Rendra brings late Chairil Anwar's poems to life
Rendra brings late Chairil Anwar's poems to life
By Johannes Simbolon
JAKARTA (JP): The stage was decorated modestly. An ornamental
electricity pole stood in the right corner; a half dozen white
drums lined the white backdrop in the left corner; and several
white sandbags lay in front of the electricity pole.
In the middle of the stage was noted poet Rendra, clad in blue
denim, reading poems.
Every now and then during the reading, the backdrop was
changed to a picture of a blue sky with white clouds.
It was a rare night. This time, Rendra did not read his own
ballads but the works of Chairil Anwar.
The poetry reading was held to commemorate the death of the
legendary poet 47 years ago. It lasted for three days, from April
27 to 29 at the Graha Bakti Hall at Taman Ismail Marzuki Art
Center.
The event was very important, and rare in that no less than
Minister/Secretary of State Moerdiono, Minister of Education and
Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro and several noted businesspeople
attended the first night.
Special shows were also arranged on April 28 and 29 for
students, who attended on discounted tickets. Students paid just
Rp 5,000, half the regular price.
Rendra's performance was, as usual, all but flawless.
Nicknamed "Peacock" for his flamboyance, Rendra is considered
Indonesia's best poet in decades, as well the founder of the
tradition of poetry reading in the country. His performances
always work magic and draw thousands of people, as that night's
show did.
If any people felt bored that night it was not due to Rendra's
performance, but rather because of the material he read. Rendra
usually reads his long ballads, which he not only peppers with
effective sounds, lamentation and deep reflection but also humor,
social criticism and irony. They are also good stories. The world
he writes of in his poems is something an audience can identify
with. Thus, Rendra's readings always touch his audiences,
alternately making them laugh, feel grief and anger.
Different world
That night, however, there were no ballads, no laughter, no
anger. He read the poems by Chairil Anwar, who lived half a
century ago when Indonesia was struggling to gain and defend its
independence. Rendra as such took his audience into a different
world. His main intention didn't seem to entertain his fans;
rather, he asked them to remember the legendary poet and muse
over the rich legacy he left Indonesia's modern culture.
Chairil Anwar was the pioneer of the Generation of 1945
literary movement. The movement was born before and matured after
Indonesia declared independence in 1945. The importance of the
authors of the movement to Indonesian modern culture, especially
to the country's literary world, lies in the fact that they
witnessed and documented the fervor, fear, struggle, despair and
dreams of Indonesians during the turbulent years. As it were,
they documented what was in the hearts and minds of the country's
founding fathers.
Chairil Anwar died of a lung disease at the age of 27 on April
28, 1949, and was buried in the Karet cemetery in Central
Jakarta. Born in Medan on July 22, 1922, he penned 94 works
throughout his short career, comprising 70 original poems, four
adapted poems, 10 translated poems, six original proses and four
translated proses. All the works were read by Rendra during the
show.
As short as his life may have been, the dream he expressed in
the last line of Me, his most famous poem, I want to live another
thousand years may well come true.
His works have been acknowledged here and abroad as the best
of the Generation of 1945 movement in that they express the
spirit of the period. They have been translated into several
languages.
Burton Raffel, American poet and professor in English
literature in many universities in the U.S., who translated
Chairil's works and published them in 1993 in Voice of the Night.
Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar, calls him
"Indonesia's only unqualifiedly great poet".
In Indonesia, many people start memorizing Chairil's best
works, including Me, Prayer, Fir Trees in Rows, in junior high
school.
Rendra knows Me by heart. He read the poem twice, in the
middle and at the end of the show. Closing the one-and-a-half-
hour show, without looking at the text at all, he recited the
poem in a shaky and feeble voice as if to depict someone
reluctantly facing death:
When my time comes
I want to hear no one's cries
nor yours either
Away with all who cry!
Here I am, a wild beast
Driven out of the herd
Bullets may pierce my skin
But I'll keep on,
Carrying forward my wounds and my pain
Attacking
Attacking
Until suffering disappears
And I won't care anymore
I want to live another thousand years.
(from Burton Raffel's translation)
Death frequently appears in Chairil Anwar's poems. He often
mentioned his own death as if he had a premonition he would die
young. His reflection on the death of freedom fighters who died
during the war brought about a fine poem, Krawang-Bekasi.
Although critics have proven that it is not his original work but
an adaptation of the poem by Archibald Mac Leis, Indonesians
still regard it as the best literary work on heroism and horror
during the country's revolutionary war. People recite the poem in
every official ceremony to commemorate their heroes.
Sometimes Chairil Anwar denounced death strongly, as best
shown through Me. Sometimes, he felt hopeless, lonely and close
to giving up. Fir Trees in Rows best describes the loneliness.
Fir trees straggle into the distance
I feel day becoming night
There are branches poking at the tiny window
Pushed by some unseen wind
.........
Life only puts off defeat
Extending further and further from simple puppy love
As we learn there's always something unsaid
Before, finally, we give it all up
(from Burton Raffel's translation)
The spirit of freedom is strong throughout his works. He did
not only speak about freedom from colonialism, freedom from
death, etc., but he used a free literary style. He was the first
poet here to abandon the old style of Indonesian poetry, which
emphasized rhyme. His style had freedom. As long as it produced
fine and beautiful poems, he was ready to neglect any principles
of traditional Indonesian poetry. The only principle he followed
was beauty.
In one way of speaking, the spirit of freedom can also be seen
in his work Jesus Christ. It is a different kind of freedom.
Chairil Anwar was a Moslem, but that did not prevent him from
writing a poem about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. To Chairil
Anwar as well as all other founding fathers of the country, such
things as religion, ethnicity and race could not allow them to be
narrow-minded, or allow them to practice group-centeredness.
The poem, dedicated to true Christians, is fine and touching;
no Christian in this country has been able to make a finer one.
This Body
Bleeding
Bleeding
Fallen
Broken
Floats up a question: am I to blame?
I see the bleeding Body
And what I see in the blood is: me.
Reflected brightly in the eye of time
This will change form soon
Close its wounds
I am glad
This Body
bleeding
bleeding
(from Burton Raffel's translation)
Each year, Indonesians commemorate the death of Chairil Anwar
and read his poems from new perspectives. His works will continue
to become a source of inspiration for Indonesians for another
thousand years.