7th Poem, Bamboo Flute, Do Not Grieve the Flute Player

Hey the cool @hive friends. This time we are talking about small bamboo. It is a tree trunk that is usually only the size of a thumb and thumb, in our area, Sumatra and its surroundings. Small bamboo is used as material for wind instruments, flutes. In the past in our village, small bamboos were used as hooks, to find fish in the ditches and swamps.

Never directly hold small bamboo leaves or stalks. If you do, your skin will be very itchy. Unbearable itching. You should immediately wash your skin using clean water and soap. The sound of a bamboo flute is melodious, but don't touch the tree until it becomes a flute.

When it becomes a flute, the little bamboo won't itch anymore. During the process of cutting and punching holes to make a flute, the hairs on the bamboo skin are rubbed away and the bamboo skin becomes smooth.

Bamboo Flute and Music

Bamboo flute, which is one of the famous musical instruments in Southeast Asia, the Malay world. I don't know yet, do bamboo flutes exist in other parts of the world? Bamboo flutes are easy to make, the raw materials are easy to get, cheap, and the flutes are easy to learn.

The atmosphere of a hinterland village is usually described by the presence of green hills and rice fields between the two --- as in our village, Dayah Paloh, Lhokseumawe --- complemented by the presence of a boy on a buffalo playing the flute.

Flute, is our traditional musical instrument. Country boy game. Maybe that's why modern music in Indonesia doesn't use a flute. Only songs of the dangdut genre use flutes. Dangdut -- which was adapted from an Indian-style music song after the State of Indonesia was formed after the Second World War -- has indeed become the taste of the village people. Villagers, that's how people who don't like dangdut songs sneer at the flow of the song.

However, in the last twenty years, dangdut songs have rarely been published in Indonesia, and those that have been published rarely use a flute, namely a bamboo flute.

The photo of the small bamboo in this post was taken by Jamaluddin, in the backyard of our parents' house, in Paloh Dayah, Lhokseumawe.

Planting Small Bamboo Trees

Several years ago, I took a small bamboo tree in our garden on the south side of the hill. It is about a hundred meters from our house. Between our house and where the little bamboo comes from, there are two gardens that belong to other people.

I took tubers from a small bamboo tree and planted them in the cow dung dump of our parents' former barn. Our mother scolded me for it. According to him, I brought home a useless forest tree. I like that tree, just smile, because I want to see, that tree that people rarely plant, will thrive in our home environment. That way the tree will still exist, even though the place where I took the roots will one day be destroyed.

In no time, small bamboo trees grew there, very lush. The bushes spread out for a few meters. It does look like the forest in our parents' backyard. A few years later it was logged and burned, so that some of it was destroyed and the understorey was reduced. However, in a short time it grew back, and the bush was again wide, more than one meter.

Bamboo Blinds

Several months ago, my brother, Jamaluddin, took some small bamboo sticks, cut them into pieces and tied them with string to make bamboo curtains. Then, he hung a small bamboo curtain under the eaves of our parents' verandah. It was a natural curtain, to block out the midday sun.

Our mother, every day, sat in the dining room on the veranda. The bamboo curtain was for him. Well, the small bamboo that he used to think of as a trash forest tree, turned out to be useful for him. I am very happy to know that. The small bamboo that I planted, which is useful for our mother, was done by Jamaluddin, his youngest son.

Some of our residents also took dozens of small bamboo sticks that I planted to support vines—either long beans, I don't know exactly which trees—in their garden. Meanwhile, I myself do not use small bamboo. I just want that tree to continue in our garden.

Replanting in Banda Aceh

A few weeks ago, I brought bamboo shoots or young stems from a small bamboo tree to my place in Banda Aceh. The distance is approximately 275 kilometers from our parents' house in Paloh Dayah, Lhokseumawe. I planted a small bamboo tree in the yard. Of the two stems I brought, one stem was still alive and the buds were thriving. While others are dry, not alive.

Bamboo flute, in the village is synonymous with poetry, with saga and poetry. So, let's pee again.

Bamboo Flute, Do Not Grieve Flute Players

Bamboo flute,
people only remember your voice
it's not your itchy skin
people remember your voice
not your maker and blower

Piper
sometimes he is a child in a park at the edge of a forest
herding oxen, barefoot
on stone or dry wood
blow the flute at dusk

The sound of the flute is entertainment for forest birds
be an entertainer to his listeners
when the happy song plays

However, if the flute player is sad, then he blows the flute with a sad rhythm too
So, immediately, everyone who heard the sound of the flute was also sad,
immersed in its rhythm
her tears fell, one by one turning to dust
they don't know why they are crying
just because of the sound of the flute
they don't know where it came from

No, don't make the piper sad
if he grieves, he will share his grief with all beings around him
it will wither the tree
the birds fell to the ground
deep sadness

Blow the flute
with a happy song
so that the song of happiness is eternal
in the recording of universe.

Thank you

January 13, 2023

Kind Regards

Thayeb Loh Angen

All Photos Caption: Small bamboo tree, January 12, 2023. Photo by Jamaluddin/Lodin. With Nikon D7000 Camera, Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm Lens.