Sapardi's simplicity captures audience

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.