Meski cuma selangkah

"Aku tidak ingin kaya. Aku hanya ingin hidup. Aku ingin melihat banyak tempat. Aku ingin mendengar banyak suara. Aku ingin menghirup seribu satu bau kehidupan. Alangkah mengerikannya terpenjara di satu tempat. Alangkah menjemukannya. Alangkah memuakkan. Aku mesti pindah tempat setiap saat, meski cuma selangkah."

                                                       ― Seno Gumira Ajidarma (Seorang Wanita di Halte Bus, 1987)

Lonely You

Entah apa karena musim hujan sudah datang. Entah apa karena dinginnya hari ini begitu menusuk. Atau karena memang sama seperti isi lirik lagu ini, saya sedang kesepian. Tapi memang lagu ini pas. Pas menemani suasana hati yang sedang galau. Pas dengan backsound rintik-rintik hujan di jendela kantor. Suara Hyorin, liriknya, musiknya, really like it...

(Romanization Lyric)

ppikkeusdaeneun georeume hwicheongimyeo i bameul hemaessjyo (bamsae)

geomge beonjin nunmure chwihaeseo hancham tto ureossjyo (oh)

dari cham chaneyo gidael gosdo eobsneunde

mallaganeun eokkaeleul gamssa jul sarangeul chajayo

Lonely you lonely you, geudaeneun nae mam alkkayo

Lonely heart lonely heart, gyeote amudo eobsneun nan

oneuldo La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

bie jeojeun nae mameul ireohge La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

geudaega anajullaeyo

syowindoe bichyeojin nae eolguri jom andwae boyeoyo (so sick)

haengboge ulgo usdeon nae moseub da eodi gan geojyo (oh)

biga tto oneyo geuman jeojgo sipeunde

i nunmuri jamdeul ttaekkaji deo isseojullaeyo

sangcheoppunin sarange dachin yeorin najiman

oh ireon narado salanghaejullaeyo? Oh Oh Oh Oh

majimageuro sarangeul mideoyo geuge geudaeramyeon

Only you only you, ije nae mam algessjyo

Lonely heart lonely heart, kkog geudaebakke eobsneun nan

oneul bam La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

eoreobuteun nae mameul ireohge La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

geudaega anajullaeyo

(Translation)

I wandered through the night all night as I swayed with stumbling steps

Drunk off my black tears, I cried for a long time

The moon is so cold, there’s no place to lean

I look for a love that will embrace my thinning shoulders

Lonely you lonely you, do you know my heart?

Lonely heart lonely heart, no one is by my side

Again today, La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

My heart drenched in rain is La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

Will you hold me?

My face reflected in the shop window looks pitiful, so sick

Where did the me, who laughed and cried in happiness, go?

It’s raining again, I want to stop getting wet

Will you stay a little longer till these tears go to sleep?

Lonely you lonely you, do you know my heart?

Lonely heart lonely heart, no one is by my side

Again today, La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

My heart drenched in rain is La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

Will you hold me?

I’m weak from being hurt by the scarring love

But will you still love me? Oh oh oh oh

I’ll believe in love for the last time

If that love is you

Only you only you, now you know my heart

Lonely heart lonely heart, I have no one but you

Tonight, I’m La La La Lonely La La La Lonely

Will you hold me?

Date a girl who reads (by: Rosemarie Urquico)

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.