Originaly published as Gisdah by Goaftiperrs O1975by Danarto
metafor
JI. Cempaka Putih Barat LIL na 294 Jakarta 10520, Indonesia email [email protected] Ivtp:/ /xwwmetaforpablishing.com (Ph, 462-21-42800516 Fax. 162-21-42800815
Fiot pubilahed ic 1978 by Heinemunn Educational Book (Asia) kid. 01078 by Harry Aveling. O tenewed 2001 by Metufor Publishing AMI rights reserved. Published 2001 Prota in Indonesia
Ibook ext and ihwsrarion by Mahurnumat Roviyudi Vignete 01 page 13 for Row by Damara Photographs O 2001 by Sinarus rom Zumma Press
"The publisher has generously been given permission to use cxtended rotation from Modern Indonesia Literature II by A. Tecuw, O1979 by A. Tecow. Reprinted by permi
1009 08 07 06 0504030201 W987654321
National Library of Indonesia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Danarto Abvucndabes / Dania — Jakata » MeestorPubikebing. 2001 ui, 1G?him. 4 25 cm.
ISBN 70.019.026
1 Judul,
ConTeNtS
INTrodUctiOn 1x
NotEs tO 4He INTrodUctiOn xvi
ixKnowLaDgeMenT aviti
AutObioGRaphy ix
gOdLoB 1
FINERIK 11
PLAY wiThIN A Play sa
LoVE cHarM 81
ArmaGeDYOn 18
NoSTaLgiA 80
labvrinTH 108
25MaradAnA 121
ABRIADPAbrA 145
NotEs 40 tHe ShoRT Storifs 161
abOuT thE TrArslatOr 162 iNTrodUctiOn
TO ADAPT an Indonesian proverb: “If Pramoedya Ananta Toer is our right eye, then Danarto is Gur left”. Both are crucial toa proper reading of contemporary Indonesian prose. Both are very different in what they have written about and how they
have written. Bora in East Java in 1925, Pramoedya has studied and written about all the major themes of Indonesian nationhood, many of which he has directly experienced himself. His first novel, Perburuan (The Fugitive, 1950) was written while he was a prisoner of war during the Indonesian Revolution. It tolls the story of a failed local rebellion against the Japanese Armed Forces at the very end of the Second World War. His other early works include Keluarga Gerilya (The Family of a Guerilla, 1950) and Cerita dari Blora (Stories from Blora, 1952). Cerita dari Blora is a series of stories about himself and of other individuals living in the poor coastal region where he was raised. Keluarga Gerilya is an epic work that describes the sufferings of one family during three days of the Indonesian Revolution. Both works champion the ideals for which the Revolution was fought, in particular social justice and the desire for a decent living standard for ordinaty people, His works of the fifties suggest that these ideals were immediately betrayed by the new Republic, Bukan Pasar Malam (No Night Carnival, 1951) is typical of this rapid disillusionment at the petty struggles for political power and the widespread poverty which followed the end of the armed struggle for independence from Dutch colonialism, A later work, Gadis Pantai (The Girl from the Coast, 1962-5), also develops an extended criticism of the deeply degrading exploitation of the common people. In this work, the blame for this situation is directed towards the feudal social elite and
the religious leaders of Java.
t to the literary left rote a series of he Indonesian y twentieth century. Tramoedya's political commitmen Yuring the “Guided Democracy" period of High Sukaraoism (1959-1965), led to his imprisonment in 1966 by the “New Order” government of President Suharto. On the island of Buru where he was detained until 1979, he w four novels that dealt with the rise of £ natlonalist movement during the carl Despite the distant time frame employed, the novels have been sen by many as part of the struggle to maintain the integrity of his vision of a just and independent Indonesia against the materialism and authoritarianism of the New Order regime. P'ramoedya's work falls, from the very the realist tradition. The plots are clear €haracters are recognisable individuals. The: defined secular world, His them the twenticth century: modernit freedom. The works have been long admired in Indonesia" Hlthough banned under Suharto, and extensively praised by foreign critics. The Dutch professor A. Tecuw consideww Pramoedya “Indonesia's greate: Critic Anthony Johns, has stated: teller is superb: his style is cha
beginning, into and simple. His y live ina clearly es are the grand themes of y, nationalism, and human st modern prose-writer”! "his technigue as a story. racterised by a striking atmosphere immediacy, and he has a unigue power to create an of intense emotional stress when he confront, his human characters with the (to him) profoundest problems of the condition” Perhaps as a conseguence of the powe and the accessibility of his work, Pramo @xtensively translated into English, Dutch, and Chinese for almost four decades. After the isolated
1 Of his writing cdya has been French, Russian #pecialised Publication of a few translations of various short stories, in academic journals, including “No Night Curnival" in 1973", Perburuan was translated into English as The Fugitine in 1975". A selection of stories from his Gerita ari Blora, together with a different translation of “No Night Carnival”, Heap appeared in the same year under the title or A of Ashes."
OA AI
It was, however, the translations of his hetakarkn 2 Buru brought him to the attention of readers Worldan 2. - cognised the status of Pramoedya as a “prisoner Of an once which Amnesty International hadi argusd for two 2 s. The first of the so-called “Buru “Buru Ouartet", SA was published in an English eraralaign by Ma Ha ind, and the rest c € 1981 as This Earth of Mankind, 3 ba na foteneg over the next ten years". Pramoedya's prtaon Pterbooke, Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu- (The Mute”s seti guy, 1995-7), were published in New Hn 3) Hah ran sang 1 e «form in Dutch. , hat earlier, in a more extensive an knerikan translation of Cerita dari Jakarta (Stories oa Bait 1963) also appeared and was almost immediately hed in Jakarta."
2 dear Kiremcan social theorist Fredric Lamb Lor Say / over-generalised essay, “Third-wof in an self-admittedly over-gene: essay, “Tird-world « Era of Multinational Capitalism”, that ory of the priva' tiny is always the allegor ory ol the private individual des the al an Rertaa situation of the public third-world me) and s0ciety.””, Pramovdya's determinedly demoeratic sa. si Sa 8 prison, have led to an his lengthy perlods in prison, Sapa tab Ta blurbs to the English translations of the Buru yaa have it, that Pramoedya is ema PLS GAN voice of conscience and the cham| 2 is Da Aan EN a pepremivaPodemoeratie govemment In lm son of his literary achievement and peraonal courage throughout his interment, Tramosdya atalued 5 rous public honours at # he end of this decade, de Banana ia Europe, Japan, The Phillppines and the Unites
Tea his being Indonesian, Pramoedya Haag Hina English reader, s0 to speak, "already read bgt 3, known literary and political categoies, which sot Wim in heroic relief against a regime of which one Jaa disapproves and'a society of which it is not necessary know a great deal
Danarto in English translation has none of the advantages @fPramoedya. He has not been a political activist. Heis nota tealist, The book offered here is alien in the extreme and cannot be pre-read. It reguires a certain determination to understandi what Danarto is doing because his work is emphatically nonrealis, set in the realm of culturally specific fantasy, The rewards, it must be immediately added, for making this effort, are enormous. Abracadubra is translation of Danarto's first collection ot'short stories, Godlob, originally published in 1975. They Tepresent the foundation of his later development and are, in my opinion, his work in its purest and best form. The #tories defy western logic and morality. The Indonesian social scientist Arief Budiman has described Danarto's work as apparenUy written “in a state of trance, and not in a fully sonscious condition in which he was in control of himself and aware of the direction in which he was Proceeding,"» They reject the violent social order that has prevsiled pretty much throughout Danarto's life, Danarto was born in Sragen, central Java, in 1940, and the horrors of the Japanese Oceupation and the Revolution made a deep impression on him as a child, as the "Autoblography" specially prepared for this particular volume bear witncss, The impact on him Of the violence of the massacre of the Communist Party of Indonesia in late 1965 - early 1966 was egually profound. The Indonesian poet Abdul Hadi has applauded Danarto for "successfully finding a new language to express the mystical thoughts and fcelings of a human being in revolt against an #xisting order of values, and struggling to enter a new set of values,” Like Arief Budiman, Abdul Hadi also argues that Danarto depicts his inner experiences in a manner that is "profoundly cinematlc, forceful, horrifying, properly confused, and surrealistic,” The stories are profoundly religious, in a rather unorthodox way. Danarto himself has claimed that the starting-point for all his creative work is pantheism, the @octrine that all nature is pervaded by God and that we can all become God," There is a certain ambivalence in his
writing about the actual existence of God, but a he notes in #Asmaradana”, " even if i God does no! t exist, He can can 8 ti Paresivad of as thc highest poesible stage of the evolutionary cess. Pane soul, possibly, evolves: Danarto asserts th in one Charm", it at the same time , “Love Charm", and also denies it at the Noives (rom mineral to vegetable life, then into umanity, i rebirths. In this sense, “anim fter countless births and rebirth ase, "an Pn total, planta re eternal"22 Tha goal is, however, 10 pass ttom human lite into complete absorption ito God, or i af the moyang . as happens to the legendary figure " Ita cats Abimanyu in “Nostalgia” and the pregnant bepgar woman in “Love Charm”. Thus, the groates Indisidual is the person who can “completely vanish fram history." These apparently Hindu ideas were long ago in one
k
accopted into the indigenous Javanese Dewe ape Ina be arguably found in the work war! of the great Musl An Neon on logtn Iba AkArabi, Certainiy thereate wany relerences in Abracadabra to a belief in Allah and F is rophets, beginning with Adam and passing down dhtough Ktaham, Moses, Jesus and others down to the last an test prophet, Muhammad ni Ba as Tantasies, the stories have all the concrete ceng, violence, obscenity, strange assoclatlons and childishness that one axsociates with dreams, The characters, sometimes: are figures that Indonesian readers might just be expected to recognise. Some, like Abimanyu, are part of ihe Javanese shadow theatre, which has derived its stories and major haracters from , the Indian complex comp. of legends, Mahabharata. Others, such as Bekakrakan and the benutiul but eruel mother of "Armageddon", and “Rintrik” of the story which here bears her name, are his oven creation bu resemble nevertheless figures of Indonesian and Malay folklore. Still others derive from non-lndonesian literary sources. Salome Sweetseventeen, in “Asmaradana” come from the biblical tradition. Ahasveros, the Wandering Je , cursed to travel the worid and never die because he refusec to help Christ on the journey to the erucifixion, who is the central character in “Labyrinth", comes from medieval Buropean legend, In two stories, “Play Within A Play" and “Abracadabra", there are even characters from Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, drawn from Danarto's reading of the Indonesian translation by Trisno Sumarjo, first published in 1950. Danarto takes these characters and weaves new stories around them, covering the gaps not dealt with in the original storles. For English readers, even the small bits of familiarity they can grasp are still condemned to change shape and vanish, Most of the characters, in fact, die cruel deaths. Some die in war, The terrible logic of war reguires that a man be dead before he can be considered a hero, This, as a number of stories (including the first, “Godlob") shows, isa logic that men can aecept and women cannot. In Danarto's stories, the men are force and cruel, The women are gentle and loving, and egually condemned to suffer. The gender stercotypes are no longer ones which readers readily accept, but neither are they consistently applied, Virtually all of the characters reveal the purpose of their lives through their strange origins and harsh deaths, This too Isa profoundIy Javanese concern, The scholar Mangkoenegoro has written: “What is finer or more ennobling than to share in the deep longing of the hero fora final answer to the problem of his origin ... who has no rest until he finds it... This longing for knowledge of his origin is identical with the longing to understand the final purpose of his destiny. It is from this situation that the two-fold concept sangkan-paran, 'whence and whither', derives.”'" The final goal of the guest of the various €haracters in these short stories lies within their own heart Onee they discover who they really are, they unite with God and vanish forever. Danarto's work changed the whole path of Indonesian literature, moving it completely away from the conventions Which bath Indonesian and European readers have been comfortable. The dean of translators of Indonesian literature wrote In the American literary magazine, The Denver Ouarterly, that
BEN sni
Danarto opens a completely new path in Indonesian literature. He makes, and re-makes his world: it is an inside-out presentation, a projection moulded out of interior concern, Ani yet it is also dramatic, the stories move and even lcap, and we are moved when they are done. More than moved: we are sometimes shaken, even trembling, s0 forcefully has Danarto impinged on us, with his singular, perhaps not ane perception. AN ena of Indonesian literature,
's work marks a great step.
Lan eng ka are off now, all linkages are irrelevant. From this point on, it must be recognised that Indonesian fiction stands wholly and proudly on its own two feet.
diction has praven absolutely true over the Past etion o! This pr ed the complete dir 0 decades, Danarto has charged the comp | nation itseli, unless we also use the eye with whic € ovides us, 4 ta
3 A final comment Is perhaps approprlate na Kah - or's eyes. The eyes f Pramoedya and Danarto are men y 1 Bone ian women are to be found in the newest yag that of Ayu Utami, Dewi Lestari and Dorothea Rasa Her! EA richness of the Indonesian vision v con ontinues to ex SA to challenge the reader who would truly know this country and its culture,
Harry Aveling
NotEs tO tHe iNTrodUctiOn 1 Ibid.
3 A. Tecuw: Modern Indonesian Literature, Nijhoff, The Hague 1967, p.179. 2 A.H. Johns: "Pramudya Ananta Tur: The Writer as Outsider”, Mamin, 1963, part 2, p. 454. 2 "Trans, C. W. Watson: ('s Not an ANI Night Carnival” Indonesia, No.14, April 1973 4 Trans, Harry Aveling: The Fugitioe, Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), Hong Kong 1975. 3 Trans, Marry Aveling: A Hop of Ashes, Univesity of Gueensland Press, St Lucia 1975, 7 Willern Samels: The Mutes Soliloguy, Hyperion Press, New York 1999. $ Eid. B, R O'G Anderson et al: Stories from Jakarta, Modem Indonesian Studies Program, Cornell University, Ithaca N.Y. 1989. Republished by Egutnox Publishers, Jakarta 2000. “ F. Jameson: “Third-world literature in the Era of Multinational. Capitalisn', first published in Social Text, no, 15, 1986, pp. 57-95. Reprinted in (ed) M. Hardt and K. Weeks: The Jameson Roader, Blackwell, Oxford 2000, pp. 315-339. The guotation is from page 320 of the later edition. 11 “Hadiah Horison 1996/1967 dan 1968”, Horison, April 1969, p 102. 13 "Kronik Kebudayaan”, Horison, January 1973, p. 30.
8 “This Barth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footstep, and Honse of Giass. On these translations see Alison Bronoiwski: "Desperately 'Appreciating Pramoedya”. Island, Summer 1992, pp. 4042.
11 "Bahasa sebagai alat pengucapan kesusasteraan”, Horison, May-June 1973, p. 176
W wpenulis Ceritapendek”. Sinar Harapan, 25 September 1975.
15 Cited in A. H. Johns: The Gift Addressed to Ihe Spirit of” He Propet, Oriental Monograph Series No. 1, Centre of Oriental Studivs, Australian National University, Canberra, no date, pp. 19-20.
16 Introduction to “Abracadabra”, Denver Ouarterly, Spring 1979, pl acKNowLeDgeMenT
ABRACADABRA was first published by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), Hong Kong, in 1978. The Introduction to the present volume is a reworked version of the original introduction and includes parts of an article entitled “Desperately Translating Pramoedya”, New Straits Times, 19 May 2001.
1 AutObioGRaphy
FINALLY, a young man, who had taught himself, s0 he could! understand everything around him, stopped editing children's magazines forever. As a child he had not been very clever, he was weak in arithmetic, but had some skill In drawing, and this perhaps brought him closer to his playmates, because he was a very shy person, his family were ordinary people, labourers in a sugar factory—it still excited him to think of the times he and his friends had stolen sugarcane from the carts drawn by pairs of cows, of dancing conga-lines and singing “God is nearer than the veins Of aur necks." How far he had to go, how many memories had to be cxpunged before he could begin life again, he had alrcady
had twenty years to understand everything, half of that had been passed in ebb and flow, was even topsy-turvy, was meaningless, this was very important, it taught him a lesson, he could and must dominate himself, because the goal Of all things is "work", s0 he never moved very far away from actual reality and necessity. When he was a child he saw, during the colonial period, an excessive amount of cruelty and blood, guerrillas w tortured and killed in the room next to his bedroom, his own short stories startle him when he reads them, there is one shadow he can never escape: his stories always stink of blood. This may be an expression of his own immaturity or an accurate picture of the age. Certainly he writes because that was how things were. He often sees his childhood when he returns to his village, scene of cruelty. He is bound to his past. Once, when he was a baby, he felt that he could feel nothing, perhaps he was 'dead', he could sec his mother crying and his father frowning, of course they both thought