For more than two decades Dharmawijaya has wandered restless with ‘the suffere’s blessed lot is the Colour of Maya (Warna Maya)’ (1974), his meanderings finally culminating in the form of Dominion of Hurt (Derita Buana) which is here presented as an anthology of sixty poems. Every kind of suffering encountered provides experiences that raise waves of feelings for poems such as “ At theWanderer’s Crossing “ in which the poet among other things voices hopes and aspirations in his love for humanity:

I ask you
that your hallowed dreams not doom
surrender you to a life of false blooms.

Thus since the early 1960s, Dharmawijaya has been lending his sympathetic and moral voice concerning the subject of love, human life and nature, forging himself as a poet who is always nurturing the beauty of language that is full of melody. Moreover, much of Dharmawijaya’s poetry such as those offered in Domination of Hurt do not impart messages that are obvious but are finely tuned with poetic values hewn afresh.