Chysogonus' Translation #53 - from Michaela Castledine's "Reading a Novel in daylight"

 Membaca novel di siang hari

Aku membaca novel di siang ini

dengan tenggat selesai sebelum malam

dan aku ingat perjalanan waktu buku-buku

ketika aku kecil

membaca sepanjang hari

tersadar mabuk dan terseret ke masa kini

berkedip dan sadar dalam ketololan

kau sudah di ujung lain sana

waktu telah berlalu

kau tak lagi sama

seperti kau yang dulu

semua hanyalah fisika kuantum dan kucing Schrodinger

di dalam buku

terkunci di dalam buku

kemungkinan hidup atau mati

sekarang, hingga saat kau membukanya

I was reading a novel in daylight today

with a deadline to finish it before this evening

and I remembered the time travelling of books

when I was a child

reading all day

emerging drugged and reeling back into the present

blinking and stupid knowing only

that you had been somewhere else

that time had passed

that you were no longer the same

as you were when you set out

It is all quantum physics and Schrodinger’s cat

inside a book

locked inside a book

possibilities being both alive and dead

at the same time right up until you open it