A Portrait for Pak Teeuw

At the occasion of his 85th Birthday, 12 August 2006, a book was prepaired for Prof. Hans Teeuw under the title Een Milde Regen  (A Mild Rain). For this occasion I asked for a portrait of Hans Teeuw by G. M. Sudarto, the cartoonist of the newspaper Kompas. He pictured Pak Teeuw with a lontar manuscript in his right hand for his knowledge of Old Javanese and a laptop in his left hand, indicating his modernity.

I also asked Gabriel Possenti Sindhunata, Jesuit Priest and Editor of the literary journal Basis to write a wuku, a horoscope, or mystical portrait of Hans Teeuw, as he used to do of public figures. The following was the result. The Engelish translation is by Dr. Simon Rae, now in New Zealand:

Prof. Dr. Andries  Teeuw

Lahir di Gorinchem (Gorkum)

12 Agustus 1921

Nilai A bulan Agustus = 153

Nilai B tahun 1921 Masehi = 44

Nilai C = A + B + 12 =  209

Nilai C di bawah 210 jatuh pada 209,

ketemu  hari Jumat (6) Kliwon (8), neptu = 14.

Wuku ke-XXX: Watugunung

Di mana pun ia berpijak

hidupnya selalu mengalir bijak

karena ia disangga daya seekor naga

Sang Hyang Antaboga

di kedalaman bumi yang gelap gulita.

Pengorbanan dewa naga

menjadi terang di pelupuk matanya.

Bagai resi yang ingin suci dengan bertapa

ia suka mencari sunyi dengan bekerja

daun-daun dengan teliti diperiksanya

seakan di sana tersembunyi sejuta rahasia

dari kayu Wijayakusuma

tempat ia menyandarkan keprihatinannya.

Burung Gogik terbang di langitnya yang kelabu

membawa dia menghadap Batara Guru

dihantarkannya dia menyepi dari candi ke candi

diajarinya dia mengupas hidup dari sandi ke sandi.

Baginya hidup ini adalah naskah bagaikan lautan

dan ia adalah seorang nelayan

yang menjaring kata-kata bagaikan menjala ikan.

Sejuta ikan di laut

berjuta kata di dalam hidup

tapi tak satu pun mencakup

kerinduannya yang seluas laut.

Maka dilepaskannyalah ikan-ikan

dituturkannyalah kata-kata

ia yang kaya dengan kata

menjadi miskin karena kata

ia lalu menjadi pengemis kata-kata

sampai kata-kata sendiri menelan habis hidupnya:

ia adalah nelayan kata-kata

jalanya terkoyak habis oleh kata-kata.

Di hidupnya yang telah senja

kata-kata itu adalah misteri mina

ia akan mati bila ia bekerashati memeganginya.

Biarkan ikan bebas di laut

biarkan kata-kata bebas di dalam hidup

dan hidupnya pun dibebaskan oleh kata

bagaikan ikan yang tak lagi dapat dijala.

Ia bisa menghancurkan dirinya

karena Batara Kala menghuni di hatinya

Maka dengan segala upaya, Kala dijadikannya kala

maka waktu pun terhampar menjadi hampa

diisinya waktu dengan kata

maka kala berubah jadi kata

Kala Kata, Kata Kala

Kala Kata, Kata Kala

Kala Kata , Kata Kala

Enyahlah kau, hai Dewa Kala

Begitulah ia telah meruwat Kala menjadi kata.

Jadilah sekarang ia pendeta kata

yang disucikan oleh kata

dan murah hati dengan kata.

Adalah banaspati di awang-awang hidupnya

adalah api yang menyala di hatinya

adalah ketidaksabaran yang berkobar dalam dirinya.

Mengapa banaspati keluar di waktu malam

dan api makin menyala dalam kegelapan?

Ia pun berguru pada rembulan.

Kali ini ia hanya bisa berdiam.

Tanpa kata.

Diam seribu bahasa.

Malam pun bertaburan dengan kata-kata

Dan bulan hanya menjadi sebuah kata

kendati bulan adalah Kata, raja diraja dari kata-kata.

Ia pun makin diam, tunduk pada malam kata-kata.

Di akhir hidupnya, tak lagi ia mempunyai kata

Meski seumur hidupnya ia adalah pencari kata-kata.

Sindhunata

 Perhitungan wuku didasarkan pada cara perhitungan Pradiko Reksopranoto, “Menemukan Wuku berdasar Hari/Tanggal Kalender Masehi”, dlm.: Almanak Dewi Sri yang bersengkalan “Ngesthi Suka Trusing Sabangsa” (1978). 

Translation by Dr. Simon Rae, Dunedin

Wherever he stands

his life always flows with wisdom

because he is supported by the strength of a dragon

Sang Hyang[1] Antaboga[2]

in the pitch-black depths of the earth.

The sacrifice of the divine naga

becomes light in his eyes.   

Like a hermit who seeks holiness through an ascetic life

he likes to seek quietness by working,

lontar leaves with great care he examines

in case there are hidden there a million secrets

from a branch of Wijayakusuma[3]

the place to which he commits his cares.

The Gogik bird flies in the grey skies

bearing him to present himself before Lord Shiva,

he brings him to seek a place of retreat from shrine to shrine,

he teaches him to peel life bare from joint to joint.

For him this life is a document like an ocean

and he is a fisher

who filters out words as one nets fish.

A million fish in the sea

millions of words in life

but not even one catches

his longing as wide as the sea. 

So then he releases the fish

words were spoken by him,

he who is rich in words

becomes poor because of words

he had become at last a words beggar

up to the point where words themselves swallow up his life:

he is a fisher of words

his casting net was torn to pieces by words.

In his life that was already approaching dusk

these words are a fishy mystery

he will die if he persists in holding on to them.

Let the fish be free in the sea

let the words be free in life

and life itself will be set free by words

like fish that can no longer by netted.

He is able to destroy himself

because the Lord Kala[4] dwells in his heart

so then by every means he turns Kala into time [kala][5]

so that time itself is spread out to become empty

time[waktu] he fills with words

so that time [kala] becomes word[kata]

Kala Kata, Kata Kala

Time Word, Word Time

Kala Kata, Kata Kala

Time Word, Word Time

Kala Kata, Kata Kala

Time Word, Word Time

Be off, I tell you divine Kala

in this way he has already exorcised Kala who became a word [kata].

So it came about that now he is a word pandit

who is sanctified by words

and generous with words.

There is a ghost[6] in the heights[7] of his life

there is fire that flames up in his heart

there is an impatience that flares up inside him.

Why is it that the banaspati (ghost) comes out at night

and fire burns brighter in the darkness?

He also goes to the moon[8] to learn.

This time he can only keep silent.

Without a word.

Silent in a thousand languages.

Night itself is scattered with words

and the moon becomes no more than a word.

Although the moon is Kata, king of kings among words.

Even he becomes more silent, bowing his head to the night of words.

At the close of his life, he no longer has words

although all his life he was one who looked for words.

---

[1] Sang Hiang: honorific for a god.

[2] Antaboga: A great snake with supernatural powers

[3] Wijayakusuma: Skt ‘bunga kemenangan’, ‘the victory flower’ believed to have supernatural power to revive the dead.

[4] Kala: the god Shiva appearing as an agent of age and death.

[5] Kala is Old Javanese from Skt kâla = Indon. waktu = time.

[6] Banaspati: Skt a ghost of the forest

[7] Awang-awang: the space between the sky (langit) and the earth (bumi)’.

[8] rembulan: ‘Javanese: moon’.  The Indonesian word, bulan, is used a few lines later.

 In 2006 there was no room for these portraits in the Memorial Book, but I am happy to put it here on the Internet for all friends who want to remember him.