Natasha Hudson and her plagiarised poems?

This blog entry is perhaps a bit too late to post, but I just found out about this awhile ago from Mat Jan's blog, and later I found that it all started from this blog entry Here's another blog post on the same topic.

Gosh, this is so embarrassing. I pity her actually cos it is so obvious that her so-called "personal collection of poems" and "were written many years ago" is in fact a piece of plagiarised work. Even her poems sounds really odd in Malay, seriously. Allow me to post some exerpts from her poem. Not one, but three identical direct translated poems!
Below are two of them taken from her book, Puisi Indah Si Pari-Pari (I'm beginning to think that she probably got the name of her book from Zamani's song, 'Syair Si Pari-Pari' :P).

Kek Coklat by Natasha Hudson
Saya mahu satu kehidupan,
Kamu mahu sesuatu yang lain,
Kita tidak dapat makan kek coklat,
Jadi kita makan sesama diri.

Cake by Roger McGough
i wanted one life
you wanted another
we couldn't have our cake
so we ate each other.


Si Kura-Kura Kecil by Natasha Hudson
Ada seekor kura2 kecil
tinggal di dalam kotak
berenang di tepi tasik
memanjat di atas batu

dia cuba menggigit nyamuk
dia cuba mengigit kutu
dia cuba menggigit berudu
dia cuba menggigit aku

dia berjaya menangkap nyamuk
dia berjaya menangkap kutu
dia berjaya menangkap berudu
tetapi dia tidak berjaya menangkap aku

The Little Turtle by Vachel Lindsay
There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didn't catch me.


Honestly, some her direct-translated poems doesn't even make sense in Bahasa Melayu. I'm not a BM expert, but what is 'Jadi kita makan sesama diri' ?? It sounds, really odd.

This reminds me of the former NST Group Editor, Brendan Pereira, whose alleged plagiarised weekly column was highlighted by famous blogger, Jeff Ooi back in October 2006, which the NST then, attempted to sue BBC for publishing this 'false' news. Soon after, the case was settled out of court between the two parties.
You can click here for related news.

Comments

Monkey's Bunny said…
ouch! bijak nye direct translation je..

It's hard to pity on her. she should be embarrassed for publishing her "personal collection of poems".
yuck. if she can't get cake, she should eat herself :)

welcome back to blogging, Shahnon!!
:D
shahnon said…
hehe. tulah.bijak2.

oh btw, she was my senior in high school. haha :P

thanks wanie~
spectacularwave said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
spectacularwave said…
now there are 5 plagiarised poems found in that book. could be the whole book, huh?