VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 63 CHAIRIL ANWAR: THE POET AND HlS LANGUAGE BOBN S. OBMARJATI THB HAGUB - MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1972 CHAIRIL ANWAR So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years - Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entTe deux guerres - Trying to leam to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure Because one has only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the genera! mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion ............................. (T. S. Eliot, East CokeT V) To my parents as a partial instalment in return for their devotion To 'MB' with love and in gratitude for sharing serenity and true friendship with me VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR T AAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 63 CHAIRIL ANWAR: THE POET AND HlS LANGUAGE BOEN S. OEMARJATI THE HAGUE - MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1972 I.S.B.N.90.247.1508.3 T ABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII PREF ACE IX INTRODUCTION . XIII 1. The Japanese Occupation: The Break with the Past XIII 2. The Situation respecting the Indonesian Language . XIV 3. The Situ at ion in respect of Indonesian Literature XVI 4. Biographical Data . XX LIST OF ABBREVIA TIONS AND SYMBOLS . XXVII CHAPTER I: LANGUAGE AND POE TRY 1. Prologue A. Aspects of Presentation 1. The TitIe. 1 2. The Dedication. 2 3. The Date. 2 4. The Punctuation 2 5. The Use of Capitals . 3 R~~~As~. 4 1. Final Rhyme 4 2. Stanza. 5 3. Verse Structure . 6 4. Phonaesthetical Aspects 7 5. Other Aesthetical Aspects 8 C. Linguistic Analysis. 8 1. Preliminary Remarks . 8 2. The Analysis. 10 2. The Poems Selected for Analysis 17 3. Preliminary Remarks on Indonesian Syntax and Morphology 19 3.1. Main Sentence Structures in BI. .. 19 1. Sentenee Constructions Consisting of Three Elements 20 A. The Agent-Directed Construction . 20 R The Patient-Directed Construction 21 VI CHAIRIL ANWAR 11. Sentence Constructions Consisting of Two Elements 23 A. The Equational Sentence Construction . 23 B. Other Types of Sentence Construction 23 3.2. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs with me- . 23 A. Transitive Verbs . 24 B. Intransitive Verbs 25 CHAPTER 11: ANALYSIS OF THE POEMS. 27 1. Diponegoro. 27 2. Kupu Malam dan Biniku . 39 3. Kenangan 44 4. Hampa. 53 5. Dimesdjid 59 6. 1943. 63 7. Isa 68 8. Kepada Pelukis Affandi 75 9. Sendja di Pelabuhan Ketjil . 81 10. Puntjak . 88 11. Alm Berkisar Antara Mereka 94 12. Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus 103 13. Derai-Derai Tjemara . 107 CHAPTER 111: CHAIRIL ANWAR'S LANGUAGE 111 1. Preliminary Remarks . 111 2. Morphological Multivalence. 119 2.1. Ke-an Forms derived from Adjectives and the Nominal Use of Adjectives. 119 2.2. Me- Forms . 122 3. Poetic Licence as a Souree of Ambiguity. 127 3.1. The Use of the Demonstratives ini and itu . 127 3.2. The Omission of jang 129 4. Colloquialism. 130 5. Epilogue 132 NOTES . 139 APPENDIX. 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 155 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was during a two weeks' visit to the University of Leiden in August/September 1969 on a grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Education and Sciences that the idea of writing the present hook was first put forward. A short period of intensive research at the Wason Collection section of the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, New Vork, in September 1969, which was made possible by a grant from the South­ east Asia Program of Cornell University, provided me with valuable material for pursuing this work. All this would not have been possible, however, had I not been granted a two years' scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (October 1968-0ctober 1970) to study modern German literature at the Eberhard-Karl University in Tübingen. It was with their generous permission that 1 was able to resume and complete my studies at the University of Leiden with the writing of this hook, for which the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Nether­ lands kindly made a scholarship available. 1 cannot hope to express sufficiently my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have made it possible for me to write this book. But 1 do want to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Hans-Georg Kemper (Tübingen), who encouraged me to carry through the idea despite numerous obstacles; to Prof. John M. Echois, whose modest suggestions and kind words of advice guided me in my research while at Cornell U niversity; to the Dean of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Indonesia for granting me leave of absence; to Drs. H. B. Jassin for sharing so much of his indispensabie knowledge with me; and last but not least to the Netherlands Ministry of Education and Sciences whose generosity made possible the completion of my study in Leiden and the publication of the present hook. 1 am indebted to all those who assisted and encouraged me in the writing of this book in various ways, by providing me with material and other information, by discussing the subject matter with me, and by listening to and not being bored by the problerns involved in this study. But most especially 1 would like to express my sincere gratitude to those members of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Leiden - whose names must remain anonymous in accordance with VIII CHAIRIL ANWAR the traditions of this university - who freely gave their time, encourage­ ment and inspiration, and invaluabIe advice and information throughout this lengthy and of ten laborious undertaking. I am grateful to various members of the staff of the Koninklijk Instituut voor T aal-, Land- en Volkenkunde for their most generous assistance in the completion of the hook, especially to Miss M. J. L. van Yperen E.A., who patiently and willingly went through the entire manuscript, smoothing out a great numher of errors and inconsistencies, and to the management and staff of Drukkerij en Uitgeverij Smits, The Hague, for the patience and efficiency with which they carried out the task of presenting this hook in its final form. As a final acknowledgement, we hope that this book will he accepted by Hapsah as a contribution toward the understanding of the poetry of her late poet-husband. University of Leyden, November 1972 Boen S. Oemarjati PREFACE In general it can he said that the ordinary reader in his intuitive reading and understanding of a poem does not distinguish the various aspects wruch together make up the total message of the poem. In a scholarly analysis, however, we have to take due account of these various aspects. Weneed a thorough knowledge of the language used by the poet, its phonemic and grammatical structure, and its vocabulary; we have to he aware of the writing conventions 1 of the language in question; and finally, we have to take into account the specific con­ ventions and characteristics of poetry written in this language. Attempts to descrihe and analyse Bahasa Indonesia as used in poetry so far have been few in numher and, moreover, not very successful. Although some studies, e.g. those by Slametmuljana (1951; 1954; 1956), Junus (1965; 1968; 1970), and Nababan (1966), may he mentioned in this respect most of them lack both the theoretical foundations 2 and the thoroughness and scientific consistency necessary in dealing with the various aspects involved in the language of poetry (see e.g. Teeuw, 1953 and 1955, on Slametmuljana's 1951 and 1954, respectively). The aim of the present study is to make a linguistic analysis of Chairil Anwar's poetry and to reveal the poet's specific treatment of his language. We have chosen Chairil Anwar for this study because he is generally acknowledged as the forerunner and most important representative of modern Indonesian poetry (Braasem, 1954:43; Jassin, 31968; Teeuw, 1967). By focusing the analysis on the linguistic aspects of his poetic language, this study aims to bring into prominence the characteristic qualities of both the poet and his poetry. I t i~ hoped that this linguistic approach will provide a basis for further interpretation and evaluation of Chairil Anwar as a poet in particular, as weIl as presenting relevant material and opening up some new lines of inquiry for a further study of poetic usage in Bahasa Indonesia in general. Chairil Anwar's poetry was originally published in three volumes: Deru Tjampur Debu (Noise Mixed with Dust, 1949), jointly published by Pembangunan and Djambatan; Kerikil Tadjam dan Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus (Sharp Gravel and The Ravaged and The Broken, x CHAIRIL ANWAR 1949), I.e. two collections combined into one volume, published by Pustaka Rakjat; and Tiga Menguak Takdir 3, published by Balai Pustaka in 1950. In the last-mentioned, ten poems 4 by Chairil Anwar appear together with poems by Asrul Sani and Rivai Apin. However, only one of them had not been published previously in either of the two earlier collections 5. In Jassin's excellent study, Chairil Anwar Pelopor Ang­ katan 45 (Chairil Anwar, A Pioneer of the Generation of 1945), publish­ ed by Gunung Agung in 1956 (third edition 1968), a number of poems and prose writings that had either never appeared in print before, or were scattered throughout numerous magazines, have been brought together and published. Burton Raffel's The Complete Poetry and Prose ot Chairil Anwar, published by the State University of New Vork Press ( 1970), contains a complete edition of Chairil Anwar's poetry together with English translations which, however, are not always altogether exact (Teeuw, 1971b, and below).