French writer Inandiak mirrors the Javanese tradition

French writer Inandiak mirrors the Javanese tradition

Kunang Helmi-Picard
Contributor
Paris

When Elizabeth Inandiak received the 2003 Literary Prize for Asia
in March for her translation and adaptation of the early 19th
century Javanese tale Serat Centhini, she was thankful that her
parents were on hand.

For her book Les Chants de l'Ile a dormir debout -- Le Livre
de Centhini, published in late 2002, mirrors the essence of all
things Javanese -- a world far removed from her beautiful
hometown of Lyon.

"The award ceremony was all the more exciting for me because
my aged parents attended the ceremony," Inandiak said about her
award from the Association of Writers in the French language.

"They have never understood what Java and my work was about
since Indonesia is so far removed from the sphere of their world
based in Lyon. I am the seventh generation of a family that has
always been based there."

Centhini dates back to 1815, when this immense compendium of
hermetic knowledge in the form of a suluk (mystic poem) was
inspired by crown prince Anom Amengkunagara III of the Surakarta
royal palace. Under the auspices of the royal patron and future
sultan Paku Buwono V, the court scholars Yasadipura II and Rangga
Sutrasna began to compose the 4,000 pages distributed in 12
volumes in the true spirit of the Surakarta classical literary
renaissance prevalent at the time.

The encyclopedic work encompasses art, music, divination and
erotic knowledge, together with religious speculation and
mysticism. It is enrichened by expressions, verses and allusions
in Sanskrit, Arabic and Kawi (ancient Javanese).

The main storyline follows the experiences of santri, students
of Islam who travel from one rural pesantren (Islamic boarding
school) to the other, testing each other's skill in unraveling
puzzles and religious conundrums. In the 16th, 17th and 18th
centuries, these wandering students were a feature of Javanese
society, and while in the Serat Centhini some of these were also
of royal blood seeking enlightenment, they are all suffused by
Islamic sufi mysticism.

Inandiak lives with her teenage Javanese-French daughter
Diorita in a quiet village in the midst of verdant rice-fields
near Yogyakarta, under the shadow of Mt. Merapi. Their lives are
steeped in Javanese customs. She speaks remarkable Indonesian,
exquisitely tinged by Javanese expression.

Mahabharata and Ramayana legends still resonate on certain
nights in wayang (leather puppet) shows. Of the twin dalang
(puppet masters) in the village, one recently passed away.

Since the eruption of Merapi volcano on Nov. 22, 1994, she has
taken part each year in the procession which sets out from
Kinahrejo to climb up the mountain to perform the traditional
offerings to the volcano. The procession is led by mbah Marijan,
a man considered to be the mystical gatekeeper of the volcano.
She is often accompanied on these pilgrimages by her friend
Augustina Ismurjilah who works in the Yogyakarta palace.

Central Java slowly and gently entranced this daughter of
Lyon, the third largest French city situated on the river Rhone
in the center of the country, from her first visit in 1988.
Already a noted writer, she wrote for French publications such as
Actuel, as well as writing film scripts and doing radio work.

Inandiak feels an enormous debt toward Java, the source and
inspiration for much of her recent work. For the past 10 years,
she has been involved in finding people to help her translate
some Javanese legends or folk stories, all in the various
contemporary and more ancient forms of the Javanese language. She
first discovered the five-page-long notes on the epic poem in
famous French historian Denys Lombard's pivotal work on Le
Carrefour Javanais (The Javanese Crossroads).

Thanks to the Centhini Foundation created by Haji Karkono
Kamajaya, the 12 volumes in Javanese script had already been
transcribed into Latin script. However, only the first volumes
were translated into bahasa Indonesia by Balai Pustaka in the
1990s.

The epic, which is also sung or chanted, is based upon the
peregrinations of three siblings, two princes and one princess
who flee the invader Sultan Agung in 1635. This invasion of the
kingdom of Giri is based on actual fact. Their father, old Sunan
Prapen of Giri, is imprisoned by Sultan Agung of Mataram, who
latter succeeded in subduing most of Java by the early 17th
century.

Inandiak's interest was aroused, but she was also aware that
the translation would take years and needed funding.

Help was at hand. The then French ambassador to Indonesia
Thierry de Beauce heard of a mystical medicinal and magical plant
from her. The wijayakusuma is said to bloom only at midnight,
while releasing a divine fragrance, only to fade away. It grows
on a floating island off the south coast of Java.

This flower appears in the last canto of Serat Centhini, where
Amongraga and his wife are transformed into two worms to be
grilled by Sultan Agung and are then placed into the calyx of the
magic flower, ready to be eaten. After Inandiak explained about
Serat Centhini, comparable to the Greek epic Odyssey, de Beauce
set about finding official funds for her to translate the poem
into French.

"The poem is actually the collective memory of 120 million
Javanese, in extravagant, eccentric and meandering 12 volumes of
verse. Although the original manuscript has vanished and only
transcripts exist, there is hardly anyone able to read them as
the use of literary Javanese has all but vanished," she said.

It seems that Serat Centhini is secretly narrated by Centhini,
servant of Tambangraras, the wife of the main character, but in
fact it is the mystical voice of Tambangraras (the official title
of the work is Suluk Tambangraras). Extracts of the epic poem
itself were often sung by a pesinden (traditional Javanese female
singer). In 1850, 40 years after being assembled, the seventh
Sunan of Surakarta offered volumes five through nine, to the
Queen of the Netherlands."

The writer went on to explain how she worked for more than
five years on Centhini because for at least two years she first
had to translate about 1,000 pages into Indonesian with the help
of Sunaryati Sutanto who is affiliated with the Surakarta court.
Then Inandiak painstakingly translated it into French,
occasionally helped by her close friend Augustina. She always
performed the appropriate Javanese ceremonies to ask for
permission to touch the original verses.

The beauty of the poem is not merely in its words, but in its
music, songs and alliteration, therefore she was inspired to
rewrite everything anew in French, especially for an audience who
was not familiar with Javanese mythology.

"I rearticulated the story, even introducing some verse from
Victor Hugo into the mouth of Tambangraras, because for me, he is
very Javanese and the name Tambangraras which is derived from
tembang (song) and raras (harmonious) is the incarnation of
poetry," she said. "I then filtered it down to 400 pages after
recomposing it. Further back in history, Rabelais (the 16th
century French satirist) was also of help to me as his poetry and
lust for life and enjoyment mirrored the epicurean aspects of the
poem."

Her poetic license added new perspectives to some of the
characters. Amongraga and his wife spent 40 nights after their
wedding without making love. Every night Amongraga gave
Tambangraras spiritual teachings, accompanied by many pages of
obscure spiritual knowledge.

Inandiak rewrote this, adding teachings from other mystical
and Sufi literature from the Middle East; Tambangraras is more
self-assured and answers back. Amongraga must leave after their
marriage is finally consummated as he has to continue on his
eternal quest for the truth and to find his other two siblings.

Inandiak has been invited to present her adaptation of
Centhini to the public of the International Literary Festival in
Barcelona in September of this year, with Javanese dance star
Didik Nini Thowok dancing the various roles.

Inandiak has truly captured the ancient and eternal soul of
Java with her sensitivity, intuition and poetry in French. Now,
when may we enjoy a translation of the adapted poem into
Indonesian?