Lelaki tua yang kumal, bau, dan tulalit itu melakukan perjalanan pulang dengan kereta api. pulang! Alangkah indahnya kata itu! Segala kerinduan akan masa lalu, akan dapat terpenuhi. Masa-masa kecil yang bahagia seakan dapat diraih kembali dalam pelukan. Dapatkah lelaki tua itu sampai ke rumahnya? Tidak! Ia sudah mencoba ratusan kali, tetapi tidak pernah berhasil. Ia bahkan melihat mayatnya sendiri di rumahnya, dan para tetangga meyakinkan bahwa itu memang mayatnya. Kembali ke stasiun ia akhirnya terpaksa 'mengangkat kopor dan berjalan tanpa kata', Perjalanan ulang aliknya yang sia-sia itu ia komentari sendiri sebagai sebuah puisi. Sebuah puisi yang berkisah tentang perjalanan kembali ke akar yang selalu gagal, pencarian diri yang selalu luput. Tetapi ia terus mencoba dan mencobanya, sampai akhir hayatnya. Lingkar alur pencarian diri akan terus berputar sampai maut menjemputnya.
Author
Putu Wijaya, whose real name is I Gusti Ngurah Putu Wijaya, is an Indonesian author who was born in Bali on 11 April 1944. He was the youngest of eight siblings (three of them from a different father). He lived in a large housing complex with around 200 people who were all members of the same extended family, and were accustomed to reading. His father, I Gusti Ngurah Raka, was hoping for Putu to become a doctor, but Puti was weak in the natural sciences. He liked history, language and geography. Putu Wijaya has already written around 30 novels, 40 dramas, about a hundred short stories, and thousands of essays, free articles and drama criticisms. He has also produced film and soap-opera scripts. He led the Teater Mandiri theatre since 1971, and has received numerous prices for literary works and soap-opera scripts. He's short stories often appear in the columns of the daily newspapers Kompas and Sinar Harapan. His novels are often published in the magazines Kartini, Femina and Horison. As a script writer, he has two times won the Citra prize at the Indonesian Film Festival, for the movies Perawan Desa (1980) and Kembang Kertas (1985).
