Rendra: When love borders ruin, failure and death

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.