A History of Amnesia

By Alfian Sa'at

Unapologetic, unafraid and unyielding, Alfian’s second collection of verse delves in greater depth the concerns in his first volume and moves into reclaiming our collective history and memory.


In mining our psyche, he casts light where whispers and shadows lurk. He draws inspiration from censored histories, subsumed myths and invokes imagined voices from the exiled, demanding of the reader to witness the ubiquitous ideological fictions that surround us.


This is one of the most dissonant and penetrating voices in Singapore poetry.


• A History of Amnesia is listed in the notable books list by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Award (administered by University of San Francisco).
• A History of Amnesia is also shortlisted for Singapore Literature Prize in 2004.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ethos Books
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9789811416699

Book preview

A history of Amnesia

A history of Amnesia

© Alfian Bin Sa’at, 2001

Revised edition 2008

ISBN 978-981-08-0687-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-981-14-1669-9 (E-book)

Published under the imprint Ethos Books

by Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd

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Cover artwork by Zai Kuning

Layout and design by Pagesetters Services Pte ltd

2018 reprint by Ho Printing Singapore Pte Ltd

Typefaces: 9.5pt Rostis Sans Serif; 15pt The Sans Bold

Material: 80gsm Prima Smooth Cream

Autobiography and What They Talk About in the Bedroom was

first published in No Other City: the Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry.

National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

Alfian Sa’at.

A history of amnesia : poems / by Alfian Sa’at. – Rev. ed. – Singapore

: Ethos Books, 2008.

p. cm.

ISBN-13 : 978-981-08-0687-3 (pbk) | 978-981-14-1669-9 (ebk)

I. Title.

PR9570.S53

S821 -- dc22 OCN226156015

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A history of Amnesia

For the gang of 2000:

Rizal, Azman, How Wee,

Pern Yiau and Jason.

Also for

Zai Kuning, Oniatta Effendi,

Alin Mosbit, Alvin Tan, X’Ho,

Noor Effendy Ibrahim, Nora

Samosir, Lee Weng Choy, Lucy

Davis and Quah Syren.

CONTENTS

EPIGRAPH

THE AMNESIAC’S DIARY

Autobiography

Kindergarten Snapshot

Barkings

Grand Aunt

Fasting In Ramadan

Half A Soldier

Dissection Class

Minority Report

The Electric Ghazals

THE CITY REMEMBERS

What They Talk About In The Bedroom When The Children Are Fast Asleep

Family Portraits

AIDS Diary

Missing

The River Musi

Portrait Of A Sentenced Library

Why A Man Cannot Have Wings

Residues

The City Remembers

WHITE LIGHT OF HISTORY

Apathy

Islanders

Hang Nadim Speaks

Badang Speaks

Radin Mas Ayu Speaks

Mr Chia Sits In His Dark Cell

Mr Chia Takes A Walk Around Sentosa

Mr Chia’s Diary

We Are Not Yet Free

The patient, born in 1965,

suffers from a history of

amnesia of unknown onset

and duration.

The prognosis is uncertain.

THE AMNESIAC’S DIARY

Autobiography

Like most of us, I can’t remember how

I was separated from my first love.

(Did it die, did I break it, was it stolen

Or did it fly out through the open window?)

I didn’t have radio-tuning parents

Who filled the house with music

Or instilled in me a love of the cinema.

I never recalled my mother coming home

From the hairdresser’s with a new hairdo

Or father teaching me fishing, or

Staying up to watch football on TV.

He did once bring a kite home but hung it

On my