Written by Nurel Javissyarqi
Translated by Agus B. Harianto
VII
This section I followed an odd number VII, the final space of my disagreement with Tardji. Which was begun by his delirium that the Lord imagined, dreamed, had inspired me to visit:
“Jika tidak satu pun kritikus dapat memberikan penilaian atau pemahaman yang meyakinkan atau malah hanya sekadar komentar asal bunyi atau lip service saja, maka pengarangnya harus angkat bicara. Pengarang tidak mati karena karyanya selesai ditulis, tetapi malah harus hidup mendampingi karyanya yang “aneh” itu memberikan komentar, visi, dan penjelasan agar para pembaca yang kebingungan bisa mendapatkan bandingan dari penafsiran pengarang terhadap penafsiran pembacanya. Hal ini perlu karena pembaca tidak mendapatkan bandingan pengalaman dalam membacanya, karena karya itu adalah karya baru yang sebelumnya tidak memiliki pendahulunya.” (Esai pembuka, ihwal personal, dari buku Isyarat Sutardji Calzoum Bahri).
“If none of the criticist can provide an assessment or convincing understanding or even just a comment talked as he likes or merely lip service, then the author must speak up. The author did not die because his work completed, but instead he had to live to accompany his “strange” works to give comment, vision, and explanation to the confusing reader could get comparison of the author’s interpretation from the reader’s interpretations. This is necessary because the reader did not get a comparative experience in reading it, because the work is new work and previously had no such. “(The preface essay, acknowledgment, from the book Isyarat Sutardji Calzoum Bahri).
***
A work could be meant as an art, created by artists, whether painting, sculpture, music, literature and so on, truly is the serve to the life for who enlivens. Worship is done very carefully, meticulously-carefully; always treat the content of the value that he has been studying from his soul for the sake of the result in the future.
The author hopes minimal uselessness, and then the revision of view is important, besides to renew the intention also the power he has. This was done to get the freshness to step on the level of broad consciousness under destination to increase the degree he ever had.
At there, hard efforts are required; seriousness was taken by quiet space and also the crowd all around. The better view would be grabbed in achievement of the people afterwards. Finally, there was disappointed by the attitude of disdain, ignorant around the working.
The top of knowledge is searching, take all the field and the dropping of essential springs, climb up the hill of conviction, believing in the certainty of destiny within the body as well as the responsibilities, also suspecting the results before and after that at the time of vigilance developing the issue of vibration to attract the signs, a hunch. In order to have better progress to reflect mono-submission, after sailed the boat of lamp of the heart.
Therefore, a mature work doesn’t need to be explained by originators, just simply. At there it doesn’t observe deeply, merely a kind of abstraction for wildness of the readers to get illumination; by itself the readers know the existence of those values from within, not completely from the understanding of its creator. Here, the responsibility in the meantime, and the introduction can be done by someone else; observers, criticists, friends, or creative enemies.
If the artists explain the details of his work, it is not the responsibility, but his work is shoddy, until it needs a kind of introduction from the owner, despite his work practically is new, even strange schools of thought. Moreover the mantra, it is familiar to the people of the world who discover the meaning behind the material nature.
If in sufficient detail, I suspected his heart didn’t sincerely relinquish. There was regret in the face of his work. Apparently, his creation can not be enjoyed and doesn’t satisfy the mind. That is failure of the artists. He didn’t release the communication concept, the colors he ever seriously with by the whole self.
Thus, the principal of masterpiece is the concept that always studies. If there is signs of deviation, he would be quickly to correct it in order to the concept he proclaimed won’t run off of the reader and himself. It’s true, the work that would be like to be known as long as possible, it crashed down before it possessed the readers, just because of the branches of deed were merely estimation, it was not tested, although at lower levels.
This usually occurs onto ambitious artists with immature believe, but he rarely suspects his achievement and satisfied enough to the grabbing he got. Whereas the first achievement may be poisoned, before he reached the content of the fruit in order to bed out on the fields of wanderer.
***
Two paragraphs below, I quoted from my essay entitled Intrik Penyair dan Karyanya (Intrigue Poet and His work), in the book Trilogi Kesadaran at page 284:
”Puisi ialah masa-masa mati. Terhenti atas kekakuan dirinya yang telah terselubung kelenturan. Ia tidak bisa bergerak terlampau jauh, ketika “kata-kata” sudah mewakili kehadirannya. Maka penciptaan puisi, sejenis latihan bunuh diri berkali-kali”.
”Siapa yang mati di sana? Penciptanya, dipermalukan kejujurannya. Meski berselimutkan kerahasiaan, tetaplah ada keinginan untuk diketahui, difahami. Mungkin ini sisi lain kebinalan puisi sebelum mati, sedurung dikubur dalam keranda kata-kata”.
“Poetry is dead periods. It is stopped on the stiffness of itself that had been hidden by flexibility. It could not move too far, when the “words” had been represented its existence. Hence the creation of poetry is a kind of training suicide so many times.”
“Who died there? It’s creator, humiliated by its honesty. Though it’s wrapped in secrecy, there remains a desire to be known, to be understood. Maybe it’s another side of the wild behavior of poetry before it dies, before it buried in coffin of the words.”
***
Sense of dead is shy, humiliated, because of the secret he had all this time, of the truth of poetry is known by audience, though covered by tone of meaningful words. The poet is shivering like when he was creating, the shy makes him to be constantly at work, a form of double life that rose from the fire of spirit.
And die so many times is similar a workout of suicide. Someone likes to try out magic in learning invulnerability, and it was tested to establish personality and to understand as far as the level of esoteric knowledge he ever studied.
If died at the early of fighting, we still have thousands of troops that have been trained to avenge the defeat of their brother. These include forms of responsibility, rather than helping in the middle of a fight with a companion argument like throwing a shield, if it lost off from the grip.
The seconds of responsibility come to observe the defeat or even the victory, when it was compared to another masterpiece. It was borne by those who crazy about him, because of the author is such as mother born it. Would not the mother be shame, if her children deviate? The mother is chevalier who sincerely gave up her children slain in the field of battle with pride.
The sense of responsibility lies on the moments of lulled, growth, the times of revision. When it published, the branches of troops follow the path of their own destiny, as far as the certainty desired has gravity he had of air-ground attack and from the wind constantly with the change driving the laws of nature. Thus, it is not right enough if Tardji understood the responsibilities like below:
“Dan lebih penting lagi dengan pengarangnya angkat bicara, ia telah menunjukkan tanggung jawabnya sebagai pengarang. Jika ia berdiam diri bisa timbul kesan hanya sekadar beraneh-aneh, cari sensasi, atau menulis secara untung-untungan atau dengan kata lain ia kurang bertanggung jawab atas karyanya”.
“And more important of the author spoke, he had shown his responsibility as an author. If he just speechless, it could arise an impression that he was merely made peculiar, looked for sensation, or wrote a chancy, or in other words, he is not responsible for his work “.
At there, it seems that Tardji only dare to play mobilizing when the children saw his work interpreted deeply, its entrails and intestines scattered and poured all around the battlefield, performed a lot of facts in the court. If he came for correction, his work looks much worse, because it makes the audience confused thousand around the square.
Don’t blame the readers if they do not understand and then assumed that they are confusing. But it is also necessary to suspect the works, is it powerful or just chit-chat and lost in the arena? I assumed the character of mobilizing as the form of doesn’t understand to the true responsibilities, and much worse is gathering the forces for the sake of attacking by overwhelming numbers.
The poet should introspective into his self and his work, so the energy he used is not in vain, moreover spent the sentences of suggestion without having philosophically content. Then get ready to be tipped and bounced out right from the circle of understanding that anyone expected, because he didn’t occupy a comfortable chair in the studying the work. The concept of anxious rose only from immature mental. Beware, raw fruits make stomach ache!
Then what would be of the book reviewer, the interpreter of knowledge, and the criticists, if the artist who created the work, explains the results until its all detail? As Tardji stated, ” If none of the criticist can provide an assessment or convincing understanding or even just a comment talked as he likes or merely lip service, then the author must speak up.”
I thought that it just the reflection of doubts in his work. Dissatisfaction above is the searching result of the criticists, inappropriate with him at the beginning of creation. This may be the form of redundantly self confidence, besides by the interpreters of shadows. In fact, the imagination of translators can be varying in opinion; nevertheless they got to the main point. Doesn’t the assessment of others tend to fill?
It should be the area of freedom. The mother of the knights blesses the children to the battlefield and only prayer and sufficiently efforts. For example, we made a better works to prepare the wave of arguments for the sake of the betterment of his artist’s prestige.
Do not the artists (the writers) demanded to refresh his views, like in every morning the sun rises and then follows by the moon, rearrange the intentions, have no feeling of complacent. In the process, willing attitude of cutting is embedded, buried the arm until the entire body of the work, if have no power of fighter. Soul of the work that has warrior mentality will inspire the works afterwards. Therefore, the independence of the work attitude should be present, not covered by speech that increases the shallow of its presence, and made its existence confused as a solid unified of a masterpiece.
Exceptions, if forced, coerced, main spiritual of the works was mugged by desperation. It must be underlined. Provided an illustration at its side, issued another example that was equal to the case at hand so as not to seem funny and can reduce the authority of the work. Similar to investigators make laws by studying various cases that looks like to conclude the value of wise remains within the scope of ideals. Those were required to develop the medium of reasoning to enlightenment that is desired by the opponent.
If using that way there are who still demand the responsibility at the wrong place, let’s just look upon that he is in different classes by giving him the way necessarily. The way of interpreting should still have limiting on the work, to omit the image that we are enlivening the work that has been considered dead by the criticists.