Sapardi's simplicity captures audience
By Johannes Simbolon
JAKARTA (JP): I want to love you the simple way/with the words the wood had no time to say/to the fire which turned it into ash/I want to love you the simple way/with the signs the cloud had no time to give/to the rain which turned it into nothing
This is the poem Aku Ingin (I Want) which Sapardi Djoko Damono read during a poetry night featuring his poems last Thursday evening in the TIM's Graha Bhakti Budaya auditorium.
It is one of his most famous and finest works. It was adapted in 1989 into the lyrics of a theme song in Garin Nugroho's award- winning film Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti (Love in a Piece of Bread).
As the poem itself, Sapardi, Dean of the School of Letters at the University of Indonesia, also sought for simplicity on stage that night.
He wore a long-sleeve vertically striped shirt, the one he usually wears on formal occasions; and a light brown jacket which looked pale under the beam of light.
He read his poems quietly as if he spoke to himself. No roars or thunders pitched his voice.
Sapardi was assisted by current and former students, experienced in stage performance. They were AGS Arya Dipayana, a stage director and writer; Dindon W.S., also a stage director; Tri Fajar Marhaeni Dewi, winner of several poetry reading contests; and Maudy Koesnaedi, who starred in the popular TV series Si Doel Anak Sekolahan (Doel, the Student).
The four made the event more spirited and lively.
Had the show only presented poetry reading, it would have been boring to the audience packed in the auditorium. In fact, they were amused, and now and then clapped their hands. Sapardi managed to make the one-night show entertaining by combining the poetry reading with musical and dance performances. If anything, the main attraction of the show was the musical presentation of the poems.
The musicians, also Sapardi's current and former students, were sitting on the foreground of the stage while Sapardi and his co-readers on the rear of the stage. The position indicated who were to play the prime role in the show.
After every two or three poems were read, Tatiana, Ari Malibu, Reda and Layla Safira broke the silence singing the poems in a very melodious way. The accompanying music was composed by Umar Muslim as well as Budiman Hakim, AGS Arya Dipayana and Ari Malibu.
The music, in folk-ballad style, was to fit in the mood of Sapardi's poems. It indeed brought sudden intensity to the quietness and peacefulness of his poetry.
In the middle of the show, a presentation of an erotic dance, choreographed by Frank Rorimpandey, took the audience by surprise. It was a means of interpretation of Sapardi's poem Setelah Suara Gemuruh Itu (After the Sound of Thunder).
After the sound of thunder I could see only/your naked body/ your loosened hair floating atop/the clear and smoothly flowing water/you didn't answer my call.
Quiet
Born in Solo, Central Java, on March 20, 1940, Sapardi writes poetry since childhood. Regarded as one of Indonesia's foremost and most productive poets, his poetry collection includes DukaMu Abadi (Your Eternal Sorrow) in 1969, Mata Pisau (Blade) and Akuarium (Aquarium) in 1974, Perahu Kertas (Paper Boat) in 1983, Sihir Hujan (Rain Spell) in 1984, and Hujan Bulan Juni (Rain in June) in 1995.
His poems have been translated into several languages and in 1986 he received the SEA-Write Award for poetry.
Sapardi is not a controversial man. He follows what seems to be a straight course in life. After gaining a degree in English literature from the Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, he pursued a teaching career, which earned him a doctoral degree from the University of Indonesia and the top position in the School of Letters at the same university.
Such is Sapardi's life. A quiet life. He whiles away his days by reading books, making analysis, reflections, and meeting young people at classrooms, who are at the age when people are preoccupied with dreaming and enjoyment of life.
This quiet life is mirrored in his poetry; as is, in comparison, Rendra's bohemian and tumultuous life reflected in his socio-political protest poems.
If Rendra is influenced by his plentiful experiences with the authorities and low class people, including prostitutes and pickpockets; Sapardi is, among others, influenced by his students, by their dreams, love stories, and perhaps their "simple" perception of world.
He composed a number of love poems, which brilliantly describe the sweetness of love. One of the poems is the above quoted Aku Ingin. Noting the intensity of the feelings expressed in the poem, people might think that it was written by a young poet. Did Sapardi write it in an earlier period, probably when he fell in love? No. He wrote it at the age of 49. What makes Sapardi, despite his age, still capable to understand the tremors of the youth? It is probably because as a university teacher, he meets a lot of them every day, and observes how they fall in love with each other.
Like young people around him, Sapardi also tends to avoid the complexity of the world. He searches for inspiration from such ordinary things like rain, a blade, a pair of old shoes, light bulb, etc. Unlike ordinary people, however, he dwells on them and with a literary instinct questions the "hidden" issues behind the concrete things. Thus, what looks ordinary in daily life becomes "extraordinary" in his poems.
Read for example his poem Sepasang Sepatu Tua (A Pair of Old Shoes).
A dusty old pair shoes lay sprawled in the corner of a storeroom/The left one thought back on softened asphalt/ the right one a muddy road after the rain/both had fallen in love with that pair of feet/The left one assumed that in the morning they would be taken off the rubbish pile and burnt along with a bundle of love letters/the right one thought that they would be thrown on the garbage truck and dumped out and left to rot with food scrapings/an old pair of shoes lay whispering about something only the two of them could understand.
Sometimes he surprises the readers by discovering something which is ordinary but everyone has failed to see. Look at, for example, his poem Berjalan ke Barat di Pagi Hari (Walking Westward in the Morning).
Walking westward in the morning the sun follows from behind/I walk following my drawn out shadow before me/the sun and I don't argue about which one of us creates the shadows/the shadows and I don't argue about which of us must lead the way
The above poem is very famous and many young people have learned it by heart.
By focusing on ordinary things, Sapardi seems willing to challenge people's awareness of their daily life. He shows how daily life stores many secrets, stories, and, above all, beauty, which we probably fail to see; how it is not as boring as many people think.
In language, Sapardi also avoids complexity. There are no words or lines which are too difficult to understand. He uses "simple" words and grammar. The beauty of his poems lie in his ability to choose the right words and lines.
Sapardi acknowledges that the strength of his poems lie in language.
"Poets are people who master a language well and are thus able to arrange their thoughts concisely... Poets and literary works which survive to the present day are those which use Indonesian language well," he told Gatra magazine.
Sapardi is not Rendra or any of the other poets, who through their socio-political protest manage to burn people's heart. He offers a different perspective through which people see their world and themselves in a quiet, simple and peaceful way.
Probably, Sapardi is right in seeing life in its simplicity.
Notes: Except for Aku Ingin, which is translated into English by the writer, the English translations of the rest of the poems are taken from Suddenly the Night published by Yayasan Lontar. The translation was done by John H. McGlynn.