theme and approach. Woven through all of her written images are a woman’s perspective on life and the gentle exploration of the inner world.

The delicate, soft features of a petal line almost every page of this compact poetry collection. Recurring images of flowers (roses in particular), butterflies (and caterpillars becoming butterflies), birds, and the moon are strong distinguishing features of Ruscitadewi’s poetry. There is focus on relationships, particularly maternal bonds too deep to sever and the sting of love. And there is a proliferation of warm colours, red and yellow especially.

There is also some history and a little earthy philosophy centring around dust, stone and pools of water. There are even some "butakala" demons to be dealt with, along with the deep fear that is an "intoxicating aroma that is poured out in the goblets of every celebration."

A deep philosophical sway takes hold in Painting, in which Mas claims, "Kita adalah lukisan abtrak hitam putih" ("We are an abstract painting in black and white, like the scribbling of a child with a thousand desires.") She maintains that theme visually throughout the book by including some of her own abstract black and white scribbles at the bottom of many of the pages. Strangely, these seem to have been included in chunks, with a lack of imagery at the very beginning and in the middle of the book. As with the proliferation of written images, these images are in danger of becoming a little tedious and repetitive, particularly when they are presented in chunks, interesting though they may individually be.

Some more general philosophising and soul searching in Encounter, Moment, and We, in which the ongoing human dilemmas are presented as moss against stone, a knock on the door in the middle of the night, and gazing into a pool of water. Later she is leaping into a whirlpool in A Ballad of Smarandhana (On returning to Denpasar), taking herself deeper into the realm of frogs and fish, or swimming to the edge to escape in feathery flight. Of course this is trivialising the many moods and shades of meaning that Mas weaves into each of her poems, but it may help to give an insight into some of the interesting paths she follows.

The depiction of Denpasar is particularly interesting, with the fascinating references to this city as "the lontar palm north of the market", "a tale of war", "a carriage driver", and a "top endlessly spinning". Descriptions of kings in pleasure pavilions, noblemen with kris blades, the baby Karna under the tamarind tree, and children playing with the top... all flesh out these references and provide some food for thought.

The cover of Mas’ book is striking and colourful, depicting a contrast between the serene and the sublime, the ongoing struggle of the past and the lightness of future hopes. The contents are simple and effective, although there are so many new pictures in every phrase that it actually takes quite a while to work through the poems in order to be able to take in some of the many meanings.

A little more care with presentation, proofing, and translation would have made the book more marketable to foreigners, which is obviously a major aim since the book includes English and Japanese translations as well as the original Indonesian. In fact the title and first poem are both in Japanese, so there is obviously a desire to cater to tourists.

Minor aberrations in translation are forgivable, almost quaint, but it does affect the quality of the work. It is lovely to read a personal note from Mas that, "This letter I wrote just to lookat indepth my heart" (sic), but perhaps a few more corrections could have been made before going to print.

Translating poetry into different languages must in itself be a challenging exercise, since so much of what poetry is depends on the subtleties of language and turns of expression. Translating both meaning and form along with the words themselves would be difficult. Somehow, English just doesn’t have the melodic rhythm of Indonesian, but the end result of the translation is fairly effective (although I’m no judge of Japanese).

Thank you, Mas, for allowing us to have a peek into your heart. Your passion and presence as a Balinese writer shine through, and you have allowed others to share your world in unique ways.

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