Rendra: When love borders ruin, failure and death

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): Rendra, "The Peacock", strutted out of his socio-political garden to read his collection of love poems this week.

"Amidst the uncertainty over the social, economic and political life nationally and internationally, we need to get back to the essence of our life, that is love... I am not a homo politicus and homo economicus, but a man of culture in the first place," said the poet, who has undergone much hardship -- from imprisonment to having his shows banned for years -- for his candid protests about social ills in the New Order period.

Every Jakartan knows that aside from his struggle for socio- political justice, love stories have markedly colored the life of the man who has married three times.

What is love then for a man who has gone from one love to another?

The hundreds of fans crammed into the Ismail Marzuki Arts Center (TIM) auditorium on the two nights witnessed the king of Indonesian poets illustrate how thousands of words aren't enough to define what love is; and how love shows its beauty, power, and fascination when it borders ruin, failure and death.

Most of the poems he read were tragic. He carefully selected poems from his compositions spanning from high school days to the present -- tracing the history of his life.

Wearing a pair of jeans, a light-brown shirt, Rendra walked to the podium on the bare stage.

After briefly explaining why he was reciting love poetry instead of the protest poems that have earned him the label of justice advocate, he opened with a ballad he wrote in high school, Balada Kasan dan Fatima (The Ballad of Kasan and Fatima), a tragic love story adapted from a local legend.

He followed with Balada Sumilah (Sumilah Ballad), a tragic love story set during the independence war. Sumilah died in sorrow and became an unhappy ghost after being rejected by her freedom fighter boyfriend Samijo, who believed a rumor that she had been raped by a Dutch soldier.

"Belum lagi, belum lagi, demi darahku yang merah, belum lagi (Not yet, not yet, in the name of my red blood, not yet)" Sumilah cried to no avail in front of Samijo, insisting she had managed to escape the Dutchman who had fallen into a well.

Rendra exploited all his acting talent and mimicked Sumilah's cry and Samijo's wrath. An aching silence pervaded throughout the hall.

"The woman fell victim to an unsubstantiated rumor spread society," explained Rendra.

Next, with controlled emotions and gestures, he ushered the audience into reflecting on death with the poem he wrote after visiting the grave of his first lover in Yogyakarta.

"Bunga gugur/ di atas nyawa yang gugur/ gugurlah semua yang bersamanya; Bunga gugur/ di atas tempatmu terkubur/ gugurlah segala ikhwal antara kita; Baiklah kita ihlaskan saja/ Tiada janji kan jumpa di sorga/ karna di sorga tiada kita kan perlu asmara ..."(The flowers fell/ on the fallen soul/ there fell all that had gone along with them; The flowers fell/ on the place you were buried/ there fell all the story between us; Let it go that way/ No pledge to meet in heaven/ since in heaven we need not love story).

He then read poems he wrote after marrying Sunarti Suwandi.

Rendra entered this new phase of life with ebullience, thinking that he had arrived at the peak of love he had anxiously searched for in his youth. But he said as time went by, he became aware that he could not depend on romanticism alone, as he should also feed on his family.

Rendra faced this with optimism. "sepasang pengantin ditelan kehidupan/ mata ke depan/ dan tangan bergandengan (a newly-wed couple have been swallowed by life, eyes to the front, and hand in hand)," he declared in Ranjang Bulan Ranjang Pengantin (Moon Bed Marital Bed).

Rendra later divorced Sunarti, who recently died.

"I dedicate this poem to Sunarti's youngest daughter Clara Shinta, who is celebrating her birthday today," Rendra said.

In his forties, Rendra candidly revealed in a poem his friendship with a Belgian woman, he called MG, in New York during his second-puberty. The woman, he said, even forgot her parents- in-law's names when with him.

The mood became jovial for a while when Rendra read Sajak Joki Tobing untuk Widuri (Poem from Joki Tobing to Widuri), which describes the passion felt by a failed migrant, an unemployed Batak, towards a Javanese girl. Standing in front of his makeshift house on the side of the Ciliwung river, Joki remembers his lover Widuri. Rendra read Joki's sweet memory in a clear Batak accent -- which made the audience explode with laughter.

"Dengan latar belakang gubuk-gubuk kartun/ aku kenang akan wajahmu .../Ciliwung keruh/ wajah-wajah nelayan keruh/ lalu muncullah rambutmu yang berkibaran... (Against the backdrops of cartoon-made huts/ I remember your face ... The polluted Ciliwung/ the distraught faces of fishermen/ then appear your fluttering hair)."

Gaiety pervaded throughout Rick dari Corona (Rick from Corona), a funny poem telling of a New York's drunkard, Rick, desperately seeking a woman called Betsy. Rendra acted like a drunkard.

One of the most touching ballads he read was titled Nyanyian Adinda untuk Saijah (Adinda's Song for Saijah). It was picked up from the Rangkas Bitung poem collection, which he read at his latest controversial poem-reading at the same venue in 1991. In the poem, Rendra revives characters, Saijah and Adinda, in the 19th century novel Max Havelaar by Multatuli. Their love ends tragically because of Dutch violence.

Rendra places them in the present. Adinda wants to follow her lover Saijah to Sumatra but has no money. A man who first treats her fatherly, proposes to cover her travel expense. The innocent young girl, unaware that the man is a pimp, gladly accepts his kind gesture. The man rapes her in Tangerang on the way to Sumatra and dumps her in a brothel. She ends up in a scummy bordello in Bongkaran, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, "....menghibur para lelaki kumuh/ yang pura-pura lupa kemiskinan (soothing the dirty men/ who pretend to forget poverty"

"...Akang/ Aku telah berdosa/ tanpa daya menodai cinta ...(My Dear/ I have committed sin/ powerlessly tainting love," Adinda laments.