Dorothea's poems cry out for equality<\/p>\n
KILL THE RADIO, Sebuah Radio Kumatikan;
\nDorothea Rosa Herliany;
\nEditor & Translator: Harry Aveling;
\nIndonesiatera, Magelang, 2001;
\n127 + xxxiv pp;
\nRp 40,000<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Readers of the literature columns in local
\nnewspapers must be familiar with Dorothea's poems. One of the
\nyounger Indonesian poets that first emerged in the mid-1980s, she
\nhas published many of her poems in the print media and has now
\nfive poetry collections to her credit.<\/p>\n
Dorothea's poems prominently show her as a woman who rebels
\nagainst the traditional bonds that, in a way, still shackle
\nIndonesian women. As Harry Aveling says in the introduction: "Her
\nwritings present a full-blooded, determined woman, demanding far
\nmore than mere complementariness: she was equality, and perhaps
\neven dominance."<\/p>\n
With dexterous ease, she intentionally uses words that, when
\ncoming from a woman, sound rude and aggressive. When she talks
\nabout love, it is not the kind of love that is traditionally
\nassociated with a woman. There is no submissiveness but rather
\nrebellion. There is the kind of initiative that is commonly
\nthough to belong only to male lovers, as these three short lines
\nwill testify:<\/p>\n
let me embrace you now,\/before I finally satisfy\/my hunger
\n(Wedding Diary, p. 25).<\/p>\n
There is in love, for her, a kind of aggressiveness. It is as
\nif she is saying a woman has the right to subjugate her male
\nlover to satisfy her desires. These short lines clearly show her
\nrebellion. It is not only men who can manipulate women to satisfy
\ntheir desires, but the reverse also is true. This is the kind of
\nequality that Dorothea insists should prevail.<\/p>\n
She believes, very strongly, that as a woman writer she must
\nfight for women equality. Hence:<\/p>\n
to write other poems\/with new words. to create new myths. to
\ngive you a different history. (Elegy, p. 26)<\/p>\n
It is only a myth, for her, that a woman is a plaything for a
\nman. This situation must be reversed so that there will be a
\ndifferent history. Our history, she seems to protest, is one full
\nof male domination. It is now time for the creation of new myths.
\nPoems must be written with new words. The words that are usually
\nassociated with men or those usually controlled by men must now
\nbe in the hands of women.<\/p>\n
This bilingual collection, consisting of 49 poems, are divided
\ninto three sections: Secret Sex Telegrams (15 poems), Kill the
\nRadio (7 poems) and Talking Trash (27 poems), with subject
\nmatters ranging from love to the recent political crisis,
\nevidence of her keen awareness of what is going on in society.<\/p>\n
A poem is an independent work and is sometimes said to be
\nuntranslatable. Words play a vital role in a poem. Reality is
\ncompacted into a few lines and the poet manipulates words and
\nchooses them to enable him to convey his or her message.
\nTherefore, when the words in a poem are wrongly understood, the
\npoem may render a different interpretation in translation.<\/p>\n
In general, the English translation by Harry Aveling, one of a
\nfew foreigners noted for their excellent knowledge of Indonesian
\nliterature, is quite good. The fact that this collection is
\nbilingual makes it easier to read both the original version and
\nthe translation, as they are placed side by side. Despite
\nAveling's excellent translation, there are some words or phrases
\nwhich are not properly translated, largely because the translator
\nlacks familiarity with the source language.<\/p>\n
Look at this line: "the cheap hotel is located in a lane where
\nthe rats live" (line 1, The City of Quarrels, p. 10). Reading
\nthis line, one may think that there is a lane full of rats and
\nthere a cheap hotel stands. The original line reads: "dari sebuah
\ngang tikus, aku masuki hotel murah". This line means that the
\npersona (I) gets into a cheap hotel and she comes out of a small
\nalley. Obviously "gang tikus", literally "a rat alley", does not
\nmean that it is an alley or a lane where you have a lot of rats.
\nThis refers to a network of small alleys that look like a maze
\nand you go through as a shortcut.<\/p>\n
Then look at this: "she shapes history's river: a century
\nlong" (The Woman who Sinned, p. 17). The original line reads:
\n"menciptakan sungai sejarah: sepanjang abad!<\/p>\n
"Sepanjang abad" is not literally "a century long". Rather, it
\nrefers to eternity, something like "for all eternity".<\/p>\n
Now, still another example. In Sympathy Card (p. 38), we have
\nthese concluding lines: \/the waves flatten the days,\/time becomes
\nshorter -- each disaster is closer\/than the last.\/ The original
\nlines read: \/gelombang meratakan hari menjadi waktu\/yang pendek -
\nsebab jarak bencana.\/ Literally they mean: the waves flatten the
\ndays into time\/which is short -- as distance means disaster.
\nThere is no idea of each disaster being closer than the last.<\/p>\n
If you read the original lines carefully, the idea will be
\nsomething like if there is a distance, in this context, if time
\nis not short, i.e. if there is a large distance between one day
\nand the next, this is disaster.<\/p>\n
Of course, translating a poem is always difficult. This is an
\neven more difficult task here, considering that Dorothea is very
\nfree in using words and creating metaphors and comparisons. It is
\na good idea, therefore, that when a translator translates a
\nforeign poem, for him or her to be aided by a native speaker of
\nthe language of the poem with a good mastery of the translator's
\nnative tongue. Only in this way will possible misunderstandings
\nbe cut to a minimum, if not eliminated completely.<\/p>\n
--Lie Hua is a lecturer in the Department of English at
\nNational University (UNAS), Jakarta.<\/p>",
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