Inandiak's version of 'Serat Centhini'

Inandiak's version of 'Serat Centhini'

Blontank Poer, Correspondent, Surakarta, Central Java

Serat Centhini is a complete Javanese classical literary work.
Compiled in the first half of 19th century, Centhini is to date
the most complete encyclopedia about Java. It contains the
paradoxes in life about virtues originating in Islam and gives
explicit sex education to laymen in a manner that many modern
scholars still find pornographic.

While providing moral teachings, the Centhini also details a
large array of procedures involving traditional rites, auspicious
days and how to treat nature. It gives, for example, a detailed
method of how to properly fell a tree in a forest so that a
disaster can be warded off.

Many literary experts are reluctant to translate the Centhini,
arguing that the language used is too vulgar, particularly when
it describes sexual intercourse, ranging from the conventional
sex to sodomy. Reportedly, this "pornographic" part was written
by Pakubuwono V himself, who sat on his throne for only three
years and then died of acute syphilis.

Although it was Pakubuwono V, the King of Surakarta, that took
the initiative to write Centhini, the process to create this
classical literary work involved three palace poets: R.Ng.
Ranggasutrasna, R.Ng. Yasadipura II and R.Ng. Sastradipura. The
three of them, reportedly had to conduct their research
throughout Java and studied literary works produced by all Java
sub-cultures.

Having been well-kept in the palace and in the state's archive
building for close to two centuries because it was feared that it
would stir controversy among its readers, Serat Centhini can now
be accessed by the common reader.

Unusually, it has been popularized by a foreigner that fell in
love with this Javanese classical literary work while she was
writing about Javanese mysticism.

Elizabeth D. Inandiak, a French poet-cum-journalist, was
working in journalism in Indonesia in the early 1980s when she
became interested in this ancient masterpiece.

Inandiak was in Indonesia to write a overview about mysticism.
A well-traveled writer with an obvious thirst for cultural
knowledge, Inandiak had already visited Tibet and met the Dalai
Lama and gone to Bangladesh to meet local priests there. She was
in Indonesia, interviewing the farmers and grave caretakers on
the ancient slopes of Mount Merapi in Central Java, when she
discovered the Serat Centhini. Actuel, a French monthly magazine
published in Paris, was sponsoring her journalistic work.

"The Centhini charmed me greatly. I fell in love with this
work just like a woman falling in love with a handsome guy," she
told The Jakarta Post.

This interest did not come to nothing. In 1996, when attending
a dinner at the residence of Thierry de Beauce, the former French
ambassador to Indonesia, Inandiak received an offer to undertake
a major project of translating this literary masterpiece. The
ambassador, who was equally interested in Serat Centhini, funded
the translation project, which took a full seven years to
complete.

Fascinated by this ancient literary work, Inandiak knew she
had to find out more about it and examine the manuscript in its
original form. Inandiak only had in her possession the Latin
transliteration of the Serat Centhini, which was originally
written in the ancient Javanese alphabet.

Unfortunately, Inandiak's knowledge of old Javanese was not
good and there was little supporting literature to help
understand the work better. A summary of the content of the
Centhini, made by Sumahatmaka in 1931, is in Javanese and the
Indonesian edition of this summary was published by Balai Pustaka
in 1981.

Luckily, she met an academic, Prof. Dr. H. Mohammad Rasjidi,
who became an important resource for the project. Rasjidi, a
former minister of religious affairs during Soekarno's times,
earned his PhD in Philosophy in 1956 from France's Sorbonne
University with a dissertation about the Serat Centhini.

Inandiak enlisted Rasjidi's help and returned to France,
exploring the collection of books and dissertations in the
Sorbonne University library.

The door to a better understanding of the narrative was wide
open. "I became optimistic that I could understand Serat
Centhini," she said.

Another constraint emerged. It was not easy to find the right
translator for the work. Many linguists and literature scholars
refused when Inandiak asked them to take part in the translation.
They generally argued it was taboo to translate this work because
it dwelt on sexual matters in what they considered a highly
vulgar manner. The only person who was ready to help her was
Sunaryati Sutanto, a lecturer in the School of Literature at
Sebelas Maret University in Surakarta.

Inandiak's cooperation with Sunaryati was eventually highly
fruitful. She finally completed the translation of Serat Centhini
into French, which was published in October 2002. It appears as a
466-page book, excluding footnotes and appendices, published by
Le Relie under the title Les Chants de l'ile a Dormir Debout.

Inandiak is also having a fuller version of the book published
in Indonesian, which is coming out in four titles. The first
title, Empat Puluh Malam dan Satunya Hujan (Forty Nights and One
of Rain) was published early last year. The second title,
Minggatnya Cebolang (The Wife Runs Away), was launched in
Surakarta later that year in April.

The remaining two titles will see the light of day later this
year. They are Yang Memikul Raganya (The One Shouldering His Own
Body) and Nafsu Terakhir (The Last Lust). "I had to divide the
work into four volumes so that it would not be too thick. I want
every Indonesian to read this work because it is really an
extraordinary literary achievement," she said.

Inandiak's obsession has also given her accolades. Last year,
the French version of the book was named by Best Asian Book in
2003 by the French Government.

In her version Inandiak retold the Serat Centhini, which,
originally contains 4,200 pages, 722 verses and over 200,000
stanzas, in a far slimmer book. Why is her version much thinner?
Inandiak says, "I did not include all the encyclopedic elements."