DO NOT WEEP, IBU PERTIWI: Poems of Resistance from Indonesia

What happens when poetry refuses to remain silent?Do Not Weep, Ibu Pertiwi is a fierce and unconventional collection of poems of resistance from Indonesia-a book in which satire becomes protest, faith confronts power, and poetry speaks for those pushed to the margins.Originally published in Indonesian as Puisi Perlawanan, Sri Radjasa Chandra's collection turns its attention to corruption, political hypocrisy, inequality, failed leadership, democracy, law, poverty, national identity, and the moral cost of power. Yet these are not political poems in any conventional sense.The book repeatedly changes its disguise.A poem becomes a public-service announcement. A protest becomes a restaurant menu. Political criticism appears as an election poster. Corruption becomes an advertisement. A university prospectus turns into satire. A few lines of prayer suddenly interrupt an accusation.Behind the anger runs another current: love for Indonesia.Ibu Pertiwi-the maternal embodiment of the Indonesian homeland-stands at the emotional center of the collection. She is wounded, betrayed, remembered, defended, and loved. Indonesia emerges not simply as a nation-state, but as an inheritance whose children must decide what they are willing to protect and what they can no longer tolerate.Islamic language and spiritual consciousness also run through these poems. Allah, prayer, zikir, the hereafter, repentance, justice, and divine judgment coexist with street language, political mockery, absurdist humor, and uncompromising denunciation. The result is a voice that can move in a single page from rage to laughter, from satire to devotion, and from despair to hope.Rooted unmistakably in Indonesia-and carrying within it memories of Aceh, conflict, peace, corruption, elections, Jakarta, poverty, and the unfinished promises of independence-Do Not Weep, Ibu Pertiwi also speaks to questions far beyond Indonesia: What happens when power loses its conscience? What does silence mean in the presence of injustice? And what remains when a citizen refuses to stop loving a country that has disappointed him?Presented here in its first English edition, this collection introduces international readers to a distinctive voice of Indonesian resistance poetry.At once political, spiritual, satirical, confrontational, and deeply personal, Do Not Weep, Ibu Pertiwi is poetry as witness-and poetry as refusal.For readers of political poetry, protest literature, social justice poetry, Southeast Asian literature, Indonesian writing, postcolonial literature, and poetry that speaks truth to power.