The 1953 publication of Sitor Situmorang’s Green Paper Letter pegged him as a rising poet. Six decades later, the writer is still active. The more than one hundred poems in this book were selected from the several thousand he wrote. The main characteristics of Sitor’s poems are the simplicity of its wordplay and the clarity of its syntax. Sitor’s poetry are a poetry of words; they evoke concepts and call up a series of pictures and images. In his poems, we find a poignant blend of personal experiences and philosophical reflection.
Sitor Situmorang was born in North Sumatra, but from 1950 to 1953 he lived and studied in Amsterdam. In the 1950s Sitor actively participated in the ongoing cultural discourse on the shape and direction of Indonesia’s culture. Over the decades Sitor have won numerous awards for his work. Many of his works have been translated into English, French, Dutch, Chinese, Russian and other languages.
