Sitor's poems evoke beauty<\/p>\n
Lie Hua, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Sitor Situmorang has a lot to offer to Indonesian literature,
\nparticularly in terms of versification. He is most noted for the
\nlyrical nature of his poems.<\/p>\n
Unlike Chairil Anwar, whose poems reflect his burning egotism,
\nSitor Situmorang is famous for the euphony of his verses despite,
\naccording to many critics, the existentialist philosophical
\ncontent of these poems.<\/p>\n
Many of his lines can easily be recalled just because of the
\nbeautiful sound they evoke. Listen to these: \"The lake glances in
\nthe morn\/A church bell on a hill in Italy\" (Song of Italian
\nGirl) or \"Flower on a stone\/Burned by loneliness\" (Flower), or
\nstill, \"A bird picking up the grass\/A nest it has no chance to
\nmake\" (Silk Night). Sound and meaning reinforce each other in
\nSitor's poems.<\/p>\n
It is this aspect that has left an indelible impression on
\nNirwan Dewanto, who reviewed Sitor's poems from 1948 to 2001 in a
\ndiscussion held by Aksara Bookshop on Wednesday, June 5, 2002. He
\nwas the sole speaker and also the moderator.<\/p>\n
Nirwan said that for him the most prominent feature of Sitor's
\npoems was not their philosophical content but their orderliness
\nof sound and form. Sitor, unlike the Chairil Anwar, the reformer
\nof Indonesian poetry, prefers to make use of old verse forms like
\nsonnets and pantun, a four-line stanza.<\/p>\n
Sitor, said Nirwan Dewanto, who is an editor with the literary
\nand cultural journal KALAM, does not use the traditional verse
\nforms because he is against modernism. Rather, his use of these
\ntraditional verse forms is a means to filter the hullabaloo of
\nmodern experiences.<\/p>\n
Nirwan was right when he said that Sitor's poems described
\nforms or shapes: nature, city, architecture, women, inanimate
\nobjects. However, what he conveys in his poems is not the realism
\nof these objects but the impression that they make on him. So,
\nlike a painter, Sitor the poet discards details to save his
\nsubjective view. We may therefore be charmed by the beauty of a
\npanorama in his poems but then we can always find a philosophy of
\nsorts in these poems. Sitor, according to Nirwan, often achieves
\nthis by using abstract nouns. Look at these lines: \"Loneliness
\nhere becomes a presence\" (Place St. Sulpice) or \"Eternal boredom
\nturns to forgetfulness,\" (La Ronde).<\/p>\n
Nirwan also likened Sitor to Baudelaire, a noted French poet,
\nwho made a journey to savor the world as broken and decadent
\nparts and therefore went in search of decay rather than virtue.
\nYet in the eyes of Nirwan, Sitor is still looking for beauty.<\/p>\n
Then Nirwan also compared Sitor with Pablo Neruda, the famed
\nChilean poet. Neruda, he said, would like to extol the virtues of
\nhis fatherland for all nations to see while Sitor seems to be a
\ncosmopolite still weighed down by the legacy of his ancestors. In
\nthis context, Sitor perhaps tries to deny his origin by using
\ntraditional verse forms.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, in Nirwan's observation, both poets have taken
\nthe leftist path, though for different reasons. Neruda adopted
\nleftist ways because he was fed up with modernism in poetry.
\nSitor, for his part, has taken the such a path because of his
\ndistance with modernism in poetry. He has reconciled himself with
\nhis village, which he has now expanded into a \"nation\". In this
\nway, his philosophy of fun has been replaced by an ideology. It
\nis at this juncture that impressionism has made way for realism.
\nAnd, it is easy to guess, as his traditional verse forms have
\nturned into free verse.<\/p>\n
Following his release from jail in the 1970s -- he was
\narrested for alleged involvement in the Sept. 30, 1965 coup
\nattempt that was blamed on leftists -- Sitor became a different
\nperson as a poet. He no longer concerned himself with euphony and
\nmusic, the main feature of his poems in his early collections
\nlike Surat Kertas Hijau (Green Paper Letter), Dalam Sajak (Within
\nVerse) or Wajah Tak Bernama (Nameless Face).<\/p>\n
As the title of his first collection of poems published after
\nhis release from prison, Peta Perjalanan (Map of a Journey),
\nsuggests, Sitor is no longer a hunter of fun, rather, he is now a
\ncollector of souvenirs from all corners of the country, and even
\nthe world. Understandably, these poems are no longer concerned
\nwith euphony or music. The content is an attempt to describe the
\n\"I\".<\/p>\n
Although many of Sitor's poems talk about nature, a more
\nprofound reading of these poems will show that just like the
\nmajority of Indonesian poems, his poems lay emphasis on \"I\" very
\nseriously. It is the \"I\" that sticks to the environment because
\nof its dominant position. Nirwan added that perhaps the first
\nIndonesian poem to be purely about inanimate things was Mata
\nPisau (Knife Blade) by Sapardi Djoko Damono.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note, Nirwan said, that once we were fed
\nup with sermons in poems, we would return to Sitor's early poems
\nas they always offered us music and sound. It is by surrendering
\nourselves fully to the music and sound of his poems that we can
\nhave real fun reading these poems. In this way, we remove from
\nSitor's poems what is usually considered his \"philosophy\".<\/p>\n
A discussion of Sitor's poems can never be complete because
\nthe more we delve into his lines, the more the sound rings in our
\nears and knocks at the door of our conscience. Imagery becomes
\nmore powerful in his poems because of the sound that the lines
\nevoke. When imagery blends with sound, a poem has come full
\ncircle and becomes complete in itself. It is this feature of
\nSitor's poems that Nirwan has rightly observed.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sitors-poems-evoke-beauty-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}