"the traveller"

for i am only a traveller finding my way
among the streets of your new town,
i have other places to go to.
i shall someday work out a map of this city
and traverse it on foot, someday.
for i am only a traveller, and cannot stay longer
where there is no home.

take my love while you can, take my hatred,
take my weathered hand if you will,
for i shall have no home here,
among the dull buildings
where the heart cannot stay.
for i am only a traveller
on my way, to somewhere further than here.

this is the city that broke my heart,
that stole my feelings from me;
this is the city that took away my love,
that told me i must go away.
i must go somewhere.
somewhere, where they can know me;
can recognise that i am a man.

some night when the city is asleep
i’ll walk out quietly along your cruel streets
through the suburban edge and into the dawn forests.
somewhere, perhaps near where the sun rises,
i can sit down,
and sometimes perhaps, i can tell myself,
here i am a man.

~Muhammad Haji Salleh~

Muhammad Haji Salleh’s “the traveller” can be seen as a metaphor, mainly presenting the journey in the life of a man who is in quest of his identity. This journey could be his spiritual as well as physical journey. This poem consists of four stanzas with seven lines in each of them. In these twenty eight lines, none of these sentences begins with an upper case indicating the sense of humbleness and modesty of the persona. This notion is reinforced through the word “i” which is also in the lower case.

Through his dictions, Muhammad Haji Salleh utilises the idea of uncertainty of the persona in achieving his goal in this journey. This can be seen throughout the four stanzas, the words “someday”, “somewhere” and “sometime” are repeatedly used. From the first stanza, “I shall someday work out a map of this city/ and traverse it on foot, someday.” is to indicate that he might travel to this city or may not pass through at all simply because he is a traveller who goes from one place to another and does not stay put in only one place. This can be observed from line, “for i am only a traveller, and cannot stay longer/ where there is no home.”

The same idea of uncertainty is repeated in stanza two, “for I am only a traveller, on my way, to somewhere further than here.” The word “somewhere” clearly shows to us that the persona himself does not know where his journey is leading him to. All he knows is that he must keep on moving to another place until he finds what he is seeking for in this journey. At this point of time, he seems to be out of place and alienated in the city. Again the same notion is recurring in stanza three, “i must go, somewhere. / somewhere, where they can know me; / can recognise that i am a man.” This time the persona asserts firmly that he will leave the city when the poet uses the word “must” despite not certain where his legs will be taking him.

Throughout this poem, Muhammad Haji Salleh personifies the non living things to human personal traits. This concept can be depicted from the poet’s choice of words “dull hard buildings” from the second stanza, merely to signify the sense of dreary and monotonous situation of the big city. From this phrase, readers have the idea that the persona is unhappy living in the big city and he has to seek other places, away from the city. And this notion is reinforced in line, “where the heart cannot stay.”

The personification in this poem can also be seen in the third stanza. The city offers him nothing but hardship and calamities that to a certain extent has transformed him into a strong person. From lines, “this is the city that broke my heart, / that stole my feelings from me; / this is the city that took away my love, / that told me i must go away.” readers can tell that the city is portrayed as something that is alive, something that has human qualities. It seems to be talking to the persona, telling him that there is no place for him there and hence giving him a tough time by breaking his heart and make him a cold hearted person. In stanza four, again the streets are given a life where they are perceived as “cruel” simply to indicate the harsh and unsympathetic treatment received by the persona.

However, in the last stanza, is seen as the turning point in this poem. The persona seems to take the opportunity to leave the city when no one realises his absence that is “when the city is asleep”. Here, the persona appears to know where he is going to, moving from the “suburban edge” to the “dawn forests” to “somewhere” where he hopes to have a new life and a new hope as symbolises by the morning sun as the “sun rises”. The persona seems to look forward to this new place where he is accepted as who he really is as stated in the last line of the poem, “here, i am a man.” Perhaps his journey may end here after he has found what he is seeking for all this while, that is his identity and acceptance of the society.