English translations bring Fatimah Busu’s BM stories to new audiences March 5, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized – Tags: Fatimah Busu, Malay literature

Hanis Maketab, The Star
4 March 2025

Within Malay literature circles, Fatimah Busu is already a familiar and highly-respected name, especially when great Malay women writers are being discussed.

Now, English language readers are finally getting the chance to get better acquainted with the prolific Kelantanese author’s writings.

An Ordinary Tale About Women And Other Storieshttps://arecabooks.com/product/an-ordinary-tale-about-women-and-other-stories/https://arecabooks.com/product/an-ordinary-tale-about-women-and-other-stories, translated by Pauline Fan and published by Penguin Random House SEA, features 10 of Fatimah’s short stories that have been translated from Bahasa Malaysia to English for the first time.

Fatimah, 82, was born in Kampung Pasir Pekan, Kelantan. In a 2020 podcast interview for the George Town Literary Festival (GTLF), she shared that she “came from a very poor family”.

“Sometimes my siblings and I had to eat rice with just shredded tapioca. Our upbringing taught us to persevere and it made me strong, both inside and out,” she said.

Her literary career got its start in 1959 with the short story, Kerana Adik, which came out in the Singaporean magazine Mutiara. Her first novel, Ombak Bukan Biru, was published in 1977 to critical acclaim.

Her award-winning short stories include Mawar Yang Belum Gugur (1971), Nasinya Tumpah (1972), and Anak-Anak Dari Kampung Pasir Pekan (1975). In 2015, she was recognised as a Kelantan State Laureate, and several of her works have been adapted for television.

Not known to shy away from taboo topics, Fatimah’s strong views and unflinching portrayals of Malay society and its contradictions have made her a somewhat controversial figure.

Today, many of her works are out-of-print and difficult to get a hold of.

Meeting Fatimah

Translating the stories for An Ordinary Tale About Women And Other Stories was essentially a labour of love – Fan has been working on translating Fatimah’s works since their first meeting in 2020, when Fan was overseeing GTLF.

“I sought out Fatimah’s works partly because I was interested in what a Kelantanese woman writer would write about, but also because you always hear her name come up, especially when people are talking about notable women writers who write in Bahasa Malaysia.

“She was often particularly cited as a great short story writer, so I was really curious to read her short stories,” said Fan in a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur.

Unfortunately, finding Penang-based Fatimah’s works proved to be a challenge, so Fan changed her tactic and decided to go straight to the source: Fatimah herself.

“I called her up on her landline – she doesn’t have a cellphone – and got through on my third try. It took a bit of convincing, but I got her to agree to a podcast interview for GTLF. So I went to visit her at her home in Bayan Baru, Penang with the Malay language curator, Izzuddin Ramli.

“She was really warm and maternal with a kind of old-school, ‘guru besar’ (headmaster) vibe – so she can come off as a bit ‘garang’ (intimidating). But she reminded me of some of the traditional masters whom I’ve worked with, so I immediately felt comfortable with her,” said Fan.

As for the story she most enjoyed translating, Fan named ‘The Dowry Of Desire’ as a strong contender. In this story, Fatimah gives the legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang an interesting twist.

It was then that Fatimah loaned Fan one of her short story collections, Lambaian Tanah Hijau (1980).

“I started reading it, and I was really amazed at her work. I knew that she was going to have this beautiful sense of language. But what I didn’t expect was that she was so radical – she had such a fearless approach to topics that I would have never imagined women of her time would have written about, especially Malay women. These are works from the 1970, 1980s, and 1990s.

“I also didn’t expect the level of experimentation in her work. She was writing not only boldly, but quite satirically and critically, just really in your face,” said Fan.

For Fan, the title story of the collection, An Ordinary Tale About Women, was one of Fatimah’s most outspoken stories about the numerous issues that women face, such as access to education, financial struggles, and even sexual violence.

“These are the stories that happen in real life, that you read in the paper or online – it’s a very stark and real thing to talk about, then and now, but I think they’re also not spoken about enough in any platform, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction,” she added.

Rich in imagination

From the collection that Fatimah lent her, Fan came across Kekasih Muharram (The Lovers Of Muharram) and Di Tebing Sebuah Sungai (At The Edge Of A River), two stories that she really loved and wanted to translate into English.

“I needed my own copy of the text, so I snapped photographs of the stories using my phone – 20 pages of one story and another 15 pages of the other story – before returning it to her,” said Fan.

The Lovers Of Muharram was the first story that Fan translated. The tale begins in paradise, told from the perspective of the Angel of Paradise, before morphing into a story of two lovers.

“In all the essays, articles, and blog posts I’ve read about Fatimah, this story was never mentioned. I was kind of shocked, because it’s such a valuable story.

“There are so many levels of experimentation and radicalness, touching on desire and reckless love, as well as their consequences. It was her first story that really made me go, ‘wow’,” she added.

Next was At The Edge Of A River, which Fan chose to start the collection.

“I put this as the first story because I adored how she opened it with her description of the pulai trees: ‘The pulai trees are flowering in Kampong Pasir Pekan. Their acrid, heady scent elongates and merges with the moist night breeze, drifting over the entire lonely village.’

“Since then, I’ve started to notice pulai trees more – there’s a line of them near my house and during their flowering season, the scent of the flowers travels into my kitchen,” said Fan.

As for the story she most enjoyed translating, Fan named The Dowry Of Desire as a strong contender. In this story, Fatimah gives the legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang an interesting twist.

“It was so just rich with descriptions and her imagination, and I admire how irreverent she is with her interpretation of the legend. This was a really fun one to translate,” she added.

A powerful storyteller

According to Fan, while finding copies of Fatimah’s works required quite a bit of detective work and sourcing from secondhand booksellers and online shopping platforms, translating them was no chore.

“Fatimah’s works just grip me. She’s such a striking storyteller, even when it comes to the simplest story. Her command of Bahasa Malaysia is so powerful, and her vocabulary is also coloured by her Kelantanese dialect, which is effortlessly woven into her writing.”

However, she adds that Fatimah has yet to receive the amount of recognition on par with her talent.

“I find it a shame that she has yet to be named a National Laureate. She has so much to say and we’re just not recognising her. So part of what compelled me to put this collection together was to give her some of the recognition that she deserves.

“Fatimah is such an important writer, and not only for Malaysia – I think she’s one of those writers who can be read by readers from around the world, of any background, because many of her stories touch on universal topics and shared human experiences,” she added.

Having written decades’ worth of stories and published seven short story collections, there’s plenty more of Fatimah’s works that are ripe for translation.

“I really wouldn’t mind translating more of her stories at some point – there were some that I wanted to include in this collection, but they either wouldn’t fit in well with the other stories or were simply too long.

“I’m definitely not done with Fatimah Busu, because there’s still a lot to discover,” concluded Fan.