Traditional Poetry: The Sjairs

Abstract

On the other hand the old traditions continued to exist side by side with the new developments. Many sjairs were published, old and new, belonging in spirit to a past period, but chronologically contemporaneous with the work of the new pudjangga. And although it would be outside the scope of this book to deal in detail with the sjairs written during the period under discussion, at least a passing mention may be justified, if only because interest in this kind of literature in Indonesia itself was still very marked. On Balai Pustaka’s annual list of the ten best-sellers (actually a list of best-lenders) at least one sjair would be found.⁷⁹Some of these sjairs were just old texts, edited or reprinted from manuscripts or older editions, e. g. Sja’r Jatim Nestapa (The Pitiful Orphan, 1934) and Sja’r Abdul Muluk (Sultan A.M., 1934). Others were modern adaptations of old stories from foreign, Persian and Indian sources, as e. g. the sjairs written by A. Rahman, Sja’ir Sultan Nadirsjah (1928) and Sja’ir Puteri Burdah (Princess B., 1931), M. Hamzah’s Sja’ir Muhibbah al Kamal (The Perfect Love, 1929), A. Dt. Madjoindo’s Gul Bakawali (The Rose of B., 1936, actually taken from a French adaptation of an Indian story!), Tulis St. Sati’s Sja’ir Sitti Marhumah jang Saleh (The Pious S.M., 1930), the well-known story of the virtuous Susanna of the apocrypha and Baginda Abdullah’s Sja’ir Rahsia Puteri Nuraini (The Secret of Princess N., 1930).