| Summary: | Contemporary Indonesian Poetry contains the best present-day poetry from Indonesia, printed in the original Bahasa Indonesia with facing page English translations. The poets collected here are the most important from an exciting period. "About 1967 or 1968 there was in Indonesia a sudden sensation of freedom," wrote the influential poet Goenawan Mohamad. " There were new experiments in process , poetry and drama ; it was as though we were witnessing the beginnings of a new avant - garde movement such as had happened after 1945 . Writers came as individuals , bowing to no common artistic credo , clearly aware ( and many of them were new writers) of a rediscovery of creative elan." The best of these writers can be found here, with examples of their work from the sixties and seventies. They are: W. S. Rendra, an explosive force on the contemporary scene; the quietly assured Ajip Rosidi ; Subagio Sastrowardojo, whose verse is taut and personal; Toeti Heraty, Indonesia's leading woman poet; Taufiq Ismail, a poet whose work ranges from popular and politically committed to writing subtle verses of deep human sympathy; the highly influential Goenawan Mohamad ; and Sapardi Djoko Damono, whose poetry is disciplined, intellectual, and often lyrically beautiful. The translations in this book were assisted by the Asia Society (New York) under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
|
|---|