Three Beserah Fishermen

Muhammad Haji Salleh's "Two Beserah Fishermen" portrays the difficulties faced by fishermen.  The fishermen are referred to as "three small souls". The choice of the word "small" and the phrase "in a frail old sampan" suggests how these fishermen have to face big challenges in the vast blue sea.  This idea of the fisherman's difficult life is further enhanced in the lines "there was no choice/ against the big winds/ and the capricious sea." From the first stanza itself, we could sense that being a fisherman is not easy. It is challenge of small soul in a big "capricious" sea, where the "big winds" blow with no mercy because "the wind has no heart."

There is a sense of despair in the voice of the persona. It seems as if a fisherman has to fight a battle which is almost impossible to win. However, these fishermen are aware that although "the wind has no heart," there is still "a promise of hope" "between the stretches of a red imagination."  This is because the fishermen do not live himself, but also for his family - "the wives, sons and daughters,"  and it is their responsibility as the head of the family to "go down into the bottom of the sea-dish" and "to swim into time and hope." Despite the challenges, and a tinge of hopelessness, the fishermen who realize that "to survive was as difficult as to die," anchor all their hopes in the big blue sea knowing that "to be responsible is to love/ and love is to live/ to be rich in life."

This is a poem about despair and hope, and the courage to survive. One has to continue to live, despite difficulties, and to do so, one has to find the drive to move on. For the fishermen, 'the drive' is their family at home, and the responsibilities they have to fulfill as the heads of their families.

23 October 2011