Judul Asli : A CHRISTMAS CAROL
[ from Charles Dickens’ Ghost
Stories : First Story ]
Copyright © by Charles
Dickens
Penerbit Mediakita
Alih Bahasa : Jarot Setyaji
Desain Cover : Indra Fauzi
Cetakan I : 2012 ; 256 hlm
Semua orang tahu siapa Ebenezer
Scrooge – satu-satunya pemilik firma Scrooge & Marley, sepeninggalan Marley
bertahun-tahun silam. Ia adalah sosok pria tua yang sangat tamak dan pelit luar
biasa. Tiada satu pun manusia mulai anak-anak hingga dewasa yang berkenan
sekedar menyapanya jika berpapasan di jalan, karena beliau juga bukan orang
yang ramah terhadap siapa saja. Hanya
orang-orang yang tidak memiliki pilihan lain, yang bersedia berhubungan
dengannya. Salah satunya adalah Bob Cratchit – juru tulis yang malang di firma
tersebut, harus bekerja tanpa henti dengan penghasilan yang sangat minim, demi
memenuhi kebutuhan keluarganya. Yang lain adalah Fred – satu-satunya kemenakan
Scrooge, yang tak pernah bosan mengunjungi dan mengundang pamannya yang
penggerutu serta antisosial untuk bergabung dalam perayaan Natal bersama
keluarga, yang selalu ditolak mentah-mentah setiap tahunnya.
Maka menjelang perayaan Malam
Natal, mendekati akhir tahun, kembali Ebenezer Scrooge pulang seorang diri di
kediamannya yang luas, gelap, suram dan dingin, menggerutu dan mencaci-maki
orang-orang yang membuang-buang waktu dengan berlibur dan berpesta, alih-alih
bekerja mengumpulkan uang. Malam itu seharusnya berjalan seperti biasa,
sebagaimana Scrooge menjalani malam-malam sepi tanpa peduli akan nasib orang di
sekelilingnya. Namun malam itu terjadi sesuatu yang dapat dikatakan cukup
mengerikan dan menakutkan, yang jelas setelah kejadian itu – kehidupan Ebenezer
Scrooge mengalami perubahan total, ia menjadi sosok manusia yang berbeda. Sesuatu
telah menyentuh bagian terdalam dan tersembunyi dari jiwanya yang tersesat
selama bertahun-tahun, dan bagaikan nyanyian Kidung Natal yang terdengar di
segala penjuru dunia, jiwa-jiwa yang celaka dan senantiasa menghujat
kemulian-NYA, berubah-bertobat-terselamatkan. Maka para malaikat pun bernyanyi
bersama dengan umat manusia yang merayakan-NYA.
I’ve been known A Christmas
Carol story just like common people, through songs, poets, and of course the
latest movies adaptation play by Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge. But this is my
first time actually read it Dickens’ original books (even thou is a translation
edition), and my perspective on this changes immediately. For several years, I’m
thinking Christmas Carol jusat another story-telling for children, specially
around Christmas Eve. But now I know that was really wrong, and quite the
opposite. This is a story about a man who had known as the greedy, grudge,
bitter, and named as the bad exampler when ever everybody talks about something
they didn’t like. The truth behind this
story, Scrooge is an ordinary man, who had falling, hard-falls in his life, and
he lost his spirits throgh the battle between good and evil, and he choose the
wrong path into his life.
What amazingly, Dickens puts ‘magic’
and ‘supranatural’ into the story, about the journey of lost man searching his
soul and find the real truth hidden so deep, buried into his past. Through the
known characters as ‘Three Ghosts’ : Ghost from Past – Present – Future,
Scrooge re-live and changes his entire purpose of life and find new meaning to
rejoice and acceptence the ‘gift’ from Almighty. I never though reading the
visitation of these ‘ghosts’ ca be really scary yet touch the deepest feeling
inside me. Can you imagine what kind of person Ebenezer Scrooge in childhood
until he grews-up ? Was he born as the ugly, bitter, grudge person ?
Suprisingly, he just like any others human being. Born and raise with love and
caring, had dreams and seeking out the purpose of his life with enthusiasm and
great imagination. But somehow, between those journey, he had to face something
– something that makes his mind changes and it can says that he sold his soul
into the devil’s.
I think that why this story can
still reconnect with all readers after many century, from man and woman, from
young people until the oldest. They – I pressume just like my self, had find ‘a
piece’ of our souls in this character of Ebenezer Scrooge. We might not as
greedy as him, nor always grudging about the life, but we all had life on past
that give another meaning on our present life, and who knows what kind of life
we will have in the future. Secondly, I’m also thinking, the thought that we
can change or said re-live our life just like changing ‘switch’ on ‘remote-control’
of our life – that was quite tempting. If Ebenezer Scrooge got his second
chance to live another life, can we all had the same and equal chance too ? For
all our lost dreams, our lost relationship with someone we love, our regrets
not doing a better job in the past. But then this story got the best ending,
you – yourself can changing all that in the past, even it is happen yesterday,
by focusing on what matter today – cherish all that, give thanks on His
Blessing and do the best thing you got every day, every hours, every minutes,
every seconds. This is a quite short story, but I don’t why it’s gotten so deep
inside my mind, scary but love it for the same time.
“A
Christmas Carol” are include in my RC on :
3th
book (novella) in Dickens Literature’s and Celebrating 201th
Dickens
Best Regards,
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