Meeting Afrizal Malna for the first time, just before the presentation of his book ‘Berlin Proposal’ at bookstore Toga Mas in Bandung, the main centre of the Sundanese culture in Western Java. Photo: © Siti Wahyuningsih.

Sartika Dian Nuraini, Afrizal Malna and Siti Wahyuningsih.

Afrizal Malna, born in Jakarta in 1957, is not only active in poetry; he also writes prose and theatre texts. He studied at the Driyakara College of Philosophy and also allows influence by “the chaos of international urban culture”. Therefore he describes his poems as “a visual grammar of things”. His work was translated in a.o. Dutch, English, German and Portuguese. He was awarded several times, for example by RNW (Radio Netherlands Worldwide). Thanks to DAAD (Deutscher Akaemischer Austauschdienst / German Academic Exchange Service) he spent quite some time in Berlin as a writer in residence. Some of his titles are: ‘Museum Penghancur Dokumen’, ‘Kepada Apakah’, ‘Anxiety Myths’ and ‘druckmaschine drittmensch’.

Explaining some problems faced during the Dutch translation of a number of poems by Afrizal Malna.