(Tulisan di bawah ini adalah sebuah resensi yang saya tulis Juni 2007 lalu. MJ St. Hasoendoetan adalah penulis novel berjudul: Sitti Djaoerah dalam bahasa Batak Angkola pada permulaan abad ke-2o. Setting Sitti Djaoerah antara lain adalah di Deli, Sumatera Timur yang dulu terkenal dengan perkebunan tembakau. Meramaikan keriuhan soal rokok saat ini, saya postingkan resensi ini dan berikutnya cerita soal Sitti Djaoerah dan Tembakau Deli, mudah-mudahan, hehe.... Silahkan, bagi Anda yang tertarik dengan Sumatera. Salam!) [caption id="attachment_156345" align="alignleft" width="206" caption="(Foto oleh: LTS)"][/caption]
Print, Poetics, and Politics
A Sumatran Epic in the colonial and New Order Indonesia
(Susan Rodgers, KITLV 2005, 276 pages)
The Once Forgotten Writer, M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan
M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan who was born in 1890, migrated to Deli in 1908 and worked there as a white-collar-worker. At the same time, he was also a freelance writer. Deli at that time was one of the most important areas where many European, Chinese, Javanese and Bataks live and work mainly in the plantations. By having formal education back home in South Tapanuli run by missionaries and the government, many young people like Hasoendoetan were able to work as white-collar workers for European business people in Deli Land. In this context, Hasoendoetan had a strong mission to write and to give his readers what they might unable to have amidst the crowdedness of the urban life. He strongly reminded his readers of their precious cultural inheritance that they have at home and from home.
According to Rodgers, Soetan Hasoendoetan is not a well-known writer in term of Indies or, now, Indonesian national acclaim. Far from it: few scholars of Indonesian national literature have heard of him or his prodigious output in Angkola Batak language publications. All of his published works, even his brilliant novel Sitti Djaoerah, were delimited by language access.[1]
Datoek Tuongkoe was first published in 1941, 14 years after his earlier work, Sitti Djaoerah. Rodgers also translated this excellent work of Hasoendoetan into English and was published in 1997.
Rodgers writes a long introduction (p.1-103) in part one of Print, Poetics and Politics and then in part two, it is her translation of Datuk Tuongku itself (p. 108-257). Datoek Tuongkoe was first published in 1941, 14 years after his earlier work, Sitti Djaoerah. Rodgers translation of Sitti Djaoerah was published in 1997.[2]
We might just directly read Rodgers translation of Datuk Tuongku and enjoy this beautiful epic of Bataknese without reading Rodgers introduction.
Datuk Tuongku is a story of a young man, named Datuk Tuongku Aji Malim Leman. He was born from a noble and rich family. However, unfortunately, his father passed away when he was still a little boy and left him and his mother in a long suffering. When he was about teenager, his mother was really sick and he pursued his mother to tell him what did she want to eat if any and he would do everything to find what his mother really wanted. The mother, after pursued and forced by the son to tell what she wanted, finally gave up and told him what it was:livers of a forest deer and an elephant. These are things that really hard to find, however, as a devoted son, Aji Malim Leman, after suffered this and that, finally was able to bring his mother what she wanted.
The protagonist, Aji Malim Leman, then married to Sitapi Mombang Suro, a daughter of Sutan Batara Guru Doli who lives in Sky World Up Above. Once, unfortunately, there was a serious problem between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that caused Sitapi Mombang Suro (with her little son) left his husband and mother-in-law on the Earth. She flew back to her father’s, into her original homeland. Aji Malim Leman is a faithful husband that he did whatever possible to bring her wife and son home. To get to the Sky World Up Above, he has been going through so many temptations and sufferings. Finally, he was able to win his wife’s heart and was able to bring her and their son as well back home to the Earth.
If you already read Sitti Djaoerah[3], first translation in English available in 1997, (originally published in 1929-31 in Angkola Batak dialect in two volumes after being serialized in Poestaha local newspaper) you will soon consider that the writer, Soetan Hasoendoetan writes the shorter version of Datuk Tuongku in it. It is when Sitti Djaoerah and Djahoemarkar, the protagonists are on the way to Polonia (today’s airport in Medan) to see the airplane piloted by Toean (Mr.) Chantelouq, around the beginning of August 1923.[4] Djahoemarkar, the husband is telling his wife Sitti Djaoerah that in the Past Age folks back home used to fly up into the sky using their bailal-biulul[5] flying suits to go zipping up to the Upper Spirit World[6] from the ground down here below.[7]
Rodgers Introduction
As I mentioned before, there are 103 pages of introduction in part one of this book. I do not think that a (Western) reader will lost in translation without reading Rodgers introduction. However, if you want to know what had been happening in especially South Tapanuli, the home village of the once forgotten writer, M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan and if you like to know about Deli Land that has been one of the most important plantation belt in Indies, the metropolitan Indies, the Paris in Indies as we sometimes like to call it, I am sure you will enjoy devouring Rodger’s 103 pages of introduction.
Datuk Tuongku was published in 1941 before Indonesia national independence but Rodgers will give you a discussion of turi-turian (Batak epic) under and during the Soeharto’s New Order Regime since 1966 to 1998. I presume this is what Rodgers intends to say for Soeharto was collapsed in 1998.
Rodgers will give you a detail and beautiful pictures of cultural background both in South Tapanuli and Deli Land and so does Indonesia in general. The pictures of the small village in South Tapanuli to the metropolitan city of Deli and to the city-centre where an authoritarian Javanese man-in-power, our always smiling general Soeharto settled to control the administration of the nation so did to control the mind of the people --- those who were willing to be controlled, of course.
You will get to know that Hasoendoetan have a lot of colleagues who are writers as well. His home village is important in our history for here were born a lot of writers, politicians, and white-collars people. Why? Well. The colonial government allowed missionaries to work in South Tapanuli since 1840s. As we generally know, beside taking the Good News to the local people, missionaries also taking the secular education which is of course beneficial to the local people. There in South Tapanuli where the majority of the population are Muslim, they also enjoyed the western-Christian type of education. Oh yes, sometimes there are frictions among Muslims whether girls can go to this non-Islamic-schools. Sitti Djaoerah, the protagonist in Sitti Djaoerah did go to this school, even though she is a Muslim, so did her future husband, Djahoemarkar.
Rodgers will explain to you in details how many local newspapers are there in Tapanuli and Deli Land so does about the publishing houses owned by local people. Why in between 1920s to 1940s there had been newspapers and books booming in Indies. Who are the writers cooperated with the central power in Batavia and who were opposed to it. Hasoendoetan is one of the second groups for he dared and decided to write in his own Angkola Batak dialect instead of Malay, the vernacular and official language in Indies.
It is like going to a library searching some books and information about South Tapanuli, about Batak people, about Deli and about Indonesia as well with a specific title of research to do with a Batak once forgotten writer when you are driving your mind on the road that Rodgers has built for you in her introduction. However, as a person who belongs to Batak community, I need to remind you to be careful even though I do know that you have been always a good driver in your own-country-road. The thing is, if you like to read Print, Poetic and Politics’ of Rodgers, you will going to drive your mind in a bit different road which is still familiar to you at least in words but there is no guarantee that you will save 100% only by knowing all the meaning of the words she writes in the book.
Operating the Mind and Soul of Exotic Indies?
To tell you the truth from my end, I had been frustrating for about 4 months to do with this Print, Poetic and Politics’. Here was I, a frustrated Batak girl unable to find what were the reasons for my frustration after reading this very book. I was born in Samosir Island in my grandpa and grandma’s house, witnessing a lot of Adat-Batak-Works from the time one is born to the time she/he leaves this earth. My grandpa is the oldest son in his family and you might know how important this position in my Batak community. Many adat-works will be performed in his house under his supervision. These were one of my childhood entertainments for having no television or radio as you did.
I do have some concerns to do with Rodgers translation in Print, Poetic and Politics’ after I read it but I knew this is not the little-monster who had been bothering me these 4 months. It is like a little-nightmare for I had been unable to find what is it and why I had been so anxious about this unknown-it?
You might wonder how, what and who has saved me out of my nightmare. Unintentionally, out of my deep frustration on trying to write a review for this Print, Poetic and Politics’, I was listening to the Batak old songs last week, end of July 2006. It has been very long that I haven’t done this kind of relaxation.
Two months ago, I remember now how I was deeply sunk to listen to a very beautiful Batak song in a marriage ceremony of one of my father relatives in Medan. When the singer sang the song accompanied by Batak-musical-instruments and modern-musical-instruments, the parent of the bride were about to start giving ulos a la Batak[8] to her daughter and son-in-low. The mother of the bride with her tears flowing down in her face and yet she was dancing a la Batak-dancing and the father was about to cry too. I was there unable to say a word except: “Woooowww!”
It was last week, while listening to the old Batak songs that I was able to say a “Woooowww” again. “This is what I was looking for! This is it! Which is really just here inside me!” It is difficult not to move my body while listening to the songs. It is impossible except I am sick and unable to move. Even in this case, my body might be stay still but not my soul. I am sure, when we dance it is also our soul who dance as well.
My “woooowww” last week is my lamp to walk on the White-American-Road that Rodgers has built in her introduction in Print, Poetic and Politics’ and even in her translation of Datuk Tuongku in part two of the book.
First I need you to know how I admire her great efforts on learning to understand Batak people. Second, I admire her efforts in translating Batak writer works such as Sitti Djaoerah and Datuk Tuongku from Angkola Batak into American-English. Third, I admire her in her efforts to be one of the best Indonesianists especially most Batakist.
However, I have to be honest to convey what I have to convey. First of all, as I mentioned at glance earlier, I am concern with her translation especially to do with the theological-mind of Batak people. I know she did do the best on her translation as she says in her introduction, for example to do with how she has to translate Batak kin terms into English reader who are poor in this kind of kin term (p.93). In America, a child or a teenager can call old people by their name while in Batak; you better not try to do so. We have specific addressing-term to every person in our community and we can not do it as our wish, there is a rule for doing so according to our three-stones-on-the hearth philosophy.
Secondly, by reading Rodgers’ introduction and translation, I am like encountering with a doctor who has her patient on her table, ready to be operated. This doctor knows very well where are the head, shoulder, arms, hands, belly, feet, skulls, fingers of her patient. She also knows where are the lung, large intestine, appendix, duodenum and the like. However, does this very doctor know where are the mind and the soul of her patient? Does she?Does she think about her patient soul and mind while she is about operating her on her table? This doctor might able to operate the body of her patient but I think never the mind and the soul!
At this point I have to remind the Print, Poetic and Politics’ readers that what is in it is not exactly the same with what is there in the everyday life of Batak people. Hasoendoetan, the writer that Rodgers really admires, his works might lost forever but not our Batak culture for Batak culture is a living-culture. Only very few Batak people know about this once forgotten writer Hasoendoetan and yet, we Batak are still who we are with or without Hasoendoetan’s works. It doesn’t mean that we do not appreciate him. We do. What I am telling you now is that our Batak-culture is not firstly written in those papers but in our hearts that we keep to this very day. To add a bit more, we are people strongly binding by our marga (clan name) and group. Our adat is our way of life culturally, so, we will never lost our living-adat, our living-culture, as long as there are still Batak people on earth. Written books and the like are secondary or even less to us compare to we ourselves as a community where we gather not only physically but also spiritually.***
Reviewer: Limantina Sihaloho
[1] Susan Rodgers, Print, Poetics and Politics, KITLV, 2005, p. 26.
[2]M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan, Sitti Djaoerah, A Novel of Colonial Indonesia, University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1997. Translated and with introduction by Susan Rodgers.
[3] M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan, Sitti Djaoerah, A Novel of Colonial Indonesia, University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1997. Translated and with introduction by Susan Rodgers.
[4]Ibid, p.369
[5] I disagree with Rodgers explanation of this words bailal biulul as having no meaning at all, and to her is in fact not Angkola Batak even though used often in turi-turians about flying spirit women, it lends a Minangkabau flavor to the proceedings. I grew up in Samosir, to the north side of Angkola. The language we used in Samosir and Angkola is quite similar even though are not exactly the same. The roots are the same and we both understand each other for once, I had a classmate who came from Angkola. She did have such a specific intonation compare to us Samosirians (Toba Batak ethnic). We do have such these kind of words bailal-biulul, even in our songs. This is the way of us to express what are not so easily to express in words also in words. It might sound strange especially for Westerners (Indonesianists?) who sweat to give meaning to every word they have. For us Batak, what seems meaningless for Westerners is not meaningless. Like this famous songs: Siksik sibatu manikkan niparjoget dinamanginani sibangbang karo jule-jelu, sibangbang karo jule-jule… Or the other song: Sinanggar tullo atullo atulloo ooo sinanggar tulllooo atullo atullo sinanggar tulllo atullo sinanggar tullo atulllo. I don’t even know what is the meaning of these words except only a few of them such as batu (stone), joget (dance), mangingani (to occupy). However, almost all of Batak people like these songs, these meaningless-words songs in the eyes of an Indonesianist. To us Batak, they are not meaningless. We do give the rooms for the things we can not express which is also in words. The meaning is depending on every person. Once, who knows, they might have ‘meanings’ at least for the first inventor of those words.
[6]I also disagree with this Rodgers translation: Upper Spirit World, for this translation can give the negatives taste in the ears of Batak people today. Rodgers deleted the word Dibata which is important for us. In the original text were written: Loembang Dibata di gindjang (St. Hasoendoetan, Sitti Djaoerah: Padan Djanji Na Togoe, Typ. Drukkerij Philemon bin Haroen Siregar, (Bagian II), 1930, p. 422. It is common for us Batak to name a small village containing of a few or a lot of houses as Lumban (Loembang). Dibata or Debata is the same with God in English. We use this word Dibata/Debata in our Batak-version-Bible. We say, Amanta Debata (Our God Father). Compare to Sitapi Mombang Suro who is a daughter of Sutan Batara Guru Doli who lives with his wife and families in Loembang Dibata di gindjang. This is also something to do with Batak version of the earth myth creation, such as the Genesis in the Christian Bible. Hasoendoetan write it down as gindjang not Gindjang. This differences is important for here are laying the mind of the word itself so does the mind of the writer and his community. By saying Upper Spirit World, the reader especially the Westerners will imagine that this location is far away up there, something like Heaven in Christian’s imagination. By saying gidjang which is just a common word used by Batak People in everyday life we understand that the location is not as farther as a Heaven in the Christians’ (Westerners’) mind.
[7] M.J. Soetan Hasoendoetan, 1997, p. 372-373. We can find the original version in: M.J. St. Hasoendoetan, Sitti Djaoerah: Padan Djanji Na Togoe, Typ. Drukkerij Philemon bin Haroen Siregar, 1929 (Bagian I), and 1930 (Bagian II). Padan Djanji Na Togoe means: The Strong and Faithful Vow. Rodgers put it this way: Sitti Djaoerah, A Novel of Colonial Indonesia. This very title of Rodgers for sure will ‘seduce’ the eyes of those scholars in postcolonial studies.
[8]We don’t give ulos (weaving fabric with different type and color in simple form with just wide and length form). In Batak mythology, si Deak Parujar, the daughter of Batara Guru was a weaver of ulos. Ulos was also used as clothes in the old time before the arrival of the popular modern outfits. Ulos was somehow our bialal-biulul. You don’t give ulos in a way you give souvenir or any kind of gift. We put ulos by putting them on their back-shoulder so that they get warm both in outside and inside. Before delivering the ulos, a giver has to deliver her/his speech as well. After putting the ulos, taking rice and putting them on top the ulos-receiver by saying: on ma boras pir, sai pir ma tondim...this is strong rice, may your soul is strong as well…