book
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed’s poems are not written to be pretty: there is blood, pus, rape, slime, and death. How else can they be, if they are songs for the destitute, hums of the hungry, and tears of the wretched who have lost everything? And who else are they for, but the New Malays, who are cursed to inherit what has been lost. These are the heroes whose stories have faded, who may yet rise again under tomorrow’s moon.
This book brings together two collections of poems, published originally in Malay as Segumpal Api Selingkar Pelangi (A Crackle of Flames, A Circle of Rainbow) and Bila Rama-Rama Patah Sayapnya (When a Butterfly Broke Its Wing), and translated into English respectively by Zakaria Ali and Muhammad Herwanto Johari.
Mohamed Latiff Mohamed is one of the most prolific writers in the Singapore Malay literary scene. His many accolades include the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award (1998), the SEA Write award (2002), the Tun Seri Lanang Award, Malay Language Council Singapore, Ministry of Communication, Information and Arts (2003), the National Arts Council Special Recognition Award (2009), the Cultural Medallion (2013), and the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
His works revolve around the life and struggles of the Malay community in post-independence Singapore, and have been translated into Chinese, English, German and Korean. Two of his novels have been translated into English as Confrontation (2013) and The Widower (2015).
Singapore fiction, reimagined. little red comma takes you between the lines of paragraphs and verses, in the digital space where you could see the ocean as an ant, think twice about your supermarket consumption, or bear the virtual weight of a kavadi. The project fuses Singapore fiction with new media, comprising digital adaptations of six diverse literary works that span the genres of poetry and short fiction, and featuring the following writers: Arthur Yap, Latha, Melissa De Silva, Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, Samuel Lee and Yeng Pway Ngon.
Commissioned by the National Arts Council, little red comma is produced by digital publisher Tusitala and presented by Esplanade. It is part of the #SGCultureAnywhere campaign that brings together the best of Singapore’s arts and culture digital offerings to be enjoyed and experienced, anytime and anywhere.