Patiwangi: Renunciation | Patiwangi

By and | 4 November 2012
Patiwangi: Renunciation1


this is my new land

a spring guarantees its existence

fish embark on new love affairs

branches bearing budding leaves

fashion a burial ceremony


I can smell all kinds of flowers

and ritual offerings curse the feet I sink into soil

the tinkling of bells arrests the compass

powerless to guide the gods home


In the temples I make a map

to carry my colors to the sun’s family tree

the earth broods, the soil buries its wrath

no fragment of sound remains

to set my colors free


the men who are present challenge the sun

awaiting their chosen woman’s hue

no temple rites exist for them to perform


the officiants can only inhale the incense

required to recognize too many gods

and still the men press their suits for my hand


because of my name

I need to possess a ritual history


of this selection

I will bathe posterity’s children clean




Patiwangi2


inilah tanah baruku

mata air menentukan hidupnya

ikan-ikan memulai percintaan baru

batang-batang yang menopang daun-daun muda

membuat upacara penguburan


telah kucium beragarn bunga

dan sesajen mengutuk kaki yang kubenamkan di tanah

suara genta menyumbat mata angin

tak mampu mengantar dewa pulang


kubuat peta di Pura-Pura

mengantar warnaku pada silsilah matahari

bumi mengeram, tanah memendam amarah

tak ada pecahan suara

menyelamatkan warnaku


para lelaki menantang matahari

menunggu warna perempuan pilihannya

tak ada upacara untuknya di setiap sudut Pura


para pemangku hanya mencium bangkai dupa

terlalu banyak dewa yang hams diingat

dan para lelaki terus meminang


karena namaku

kuharus punya sejarah upacara


anak-anak

kelak kumandikan dari pilihan ini


1995




English translation by Deborah Cole






    

  1.  ‘Patiwangi’ (pati=death; wangi=fragrant) is a Balinese-Hindu rite an upper-caste
    
women is obliged to perform when she marries a man of a lower caste. In so
    
doing, she renounces her caste and becomes that of her husband. ↩
    2. 

  2.  Patiwangi: Pati, mati. Wangi, keharuman. Pariwangi adalah upacara yang dilakukan
    
terhadap perempuan bangsawan di Pura Desa untuk menghilangkan
    
kebangsawanannya, karena menikahi laki-laki yang berkasta lebih rendah.
    
Seringkali upacara ini berdampak psikologis bagi para perempuan bangsawan. ↩
    3.
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Lahir di Jakarta, 11 Juli 1967. Saat ini tinggal di Denpasar, Bali. Ia menulis puisi, novel dan cerita pendek. Karyanya dikenal banyak mendobrak tabu kehidupan perempuan. Sosok dan karya-karyanya fenomenal dan seringkali kontroversial karena mengangkat sejumlah persoalan adat-istiadat dan tradisi Bali yang kolot dan merugikan perempuan, terutama di lingkungan griya, rumah kaum Brahmana. Ia banyak memperoleh penghargaan, antara lain: Penghargaan Penulisan Karya Sastra 2003 dari Pusat Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia. Sering diundang ke berbagai forum sastra nasional dan internasional, di antaranya: Festival Sastra Winternachten di Den Haag dan Amsterdam, Belanda, sekaligus hadir sebagai penulis tamu di Universitas Hamburg, Jerman (2003), serta Singapore Writer Festival (2011). Bukunya yang telah terbit: Monolog Pohon (1997), Tarian Bumi (2000), Sagra (2001), Kenanga (2003), Patiwangi (2003), Warna Kita (2007), Erdentanz (novel Tarian Bumi edisi bahasa Jerman, 2007). Pandora (2008), Tempurung (2010), Earth Dance (novel Tarian Bumi edisi Inggris, 2011), dan Akar Pule (2012).
Oka Rusmini was born in Jakarta on 11 Juli 1967. She now resides in Denpasar, Bali. She writes poetry, novels and short stories. Her work is known for breaking down taboos in women’s social lives. The figures in her phenomenal works are often controversial because they interrogate various conservative Balinese cultural traditions that harm women, especially within the home context of the Brahmana caste. She has received multiple literary awards and is regularly invited to various national and international literature forums including the Winternachten Literature Festival in the Haag and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as well as a guest writer at Hamburg University, German (2003), and the Singapore Writers Festival (2011). Her published books include Monolog Pohon (A Tree’s Monologue, 1997), Tarian Bumi (2000), Sagra (2001), Kenanga (2003), Patiwangi (2003), Warna Kita (Our Colors, 2007), Erdentanz (the German edition of Tarian Bumi 2007), Pandora (2008), Tempurung (Coconut Shell, 2010), Earth Dance (the English edition of Tarian Bumi 2011), dan Akar Pule (Snake Tree Root, 2012) for which she was awarded the 2012 SEA-Write Award.

More by Oka Rusmini on Cordite Poetry Review →
Debbie Cole learned Bahasa Indonesia from children in her neighborhood in Jakarta between 1976-1984. From her many Australian classmates in elementary school, she learned how to speak some 'Strine' and enjoy vegemite and butter sandwiches. As a graduate student, she studied public performances of Indonesian poetry in Jogjakarta, Central Java during Indonesia’s Reformasi period in 2001-2002. Some of what she learned about attitudes towards difference and diversity through that research appeared in an article 'Enregistering diversity: Adequation in Indonesian poetry performance' in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology in 2010. Currently, she is an associate professor of linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Texas-Pan American (situated along the border between Mexico and the United States) where she occasionally serves on thesis committees for poetry students in a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. Along with John McGlynn and Dorothea Rosa Herliany, she is a member of the editorial team for the Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Poetry.

More by Deborah Cole on Cordite Poetry Review →

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