Kopag dropped the sharp carving knife, and it almost sliced his leg open. It was all because he felt something strange coming from the corner. There was a smell of dried leaves and wet wood. Very strange. Where was the smell that made him nervous coming from? That smell was getting stronger, closer.

"Who is that?" "Titiang. Luh Srenggi."

"Srenggi? Srenggi who?" Kopag trembled more and more. The smell was getting closer and his chest was growing tight. His hands were shaking, but he needed his carving tools. Sharp knives materialized in his mind. He was already in a state of shock when that smell completely stripped him of his manliness.

"Tell me. Who are you?!" "Titiang will serve you all you need, Ratu, from today and from now on." The voice was shaking.

"Who did you say your name was?" Kopag tried to calm himself.

"Luh Srenggi." It was a voice of a woman. What had happened to him? Kopag abused himself. It was all very strange. Suddenly he felt he was drowning in an ocean. He became convinced that the voice was full of honesty, affection, and sincerity. Kopag was sure that whatever she said was right. She was the woman that he had been looking for, and Hyam Widhi had sent her to him now. A woman. Was that really a woman’s voice?

When Kopag took his stick Luh Srenggi helped him quickly. Their hands touched, and Kopag’s trembling intensified. Her skin was like wood bark. Amazing. But, he surmised, she must have more beauty than the tree trunk, or even the most sacred heap of wood?

For the first time, Kopag really felt like he was living. He was suddenly able to judge humans objectively. Usually, he was simply an object, just listening to others’ decisions, obeying whatever they said. This time he found he had different values to those who had always tried to convince him of their ways, the people who, once they had planted an idea, ensured that it became their measure.

* * * *

"Is there no variety in the ways we can experience truthfulness, Gubreg?" His voice was bitter.

"Even to judge beauty itself, I have to follow others’ criteria, their values? I’m not sure they are able to see the extent of the beauty of life." His speech was now full of resentment, and his mind was confused.

Kopag understood that being born as a blind man was really a disadvantage, because he could never see any woman with his own eyes. But were the people who had everything able to grasp the secrets of life completely? The secrets that are held on to tightly and hidden from the world? Was it a mistake if suddenly he found the incredible beauty in Luh Srenggi? Beauty that he saw with his mind and felt with his own sense of beauty. Was that a mistake?

The beauty of that young woman was so amazing, her body and face like the contours of wood, and she was the most precious wood. It was queer that nobody could see her beauty, that no one appraised the beauty that had been entrusted to her. Even Gubreg his servant said nothing when Kopag appreciated how attractive the eighteen-year-old girl was. What were the mistaken criteria that Kopag had applied to a woman?

Gubreg, parekan, the loyal servant who had taken care of him since he was a little boy, often commented on how lucky his brother was because he had won the heart of the most beautiful woman in the village.

Still, what Gubreg said was true. Ni Luh Putu Sari, who (since she had married into the Griya family) was known as Jero Melati, had very beautiful skin. Her body was as beautiful as the princess of a Balinese king.

next page >

[top]
[welcome page]

copyright © 1999 Bali Echo. All rights Reserved
site design by : Access Bali Online