Lentera Susastra

Sajak-sajak Philip Larkin selalu saja memuat kontras baik dari isi maupun suasana sajaknya. Maka akan kita temukan romantisme sekaligus sinisme, rindu dan benci, suka dan tidak suka. Dan kadang kala itu dituliskan apa adanya. Oleh karena itu banyak sekali hal-hal sederhana yang menjadi bermakna.

Dalam sajak “Larik-larik pada Album Foto seorang Gadis Muda” (Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album) pada bait pertama kontras antara suka dan tidak suka sudah dikemukakan di awal;

At last you yielded up the album, which once open, sent me distracted. All your ages matt and glossy on the thick black pages! Too much confectionery, too rich: I choke on such nutritious images. …

Perhatikan bahwa kata pertama dalam sajak (at last) itu seakan-akan si Aku Lirik sudah lama menunggu terkumpulnya foto-foto dari gadis muda yang kemudian mempersilakan Si Aku Lirik untuk melihatnya. Walau dalam sekilas waktu berselang, Si Aku Lirik sama-sekali tidak tertarik. Semuanya kelihatan menipu Si Aku Lirik, bahkan dibilang “tersedak” melihat foto-foto itu.

Di dalam sajak ” Seperti Dentum Kereta” (Like The Train’s Beat) yang hanya dua bait, terpetakan dengan sangat baik antara bait pertama yang “lembut” dan bait kedua yang “keras”. Di bait pertama Larkin menggambarkan pesona seorang wanita yang dilihatnya mulai dari bibirnya, alisnya, bentuk tulang pipi, dan rambutnya yang hitam sedang di bait kedua Larkin pemandangan yang disaksikan oleh wanita itu; kekacauan kota, keragaman dan kegiatan manusia, lalu ditutup dengan manis sebagai suara yang memercik di bebatuan.

Like the Train’s Beat Like the train’s beat Swift language flutters the lips Of the Polish air girl in the corner seat, The swinging and narrowing sun Lights her eyelashes, shapes Her sharp vivacity of bone. Hair, wild and controlled, runs back: And gestures like these English oaks Flash past the windows of her foreign talk. The train runs on through wilderness Of cities. Still the hammered miles Diversify behind her face. And all humanity of interest Before her angled beauty falls, As whorling notes are pressed In a bird’s throat, issuing meaningless Through written skies; a voice Watering a stony place.

Sajak Tahun Keajaiban (Annus Mirabilis) adalah sajak yang menggambarkan perasaan senang dengan absurd. Perasaan itu digambarkan selayaknya hubungan seksual yang didasarkan pada dua hal: Piringan Hitam Beatles dan berakhirnya pelarangan novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) karya D.H. Lawrence yang konon (saya belum pernah membacanya) menuliskan adegan-adegan hubungan seksual secara terang-terangan. Tahun Keajaiban yang dimaksud oleh Larkin adalah tahun 1963.

Annus Mirabilis Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (which was rather late for me) - Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the Beatles’ first LP. …

Bahkan kematian pun secara vulgar dipertentangkan oleh Larkin dalam sajaknya “Meneruskan Kehidupan” (Continuing to Live) di mana dituliskan;

… On that green evening when our death begins, Just what it was, is hardly satisfying, Since it applied only to one man once, And that one dying.

Kematian menjadi satu kepuasan yang sangat sulit dirasakan oleh orang lain, kecuali oleh yang sedang sekarat itu. Tragis sekaligus ironis bukan?

Tak lengkap rasanya merasakan sajak-sajak Larkin tanpa membaca Sajak “Perkawinan di Minggu Putih” (The Whitsun Wedding - Whitsun; White Sunday, dalam Old English). Sajak yang dianggap sebagai titik awal kepenyairan Larkin di antara penyair-penyair Inggris lainnya. The Whitsun Wedding, strukturnya beralur. Dimulai dari statement “That Whitsun” seakan Si Aku Lirik baru tersadar akan sesuatu hal. Lalu Si Aku Lirik bergegas ke perkawinan di hari minggu yang cerah itu. Alih-alih terlambat, diperhatikannya setiap detail perjalanannya. Lagi-lagi hal yang ironis bukan? Biasanya orang terlambat ke suatu acara pasti tidak akan memperhatikan detail perjalanan. Itulah Larkin. Kontroversial dalam setiap penulisan sajak-sajaknya. Selesai? Belum, karena semakin dibaca ke bait-bait selanjutnya akan ditemukan banyak hal yang semakin kontradiksi.

The Whitsun Weddings That Whitsun, I was late getting away: Not till about One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday Did my three-quarters- empty train pull out, All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense Of being in a hurry gone. We ran Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence The river’s level drifting breadth began, Where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet. All afternoon, through the tall heat that slept For miles island, A slow and stopping curve southwards we kept. Wide farms went by, short-shadowed cattle, and Canals with floatings of industrial froth; A hothouse flashed uniquely: hedges dipped And rose: and now and then a smell of grass Displace the reek of buttoned carriage-cloth Until the next town, new and nondescript, Approached with acres of dismantled cars. At first, I didn’t notice what a noise The weddings made Each station that we stopped at: sun destroys The interest of what’s happening in the shade, And down the long cool platforms whoops and skirls I took for porters larking with the mails, And went on reading. Once we started, though, We passed them, grinning and pomaded, girls In parodies of fashion, heels and veils, All posed irresolutely, watching us go, As if out on the end of an event Waving goodbye To something that survived it. Struck, I leant More promptly out next time, more curiously, And saw it all again in different terms: The fathers with broad belts under their suits And seamy foreheads; mothers loud and fat; An uncle shouting smut; and then the perms, The nylon gloves and jewelry-substitutes , The lemons, mauves, and olive-ochers that Marked off the girls unreally from the rest. Yes, from cafes And banquet-halls up yards, and bunting-dressed Coach-party annexes, the wedding-days Were coming to an end. All down the line Fresh couples climbed abroad: the rest stood round; The last confetti and advice were thrown, And, as we moved, each face seemed to define Just what it saw departing: children frowned At something dull; fathers had never known Success so huge and wholly farcical; The women shared The secret like a happy funeral; While girls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared At a religious wounding. Free at last, And loaded with the sum of all they saw, We hurried towards London, shuffling gouts of steam. Now fields were building-plots. and poplars cast Long shadows over major roads, and for Some fifty minutes, that in time would seem Just long enough to settle hats and say I nearly died, A dozen marriages got under way. They watched the landscape, sitting side by side -An Odeon went past, a cooling tower, And someone running up to bowl -and none Thought of the others they would never meet Or how their lives would all contain this hour. I thought of London spread out in the sun, Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat: There we were aimed. And as we raced across Bright knots of rail Past standing Pullmans, walls of blackened moss Came close, and it was nearly done, this frail Traveling coincidence; and what it held Stood ready to be loosed with all the power That being changed can give. We slowed again, And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.

(bersambung)

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