Writer Inandiak mirrors the Javanese tradition

Kunang Helmi-Picard, Contributor, Paris

When Elizabeth Inandiak received the 2003 Literary Prize for Asia in March for her translation and adaptation of the early 19th century Javanese tale Serat Centhini, she was thankful that her parents were on hand.

For her book Les Chants de l'Ile a dormir debout -- Le Livre de Centhini, published in late 2002, mirrors the essence of all things Javanese -- a world far removed from her beautiful hometown of Lyon.

"The award ceremony was all the more exciting for me because my aged parents attended the ceremony," Inandiak said about her award from the Association of Writers in the French language.

"They have never understood what Java and my work was about since Indonesia is so far removed from the sphere of their world based in Lyon. I am the seventh generation of a family that has always been based there."

Centhini dates back to 1815, when this immense compendium of hermetic knowledge in the form of a suluk (mystic poem) was inspired by crown prince Anom Amengkunagara III of the Surakarta royal palace. Under the auspices of the royal patron and future sultan Paku Buwono V, the court scholars Yasadipura II and Rangga Sutrasna began to compose the 4,000 pages distributed in 12 volumes in the true spirit of the Surakarta classical literary renaissance prevalent at the time.

The encyclopedic work encompasses art, music, divination and erotic knowledge, together with religious speculation and mysticism. It is enrichened by expressions, verses and allusions in Sanskrit, Arabic and Kawi (ancient Javanese).

The main storyline follows the experiences of santri, students of Islam who travel from one rural pesantren (Islamic boarding school) to the other, testing each other's skill in unraveling puzzles and religious conundrums. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, these wandering students were a feature of Javanese society, and while in the Serat Centhini some of these were also of royal blood seeking enlightenment, they are all suffused by Islamic sufi mysticism.

Inandiak lives with her teenage Javanese-French daughter Diorita in a quiet village in the midst of verdant rice-fields near Yogyakarta, under the shadow of Mt. Merapi. Their lives are steeped in Javanese customs. She speaks remarkable Indonesian, exquisitely tinged by Javanese expression.

Mahabharata and Ramayana legends still resonate on certain nights in wayang (leather puppet) shows. Of the twin dalang (puppet masters) in the village, one recently passed away.

Since the eruption of Merapi volcano on Nov. 22, 1994, she has taken part each year in the procession which sets out from Kinahrejo to climb up the mountain to perform the traditional offerings to the volcano. The procession is led by mbah Marijan, a man considered to be the mystical gatekeeper of the volcano. She is often accompanied on these pilgrimages by her friend Augustina Ismurjilah who works in the Yogyakarta palace.

Central Java slowly and gently entranced this daughter of Lyon, the third largest French city situated on the river Rhone in the center of the country, from her first visit in 1988. Already a noted writer, she wrote for French publications such as Actuel, as well as writing film scripts and doing radio work.

Inandiak feels an enormous debt toward Java, the source and inspiration for much of her recent work. For the past 10 years, she has been involved in finding people to help her translate some Javanese legends or folk stories, all in the various contemporary and more ancient forms of the Javanese language. She first discovered the five-page-long notes on the epic poem in famous French historian Denys Lombard's pivotal work on Le Carrefour Javanais (The Javanese Crossroads).

Thanks to the Centhini Foundation created by Haji Karkono Kamajaya, the 12 volumes in Javanese script had already been transcribed into Latin script. However, only the first volumes were translated into bahasa Indonesia by Balai Pustaka in the 1990s.

The epic, which is also sung or chanted, is based upon the peregrinations of three siblings, two princes and one princess who flee the invader Sultan Agung in 1635. This invasion of the kingdom of Giri is based on actual fact. Their father, old Sunan Prapen of Giri, is imprisoned by Sultan Agung of Mataram, who latter succeeded in subduing most of Java by the early 17th century.

Inandiak's interest was aroused, but she was also aware that the translation would take years and needed funding.

Help was at hand. The then French ambassador to Indonesia Thierry de Beauce heard of a mystical medicinal and magical plant from her. The wijayakusuma is said to bloom only at midnight, while releasing a divine fragrance, only to fade away. It grows on a floating island off the south coast of Java.

This flower appears in the last canto of Serat Centhini, where Amongraga and his wife are transformed into two worms to be grilled by Sultan Agung and are then placed into the calyx of the magic flower, ready to be eaten. After Inandiak explained about Serat Centhini, comparable to the Greek epic Odyssey, de Beauce set about finding official funds for her to translate the poem into French.

"The poem is actually the collective memory of 120 million Javanese, in extravagant, eccentric and meandering 12 volumes of verse. Although the original manuscript has vanished and only transcripts exist, there is hardly anyone able to read them as the use of literary Javanese has all but vanished," she said.

It seems that Serat Centhini is secretly narrated by Centhini, servant of Tambangraras, the wife of the main character, but in fact it is the mystical voice of Tambangraras (the official title of the work is Suluk Tambangraras). Extracts of the epic poem itself were often sung by a pesinden (traditional Javanese female singer). In 1850, 40 years after being assembled, the seventh Sunan of Surakarta offered volumes five through nine, to the Queen of the Netherlands."

The writer went on to explain how she worked for more than five years on Centhini because for at least two years she first had to translate about 1,000 pages into Indonesian with the help of Sunaryati Sutanto who is affiliated with the Surakarta court. Then Inandiak painstakingly translated it into French, occasionally helped by her close friend Augustina. She always performed the appropriate Javanese ceremonies to ask for permission to touch the original verses.

The beauty of the poem is not merely in its words, but in its music, songs and alliteration, therefore she was inspired to rewrite everything anew in French, especially for an audience who was not familiar with Javanese mythology.

"I rearticulated the story, even introducing some verse from Victor Hugo into the mouth of Tambangraras, because for me, he is very Javanese and the name Tambangraras which is derived from tembang (song) and raras (harmonious) is the incarnation of poetry," she said. "I then filtered it down to 400 pages after recomposing it. Further back in history, Rabelais (the 16th century French satirist) was also of help to me as his poetry and lust for life and enjoyment mirrored the epicurean aspects of the poem."

Her poetic license added new perspectives to some of the characters. Amongraga and his wife spent 40 nights after their wedding without making love. Every night Amongraga gave Tambangraras spiritual teachings, accompanied by many pages of obscure spiritual knowledge.

Inandiak rewrote this, adding teachings from other mystical and Sufi literature from the Middle East; Tambangraras is more self-assured and answers back. Amongraga must leave after their marriage is finally consummated as he has to continue on his eternal quest for the truth and to find his other two siblings.

Inandiak has been invited to present her adaptation of Centhini to the public of the International Literary Festival in Barcelona in September of this year, with Javanese dance star Didik Nini Thowok dancing the various roles.

Inandiak has truly captured the ancient and eternal soul of Java with her sensitivity, intuition and poetry in French. Now, when may we enjoy a translation of the adapted poem into Indonesian?