To Love, to Wander

The 1953 publication of Sitor Situmorang’s Green Paper Letter pegged him as a rising poet. Six decades later, the writer is still active. The more than one hundred poems in this book were selected from the several thousand he wrote. The main characteristics of Sitor’s poems are the simplicity of its wordplay and the clarity of its syntax. Sitor’s poetry are a poetry of words; they evoke concepts and call up a series of pictures and images. In his poems, we find a poignant blend of personal experiences and philosophical reflection.