Balige - Sitor Situmorang

I feel like nothing's changed 

in this small city 

though it's half a century since 

I first entered school here

I feel like nothing's changed 

though I know much has 

like the heart 

of my equivocating heart

I've come home

yet not come home

to a place left very much behind

before

on one sharp certain morn

---

Sitor Situmorang (1924 – 2014) Indonesia

Translated by A. L. Reber

Source: 'Sitor Situmorang: Poet of Lake Toba' by Sitor Situmorang, Translated by A. L. Reber, Indonesia, Vol. 056, October 1993, pp. 99-118