Chairil Anwar

Front matter

VERHANDELINGEN

VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE

CHAIRIL ANWAR: THE POET AND HIS LANGUAGE

Table Of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII PREFACE IX INTRODUCTION ue 5k oat, ey Kek ii Bee ee Ng XIII I. The Japanese Occupation: The Break with the Past . XIII

2. The Situation respecting the Indonesian Language . XIV

3. The Situation in respect of Indonesian Literature XVI

CHAPTER I: LANGUAGE AND POETRY . 1 1. Prologue 1

A. Aspects of Presentation 1

1. The Title. 1

2. The Dedication. 2

3. The Date. 2

4. 'The Punctuation 2

5. The Use of Capitals . 3

B. Aesthetical Aspects . 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 . go aa a A9

I. Sentence Constructions Consisting of Three Elements 20

A. The Agent-Directed Construction . 20

B. The Patient-Directed Construction 21

VI CHAIRIL ANWAR

II. Sentence Constructions Consisting of Two Elements A. The Equational Sentence Construction .

B. Other Types of Sentence Construction .

3.2. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs with me- . A. Transitive Verbs .

B. Intransitive Verbs

CHAPTER II: ANALYSIS OF THE POEMS. Diponegoro

Kupu Malam dan Biniku .

Kenangan .

Hampa .

Dimesdjid .

ba 2 4. 30 dk d ib à Kepada Pelukis Affandi .

Sendja di Pelabuhan Ketjil .

Puntjak .

11. Aku Berkisar Ke Mereka 12. Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus 13. Derai-Derai Tjemara .

Chapter Iii: Chairil Anwar’s Language

1. Preliminary Remarks

2. Morphological Multivalence . 2.1. Ke-an Forms derived from Aiei and the Nominal

Use of Adjectives .

2.2. Me- Forms . l

3. Poetic Licence as a Source of Andin: 3.1. The Use of the Demonstratives ini and itu . 3.2. The Omission of jang

4. Colloquialism .

5. Epilogue

NOTES APPENDIX .

BIBLIOGRAPHY .

23 23 23

23 24 25

111 111 119

139 149 155

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 book was first put forward. A short period of intensive research at the Wason Collection section of the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, New York, in September 1969, which was made possible by a grant from the Southeast 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-October 1970) to study modern German literature at the Eberhard-Karl University in Tubingen. It was with their generous permission that I was able to resume and complete my studies at the University of Leiden with the writing of this book, for which the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Netherlands kindly made a scholarship available.

I cannot hope to express sufficiently my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have made it possible for me to write this book. But I 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. Echols, whose modest suggestions and kind words of advice guided me in my research while at Cornell University; 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 indispensable 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 book. I 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 problems involved in this study. But most especially I 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, encouragement and inspiration, and invaluable advice and information throughout this lengthy and often laborious undertaking.

I am grateful to various members of the staff of the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde for their most generous assistance in the completion of the book, especially to Miss M. J. L. van Yperen B.A., who patiently and willingly went through the entire manuscript, smoothing out a great number 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 book in its final form.

As a final acknowledgement, we hope that this book will be 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 be said that the ordinary reader in his intuitive reading and understanding of a poem does not distinguish the various aspects which together make up the total message of the poem. In a scholarly analysis, however, we have to take due account of these various aspects. We need a thorough knowledge of the language used by the poet, its phonemic and grammatical structure, and its vocabulary; we have to be aware of the writing conventions! of the language in question; and finally, we have to take into account the specific conventions and characteristics of poetry written in this language.

Attempts to describe and analyse Bahasa Indonesia as used in poetry so far have been few in number and, moreover, not very successful. Although some studies, e.g. those by Slametmuljana (1951; 1954; 1956), Junus (1965; 1968; 1970), and Nababan (1966), may be 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. It is hoped that this linguistic approach will provide a basis for further interpretation and evaluation of Chairil Anwar as a poet in particular, as well 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, xX 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 Angkatan 45 (Chairil Anwar, A Pioneer of the Generation of 1945), published 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 of Chairil Anwar, published by the State University of New York 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). The poems selected for discussion in the present study (see Chapter I, Section 2) have been taken from one or other of the first four books mentioned above. Wherever any of these poems is available in more than one printed version, the particular source used here and the variant readings which are relevant for the analysis will be mentioned.

Further, Poerwadarminta’s monolingual Indonesian dictionary Kamus Umum, first published in 1952, was used as the main reference work, both for lexicographical and morphological purposes, since it is ‘a standard work, coming right at the beginning of the history of BI lexicography, and excelling in the large number of well chosen examples of the use of words’ (Teeuw, 1961:69); moreover, it is almost contemporaneous with Chairil Anwar’s poetry in its data. Occasionally we also refer to the Indonesian-Dutch dictionary of Poerwadarminta and Teeuw (first published in 1950). In dealing with certain problems of Indonesian syntax we have consulted Poedjawijatna and Zoetmulder’s Tatabahasa Indonesia Untuk Sekolah Landjutan Atas (Indonesian Grammar for High Schools), first published in 1955. The insufficiency of our reference material is obvious; however, at the present stage of Indonesian grammatical description and lexicography we are left with no better alternative.

In view of what has been said above about the scarcity of previous works in this field and also because Chairil Anwar’s use of Bahasa Indonesia is so obviously different from the pre-war form of that language that had become more or less standardized in Balai Pustaka Malay (see below), we are of the opinion that the most appropriate method

PREFACE XI of approach to and analysis of this poetry as an example of linguistic use is that of induction and description. We furthermore feel that, since the book is being published for a predominantly non-Indonesian speaking public, this type of description (i.e. using the inductive method and the method of descriptive analysis) will help to give the readers some idea of the problems involved in understanding (and/or translating) modern Indonesian poetry.

In order to make the reader acquainted with the framework in which our subject should be placed, a brief survey is given, by way of Introduction, of the situation as regards Indonesian language and literature during Chairil Anwar’s lifetime, as well as an outline of the main biographical facts relevant to this study.

In order to make the reader acquainted at the outset with the kind of problems we face in dealing with Chairil Anwar’s poetry we shall begin in Chapter I, intended as a kind of Prologue, with a detailed discussion of one of his shorter poems, which happens to be chronologically his first, and which even so is typical for his poetry in many ways. This poem will also give us an opportunity of making a few introductory remarks on some of the aspects of presentation of this poetry (such as titles, punctuation, etc.), as well as on the aesthetic qualities of Indonesian poetry and Chairil Anwar’s attitude with regard to these. Through this Prologue we mean to underline the inductive approach which we have chosen for this study. In the course of our study we have frequently observed that ambiguity, as occasioned by certain morphological and syntactic characteristics of Bahasa Indonesia, looms large among the problems we face in our analysis 6. In order to avoid unnecessary repetition we shall give a brief exposition of some of the syntactic and morphological characteristics which especially make for ambiguity in Chairil Anwar’s poetry and which will therefore have to be referred to time and again in our discussion (Chapter I, Section 3).

The main body of the book is formed by an analysis of thirteen poems, selected both for their literary value and relevance and because they all present, in one way or another, some of the typical problems we are facing when attempting to understand this poetry (Chapter II). In our analysis we shall keep to the texts as they stand, including all the formal and semantic characteristics which are relevant for a linguistic analysis, but refraining as much as possible from making far-reaching interpretations (such as symbolic, allegoric, and other kinds) which are not strictly justified by the texts as such. It should be observed that the English translations following the discussions of the poems pretend to

XII CHAIRIL ANWAR be no more than a more or less literal rendering summarizing the linguistic analyses. The reader should be warned not to expect anything approaching a poetically satisfying translation. It is hoped, however, that they will provide a basis for such translation as well as serving as a tool for further interpretation of Chairil Anwar as a poet.

In Chapter III we shall give a systematic summary of the results of our analyses. This Chapter ends with an Epilogue, which is intended as a pendant to the Prologue. It contains a detailed analysis of another one of Chairil Anwar’s short poems, one which has so far defied all our attempts at satisfactory interpretation. This way the Epilogue underlines the limitations of a linguistic analysis. It shows how in the absence of sufficient situational information or an adequate frame of reference it is well-nigh impossible for us to arrive at a proper understanding of a poem, that is, to make the appropriate choice from the alternatives emerging from an analysis of the linguistic content of its message.

We have refrained from supplying an index as the key words we would like to list are for the most part so widely scattered throughout the entire book as to render an index virtually pointless anyway. To compensate for this omission we have furnished a detailed table of contents.

In conclusion a few words about the position of the author of the present book in respect of Bahasa Indonesia. She is a native of Djakarta, and has lived in that city all her life (apart from a recent four years’ stay abroad). Hence the language she has used since childhood is Bahasa Indonesia as spoken in Djakarta. Her formal education also took place entirely in schools where Bahasa Indonesia was the medium of instruction. The language used in her immediate family circle, however, is mainly Javanese, as both parents are native speakers of Javanese. Therefore it has been necessary to refer time and again to standard Indonesian dictionaries and to check with other native speakers of Indonesian who happened to be near at hand in Leiden on the use and meanings of some of the words and expressions found in Chairil Anwar’s poetry.

Introduction

1 THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION: THE BREAK WITH THE PAST

Chairil Anwar’s earliest poem is dated October 19427, that is, approximately six months after the beginning of the Japanese occupation of what had until then been the Dutch East Indies. It seems useful, therefore, to give a brief sketch of the situation as regards the Indonesian language and literature at that time. The Japanese invasion marked a significant change in the history of modern Indonesia; it constituted a break with most of the past, as well as the beginning of new developments.

Prior to the invasion Japanese propaganda about aims to liberate oppressed countries from the white supremacy and give them their freedom and independence had regularly been broadcast through radio Tokyo (Benda, 1958:103-107). After the invasion some Indonesians, taken in by the Japanese propaganda efforts with regard to the creation of a ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’, were willing in the beginning to cooperate with the Japanese. Very soon, however, they discovered the duplicity of the Japanese propaganda.

The Japanese, fully aware of the potentialities of education as a means of achieving their goals, made every effort to win over influential Indonesian public figures to their side by establishing special educational institutions (Elsbree, 1953:39-41, 102-103). This mass education scheme, however, involved largely semi-military exercises and ideological or pseudo-ideological indoctrination (Anderson, 1966:26). For purposes of modelling cultural activities on the Japanese ideal of ‘Asian dignity’ a Cultural Centre, Keimin Bunka Shidosho, was founded which brought artists of all kinds together in one single organization. In practice the Centre controlled and determined every cultural activity by means of rigorous censorship. Furthermore, a military police force, Kempeitai, took immediate and harsh measures against any movement that had a political and especially nationalistic character (cf. Anderson, 1966:26 ff.). Last but not least, a system of forced labor, or romusha, was instituted by the Japanese Army. ‘It was the humiliation and brutal treatment inflicted by the Japanese on these peasants (== romusha) which aroused

XIV CHAIRIL ANWAR the most violent and selfless reactions among the politicized and semipoliticized Pemuda (= Indonesian youth)’ (Anderson, 1966:29). In other words, the practices of the Japanese occupational army aroused general discontent and a widespread feeling of disillusionment on the part of the Indonesians, though at the same time it gave the revolutionary movement its specific character (Anderson, 1961). This situation in the political field also became manifest in the cultural field, and was reflected particularly by the language and literature of Indonesia.

2 THE SITUATION RESPECTING THE INDONESIAN LANGUAGE

In order to explain the role of Bahasa Indonesia after 1942, a brief survey of the preceding period seems called for.

On October 28, 1928, the youth organizations that had been fused into the ‘All Indonesia Association’ (Indonesia Muda) held their first congress in Djakarta and proclaimed the threefold ideal of one Indonesian country, one Indonesian people and one Indonesian language (Alisjahbana, 1957:34). Historically, Bahasa Indonesia developed from Malay, i.e. the language used in the Malay Peninsula and some areas of East Sumatra and Borneo. For centuries Malay was the lingua franca of Southeast Asia (Teeuw, 1959), not only for commercial purposes, but also in religious contacts both between Indonesians and foreigners and among Indonesians themselves. The spread of Islam took place largely through the medium of Malay, while Christian missions also made use of the same medium. These circumstances led to the acceptance and use of Malay by the Netherlands East Indies government as the medium of communication in the promotion of political expansion as well as in administration and education. Although the official language at that time was Dutch, the use of Malay was spread considerably further throughout the Archipelago as a consequence of more intensive colonial administration.

An important step in the promotion and systematic expansion of the use of Malay was the foundation, first of a Committee (1908), and later on of the Bureau of Popular Literature (Balai Pustaka, 1917) as a result of the Ethical Policy of the Dutch Colonial Government 8. In the twenties, which in the history of Indonesian language and literature is known as the Bala: Pustaka era, the use of Malay in a more or less standardized form was propagated primarily by books that were published under the auspices of the colonial government. In the thirties, i.e. after the historic Sumpah Pemuda (Pledge of Youth) of October 28,

INTRODUCTION XV

1928, writers began to use Bahasa Indonesia by way of experiment in essays, reviews, and articles on science and cultural problems in general. A new important expansion in the Indonesian vocabulary was due to this generation of writers, which was called the generation of Pudjangga Baru, after the literary and cultural journal which they published from 1933 onwards (Jassin, 1963). Owing to their broad cultural interest and the wide scope of their activities — a consequence of their education, partly at Dutch universities — a large number of foreign words, particularly Dutch and English scientific terms, were introduced into Bahasa Indonesia through this journal. Moreover, these authors often deviated, consciously or unconsciously, from the grammatical rules of Balai Pustaka Malay, thus also providing the impetus for the process of modernization of the syntax and morphology of Bahasa Indonesia. But this group remained small in number, and Bahasa Indonesia in every respect remained second to Dutch as the language of social, administrative, cultural and scientific intercourse (cf. Sutherland, 1968 esp. p. 126).

This situation changed drastically with the Japanese invasion. Dutch was abolished as the official language and its use forbidden in all sectors of society, and Bahasa Indonesia was in fact the only language available to replace it. Within a very short time Indonesians from all social strata were compelled to give up Dutch and use the national language, as Japanese was generally not accessible to them. This challenging situation turned out to be of tremendous importance for the development of Bahasa Indonesia. It is true that all writing activities were from the beginning under the control of Japanese censors, but for obvious reasons this censorship could only concern itself with the contents of the writings, whether political, cultural or other. The language itself was never criticized by the Japanese, and in this respect the Indonesians were free to experiment as much as they wanted. It was evident that Bahasa Indonesia, or rather its users, was not quite prepared for this new role. Both the lexical and the grammatical aspects were subjected to innovations, which were introduced not so much because Bahasa Indonesia was inadequate or unsuitable, but rather more often because many new users of Bahasa Indonesia were insufficiently familiar with the structure and potentialities of this language. Consequently, they unconsciously turned to other sources for filling the gaps in their knowledge. First of all calques from Dutch (and English) were introduced on a much larger scale than ever before, as many Indonesian intellectuals began to impose virtually Dutch or English patterns on Malay, thus creating their own

XVI CHAIRIL ANWAR brand of Bahasa Indonesia. Moreover, apart from the intellectuals who began to use Bahasa Indonesia instead of Dutch, a still larger number of Indonesians without any proper language education had to switch from their regional language to some improvised brand of Bahasa Indonesia in order to cope with the rapidly increasing intra-Indonesian contact situations as a consequence of the social development of the country; in such situations the use of their native tongue was no longer adequate. The process of interaction between the regional languages and Bahasa Indonesia took place on an even larger scale than that between Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch. More and more Indonesians began to use Javanese, Sundanese, and other regional linguistic patterns with Malay words as their brand of Bahasa Indonesia, or at least introduced many innovations, on the point of both grammar and vocabulary, into Bahasa Indonesia (Fokker, 1951b). Since the main sources of these innovations differed more markedly from Bahasa Indonesia than Minangkabau, which had been the primary source of innovation in Balai Pustaka Malay, the result was a rapid development of Bahasa Indonesia away from Balai Pustaka Malay during the Japanese occupation. A great number of colloquialisms which had been taboo before 1942 especially found their way into Bahasa Indonesia, where they were condemned by some, but tolerated or even encouraged by others.

3 THE SITUATION IN RESPECT OF INDONESIAN LITERATURE

The Japanese occupation and all the changes it entailed was not without consequences for the development of Indonesian literature either. Culturally, Indonesia was cut off abruptly from Western influences. Pudjangga Baru, despite all its nationalistic ideals always a supporter of freedom and democracy in the Western sense of the word, had to suspend publication (Jassin, 1963:33 ff.). Consequently this important window on Western culture and literature was closed.

As Japan did little to replace activities that were either forbidden or made impossible, Indonesians had to develop new cultural activities of their own. Some of them accommodated themselves to the Japanese censor, producing tendentious writings glorifying the ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’. But there were also a number of young writers who developed a new idea of what literature should be and who possessed enough courage to preserve their integrity and sufficient critical sense to express their thoughts and feelings in a new and independent way. In their works the tremendous psychological impact of the Japanese

INTRODUCTION XVII victory over the Dutch military power, which had for so long been considered unassailable, becomes fully apparent. In order to show how this development came about, a brief survey of pre-war Indonesian literature is necessary.

The novels of the first period of modern Indonesian literature, often called the Balai Pustaka period, usually all had a similar plot following a set pattern: the conflict between the older generation and the younger one, between adat (custom) and the individual will, between East and West. In most of these novels the main characters were described as helpless figures falling victim to conflicts resulting from social conditions prevailing within Indonesian society at the time. In the novels of the thirties an effort was made to portray the main figures as individuals with a will and conscience of their own. This, however, made these novels hardly any less tendentious. An author such as Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, who may be regarded as the most important writer of the Pudjangga Baru generation, purposely used his novels to propagate his ideas on kemadjuan (progress), which according to him was necessarily linked with westernization and modernization. There are also writings from that time employing themes which are based on some sort of Oriental philosophy and attitude to life. Sanusi Pane’s poems and plays may be mentioned as the most typical examples of this, the legacy of Indian influence usually being reflected in his work in one way or another. But in his writings, no less than in Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana’s books, the characters merely act as the author’s mouthpiece, promulgating his ideals and ideas.

The most characteristic innovation which took place during the pre-war period was probably not so much the change in the genre of the novels from the Balai Pustaka period to the Pudjangga Baru period, but rather in the content of a magazine such as Pudjangga Baru. Here for the first time in modern Indonesian history many essays and reviews were published besides poems, stories, short plays, etc., as evidence of a growing critical awareness and a need for reflection on cultural problems. In this respect Polemik Kebudajaan (Polemics on Culture) is a most revealing collection of essays of the thirties (Polemik, 21950). In poetry, even after the traditional shair and pantun forms had been abandoned — at least outwardly — still much of the old was left in so-called modern forms as, for example, the sonnet, which was used widely in imitation of the Dutch generation of the Eighties (Jassin, 1963). Even the more ‘experimental’ poems of the period can hardly be described as revolutionary in comparison with what had been written

XVIII CHAIRIL ANWAR in previous periods, with the possible exception of Amir Hamzah (Jassin, 1962; Teeuw, 1967:84-103; Junus, 1970:28-39).

The new situation after 1942 required new forms. Few novels were written in comparison with the number produced in the pre-war period, perhaps because conditions under the Japanese regime left little leisure or opportunity for novel-writing. Short stories, not completely absent before the war, became very popular and now began to fill the magazines and the literary pages of the newspapers. In these stories the main characters appear as individuals who act upon their own will and conscience, and are responsible for their own views and conduct. The conflicts are no longer prefabricated, but develop from the plot itself and from the actions of the characters, who tend to become round instead of the flat characters which were typical of the pre-war period. Actual social situations are acutely analysed and sometimes sharply criticized in literary form. Clear examples of this change in approach and attitude can be found in Idrus’ stories collected in Dart Ave Marta ke Djalan Lain ke Roma (From ‘Ave Maria’ to ‘Other Roads to Rome’).

Parallel with the literary development in which the focus shifted to the individual and his role of responsibility, new dramatic forms began to develop. Instead of the ‘historical dramas’ of the pre-war period dealing with long-ago kingdoms and heroes, all of them noble but highly unrealistic, a new type of play began to develop, depicting contemporary people and conditions. There was a great demand for such plays; drama was very popular during the occupation (Oemarjati, 1971), and the Japanese took advantage of the demand for entertainment to infiltrate dramatic literature with their ideals, exploiting this art form for their war-like goals. Some Indonesians were amenable to this kind of propaganda. But here again, many young authors found in drama outlets for ideas and ideals which were far from identical with what the Japanese considered advantageous to their aims. The ideals of national consciousness and unity found their way into such dramas, sometimes in spite of Japanese censorship. Playwrights such as Armijn Pané, Abu Hanifah (= El Hakim) and Usmar Ismail each had their own way of circumventing the requirements of the censor: E] Hakim through the use of subtle symbolism, and Usmar Ismail through more outspoken realism, although symbolism is not lacking in some of his early plays either.

In poetry, too, new ideas required new forms. At first sight perhaps many of the poems written during this period did not appear to differ very markedly from pre-war poetry, but instead of the old clichés there

INTRODUCTION XIX were now a new symbolism and new motifs. Romantically idealistic poetry was replaced by more straight-forward verse, directly related to the realities of a new and challenging situation. Romanticism did not disappear altogether, for these young people, too, yearned for a new, just and peaceful world. But their romanticism was embedded in a realistic awareness of a new time. Thus the problems they encountered assumed new dimensions: at first an Asiatic dimension as a result of the confrontation with the Keimin Bunka Shidosho, but soon after that international and universal dimensions.

These young authors no longer were interested in the conflict between the generations within a typically Indonesian setting, or in a traditional East-West opposition (‘Western materialism vs. Oriental spiritualism’) ; they recognized in their own problems and situation the situation and problems of all people and all nations. Hence they felt themselves to be part of humanity as a whole, and their situation was experienced first and foremost as truly universal, and only in the second place, if at all, as Indonesian 9.