Muse for the moose

Bis kami melewati kilang pengolahan gas alam yang berpagar kawat, terlihat dua ekor rusa yang terperangkap dibalik pagar dengan tanduk mereka yang berbelit semak.  Dua orang di depan saya berbincang.

“Yang enak itu anaknya, dagingnya masih lembut, tangkapnya gampang, tinggal kita pancing dengan senter, pelan-pelan dia akan mendekat, tinggal kita pukul kepalanya.”

“Tidak lari ya?”

“Ah’ tidak, kita putar-putar senternya nanti dia terpancing sinar senter, kan penasaran toh, kalau sudah kena, kuping anaknya kita pijat keras-keras supaya di jerit, nanti ibunya pasti datang, tinggal kita ikat saja.”

“Kalau sepasang, tembak jantannya, nanti yang betina lari, kau tunggu saja, lama-lama nanti di pasti balik tengok jantannya, tapi kalau kau tembak betinanya sampai bengkok kau tunggu jantannya takkan balik lagi dia.” Dia melanjutkan.

Reaksi pertama saya adalah terkesiap, saya selalu memposisikan berada di pihak satwa liar dan menentang sebagian besar bentuk perburuan. Lalu pikiran saya melayang, saya teringat cerita pak tua dalam The Old Man and the Sea-nya Ernest Hemingway tentang sepasang marlin yang juga membuat saya sedih.

Mungkin terdengar aneh dan terlalu melankolis, tapi kita merespon sebuah kisah dengan jati diri kita yang sesungguhnya, siapa diri kita yang sebenarnya.

Sekarang giliran anda, apa yang terlintas di benak anda saat mendengar dialog semacam diatas? Tentang seru dan uniknya berburu di ranah papua? Romantis namun deramatisnya rusa betina yang kembali untuk jantannya? Eksotisnya kuliner yang bisa dirasa? Atau kejam dan rakusnya manusia? Tak harus memilih, tapi rasakan saja, siapa anda sebenarnya? Seperti apakah kita sesungguhnya?

Dikutip dari http://www.wenovel.com/book/364/11983.html

He remembered the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin. The male fish always let the female fish feed first and the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her, and all the time the male had stayed with her, crossing the line and circling with her on the surface. He had stayed so close that the old man was afraid he would cut the line with his tail which was sharp as a scythe and almost of that size and shape. When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge and clubbing her across the top of her head until her colour turned to a colour almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy‘s aid, hoisted her aboard, the male fish had stayed by the side of the boat.

　　Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.

　　That was the saddest thing I ever saw with them, the old man thought. The boy was sad too and we begged her pardon and butchered her promptly. –quotes from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway-