French writer Inandiak mirrors the Javanese tradition<\/p>\n
Kunang Helmi-Picard
\nContributor
\nParis<\/p>\n
When Elisabeth Inandiak received the 2003 Literary Prize for Asia
\nin March for her translation and adaptation of the early 19th
\ncentury Javanese tale Serat Centhini, she was thankful that her
\nparents were on hand.<\/p>\n
For her book Les Chants de l'Ile a dormir debout -- Le Livre
\nde Centhini, published in late 2002, mirrors the essence of all
\nthings Javanese -- a world far removed from her beautiful
\nhometown of Lyon.<\/p>\n
\"The award ceremony was all the more exciting for me because
\nmy aged parents attended the ceremony,\" Inandiak said about her
\naward from the Association of Writers in the French language.<\/p>\n
\"They have never understood what Java and my work was about
\nsince Indonesia is so far removed from the sphere of their world
\nbased in Lyon. I am the seventh generation of a family that has
\nalways been based there.\"<\/p>\n
Centhini dates back to 1815, when this immense compendium of
\nhermetic knowledge in the form of a suluk (mystic poem) was
\ninspired by crown prince Anom Amengkunagara III of the Surakarta
\nroyal palace. Under the auspices of the royal patron and future
\nsultan Paku Buwono V, the court scholars Yasadipura II and Rangga
\nSutrasna began to compose the 4,000 pages distributed in 12
\nvolumes in the true spirit of the Surakarta classical literary
\nrenaissance prevalent at the time.<\/p>\n
The encyclopedic work encompasses art, music, divination and
\nerotic knowledge, together with religious speculation and
\nmysticism. It is enrichened by expressions, verses and allusions
\nin Sanskrit, Arabic and Kawi (ancient Javanese).<\/p>\n
The main storyline follows the experiences of santri, students
\nof Islam who travel from one rural pesantren (Islamic boarding
\nschool) to the other, testing each other's skill in unraveling
\npuzzles and religious conundrums. In the 16th, 17th and 18th
\ncenturies, these wandering students were a feature of Javanese
\nsociety, and while in the Serat Centhini some of these were also
\nof royal blood seeking enlightenment, they are all suffused by
\nIslamic sufi mysticism.<\/p>\n
Inandiak lives with her teenage Javanese-French daughter
\nDiorita in a quiet village in the midst of verdant rice-fields
\nnear Yogyakarta, under the shadow of Mt. Merapi. Their lives are
\nsteeped in Javanese customs. She speaks remarkable Indonesian,
\nexquisitely tinged by Javanese expression.<\/p>\n
Mahabharata and Ramayana legends still resonate on certain
\nnights in wayang (leather puppet) shows. Of the twin dalang
\n(puppet masters) in the village, one recently passed away.<\/p>\n
Since the eruption of Merapi volcano on Nov. 22, 1994, she has
\ntaken part each year in the procession which sets out from
\nKinahrejo to climb up the mountain to perform the traditional
\nofferings to the volcano. The procession is led by mbah Marijan,
\na man considered to be the mystical gatekeeper of the volcano.
\nShe is often accompanied on these pilgrimages by her friend
\nAugustina Ismurjilah who works in the Yogyakarta palace.<\/p>\n
Central Java slowly and gently entranced this daughter of
\nLyon, the third largest French city situated on the river Rhone
\nin the center of the country, from her first visit in 1988.
\nAlready a noted writer, she wrote for French publications such as
\nActuel, as well as writing film scripts and doing radio work.<\/p>\n
Inandiak feels an enormous debt toward Java, the source and
\ninspiration for much of her recent work. For the past 10 years,
\nshe has been involved in finding people to help her translate
\nsome Javanese legends or folk stories, all in the various
\ncontemporary and more ancient forms of the Javanese language. She
\nfirst discovered the five-page-long notes on the epic poem in
\nfamous French historian Denys Lombard's pivotal work on Le
\nCarrefour Javanais (The Javanese Crossroads).<\/p>\n
Thanks to the Centhini Foundation created by Haji Karkono
\nKamajaya, the 12 volumes in Javanese script had already been
\ntranscribed into Latin script. However, only the first volumes
\nwere translated into bahasa Indonesia by Balai Pustaka in the
\n1990s.<\/p>\n
The epic, which is also sung or chanted, is based upon the
\nperegrinations of three siblings, two princes and one princess
\nwho flee the invader Sultan Agung in 1635. This invasion of the
\nkingdom of Giri is based on actual fact. Their father, old Sunan
\nPrapen of Giri, is imprisoned by Sultan Agung of Mataram, who
\nlatter succeeded in subduing most of Java by the early 17th
\ncentury.<\/p>\n
Inandiak's interest was aroused, but she was also aware that
\nthe translation would take years and needed funding.<\/p>\n
Help was at hand. The then French ambassador to Indonesia
\nThierry de Beauce heard of a mystical medicinal and magical plant
\nfrom her. The wijayakusuma is said to bloom only at midnight,
\nwhile releasing a divine fragrance, only to fade away. It grows
\non a floating island off the south coast of Java.<\/p>\n
This flower appears in the last canto of Serat Centhini, where
\nAmongraga and his wife are transformed into two worms to be
\ngrilled by Sultan Agung and are then placed into the calyx of the
\nmagic flower, ready to be eaten. After Inandiak explained about
\nSerat Centhini, comparable to the Greek epic Odyssey, de Beauce
\nset about finding official funds for her to translate the poem
\ninto French.<\/p>\n
\"The poem is actually the collective memory of 120 million
\nJavanese, in extravagant, eccentric and meandering 12 volumes of
\nverse. Although the original manuscript has vanished and only
\ntranscripts exist, there is hardly anyone able to read them as
\nthe use of literary Javanese has all but vanished,\" she said.<\/p>\n
It seems that Serat Centhini is secretly narrated by Centhini,
\nservant of Tambangraras, the wife of the main character, but in
\nfact it is the mystical voice of Tambangraras (the official title
\nof the work is Suluk Tambangraras). Extracts of the epic poem
\nitself were often sung by a pesinden (traditional Javanese female
\nsinger). In 1850, 40 years after being assembled, the seventh
\nSunan of Surakarta offered volumes five through nine, to the
\nQueen of the Netherlands.\"<\/p>\n
The writer went on to explain how she worked for more than
\nfive years on Centhini because for at least two years she first
\nhad to translate about 1,000 pages into Indonesian with the help
\nof Sunaryati Sutanto who is affiliated with the Surakarta court.
\nThen Inandiak painstakingly translated it into French,
\noccasionally helped by her close friend Augustina. She always
\nperformed the appropriate Javanese ceremonies to ask for
\npermission to touch the original verses.<\/p>\n
The beauty of the poem is not merely in its words, but in its
\nmusic, songs and alliteration, therefore she was inspired to
\nrewrite everything anew in French, especially for an audience who
\nwas not familiar with Javanese mythology.<\/p>\n
\"I rearticulated the story, even introducing some verse from
\nVictor Hugo into the mouth of Tambangraras, because for me, he is
\nvery Javanese and the name Tambangraras which is derived from
\ntembang (song) and raras (harmonious) is the incarnation of
\npoetry,\" she said. \"I then filtered it down to 400 pages after
\nrecomposing it. Further back in history, Rabelais (the 16th
\ncentury French satirist) was also of help to me as his poetry and
\nlust for life and enjoyment mirrored the epicurean aspects of the
\npoem.\"<\/p>\n
Her poetic license added new perspectives to some of the
\ncharacters. Amongraga and his wife spent 40 nights after their
\nwedding without making love. Every night Amongraga gave
\nTambangraras spiritual teachings, accompanied by many pages of
\nobscure spiritual knowledge.<\/p>\n
Inandiak rewrote this, adding teachings from other mystical
\nand Sufi literature from the Middle East; Tambangraras is more
\nself-assured and answers back. Amongraga must leave after their
\nmarriage is finally consummated as he has to continue on his
\neternal quest for the truth and to find his other two siblings.<\/p>\n
Inandiak has been invited to present her adaptation of
\nCenthini to the public of the International Literary Festival in
\nBarcelona in September of this year, with Javanese dance star
\nDidik Nini Thowok dancing the various roles.<\/p>\n
Inandiak has truly captured the ancient and eternal soul of
\nJava with her sensitivity, intuition and poetry in French. Now,
\nwhen may we enjoy a translation of the adapted poem into
\nIndonesian?<\/p>",
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