BEBASARI ( Englished)

CASTS:

Gadis ( the Maid/ Bebasari)

Bujang ( the Boy)

Orang tua ( Old man)

Si Bapa (  Father)

Mamanda Sabari

THE STORY OF THE PLAY
The Great King Takutar have been defeated by Rawana. His Kingdom was taken, because Rawana was informed by an astrologer that Bujanga son of Takutar will be married to princess Bebasari the daughter of a nobleman named Sabari.

Rawana having no faith of any predestined fate, kept seperate those two lovers, and confined Bebasari in a jail tightly guard by jinns and fairies.
When Bujanga reached age, he dreamed of seeing Bebasari face and become passionated.
Bujanga asked his father the meaning of the dream.
The father explained that Bebasari was enggaged to Bujanga.
Bujanga would like to go to seek his fiancee but withheld by his father and uncle Sabari.
Dakarati and Sabainaracu was sent to demand Bebasari.
Bujanga strong in his love, didn't heed what Sabari have said and left his country instead, go to where Rawana imprisoned Bebasari which Saibanaracu pointed out.
Bujanga defeated the hosts and the people of Rawana and expelled Rawana from the Kingdom he taken from his father, and release Bebasari from her imprisonment.
Bujanga married Bebasari as natural luck has promised.
ACT ONE
Stage endarkened. In the center a maid, all in white, hair down, kneeling down, hand cuffed with heavy chain. Halfplay flooded by red down light .
In this dimness, a whining sound was heard:

PROLOGUE

O, Dark, O, ignorancer
O Lord, the story arranger.
Open the door me orphaned
Lost father, mother ripped off
O, dimmed universe
Place of cheatery play
Give me holy light
Brighten up barnacle within heart


Flickering light reveal the maid, spoke slowly. Getting louder
THE MAID
Ah, my luck cut stuck
When will be off confined
O, my big brother
It's been a long time bear in the chest
Look, chain twained about body
Spiteful, swished, sound of writ
Take a good look at me
Mourned
Listen to sob, suffering flop
Great expectation is on love brother
Shiver, infatuated me awaiting
Heart thirst, desire of life
O, me , I 'm waiting
Knight bringer, troops of soldiers
O, hope , me virgin
To Bujangga , hero's heart
Set me free
O, brother of mine
Release, Release o, Release
Full of mourn, carnal suffering
Come, come
Brother of myself
Kiss embrace, our passion
Wave the glory, love of my heart

Gradually light off, stage dark again as before

ACT TWO
Stage aren't floodlighted now. A view in skirt of a jungle , lonely village, backdrop is mountain panorama, green lighted. Front right hand side stage is an old man sitting on a bench made of twigs and branch head in hand. In front of him is a boy on his knee, closing his eyes with his palm contemplating.
A flute fluting with dullness backstage. Getting slower and eventually unheard.
The old man shake his head slowly. The boy raise his head saying slow and sad
THE BOY
Father, o my father
How hard is I've been disturbed
Utterly dark, boisterous
Sky world in my perception
Is having groping in dim
Being hesitate in its course
Aware, athirst
Feeling cut off
Fatigue, exhausted and limped
Buzzed, scattered, feel parted
Body and mind
O, father of mine


PARENT
Hand in boy's right shoulder. Wipe off his head
Soft slow, in relief intonatedMy son
Remember cloud
have keen eyes
Remember twig
have sonorous ears
Remember stone apt in talk
There's so many god's titans
Bushes roots, reckless snaked

THE BOY
Let nature hear alike
Full of heart carrier chalice
blood throbbing in my breast
bitter smart, craver hot
It is right for us to ask explained
Would be a febrifuge.


The parent raise followed by the boy. The father looking into the eyes of his son, shaking his head , astonished, worried.

Calm down, listen son


THE BOY
My deep breast already adopting


The parent take a sit again, wiping forehead with finger. The boy kneeling again bow down his head.
The parent speak by himself

THE PARENT
This is the moment I fear
This is the time that I wait
When dawn break in the heart
Torching valley ancient dusk
This is cloud, soul impregnated
Bringing secret in dagger tip
A token of prosperity of city and men
If youth bodily aware
If to bathe in breast wave
trench break slave panter


Both absorbed. The light behind is fading away, then there are alternating glow in green, red, and yellow, and the flash also playing in front of the stage. After this light play, hind side stage go dark.
Floodlight is on in pitch bright. The spot where the parent and son sit is highlighted.
The boy move , holding father's left hand with both hands and say softly and uncontinuously.


My father,
Please Interpret dream in sleep...........
I was playing............jesting........hunting
Maybe lake ..........maybe riverbank
Enormous.....mountain .........sky....... cloud
laid longitude........laid transverse.....
aslept........spread out...........
leafy thrive of foliage............

lavishly grew, jungle and forest........
Wave cheered, mass disorderly
Splahed scattered to the shore waving up
O, father
Field was green as if rug
Orange was rice grain in rice field
The earth soil was silver
Clean white splendour
Gold caved, oil ponded
Obsidian, the diamond was lavished
Flew fluttered, birds and magpies
Danced, sang all sorts
Wind blew waved whispered
Like clarinet music flute ..........
My father
I too astonished seeing that..............
Not some not in two
I saw periodical people
They were carbuncle
Heart grumped
Half was like ape
Other half have mouse deer heart
Half are two tongued
Half have a ten thousand million eyes
Half gropes like the blind
Apparently gone is the think lamp
They run
Thru and thro
Like wild animal insolent beast
Lashed away whip cast
I asked to them
Quake is the answer, boisterous
My Father
My heart was moved
Lost was my hope
Very sad like sembilu*
Worthless was forest of aloe- wood
of Overflowed world
Splashed sea
Crying wailing
Roaring howling
Begging hesitating
To catch with fate
Leaf and branch,
Sobbing
The wind moaning, spell craving

My father
Trembling tired, arm limb
Thunder’s heard , God’s dexterous
Sound was heard in the middle of the dark
Youth name became a repentance
I was surprised , sleep startled
Till now enduring anxiousness

Both sojourned……..
The boy keep kneeling, like one longing
The father beholding his son moved, compassionately, then
raised fatigued, walked two three steps ahead
THE FATHER
O , Allah
Lord God
O, ill luck, unfortunate me
This is oath
This is wrath
Messenger and prophet, Lord God
It’s been a long time
I blamed
All of those proficient fortune tellers , astrologers
If come
Dawn welcoming
One’s son would be parted
Endure me
Doubting young
As to bury which is hard
Sweet baby , be dressed up
So the heart won’t aware
O, dream
Infatuated love
Pouring down into young heart
Arrival sign
Slender boy
To fight for the right of the noble goddess

The father raised beside the boy
(The stage is floodlighted) hind side is fading light.
green and yellow and pink alternately
THE FATHER,
Listen carefully , I say
THE BOY
O, my father , enlighten me with lamplight
In order be perfect , prosperous my body
To go through life, following heart
THE FATHER
O, my son flower of the land
Yard hedger , crown of the castle
Intoxicated by Arriving Time
Hope for fatherland
Forget your dream coming in disguise
Throw away your daydreams , the difficult
That is a consolation remedy
That is a path imperiled

The Father unspoked
The Boy raised, father following his move with his eyes
Son retreat a step
BOY
My father if it is that father mentioned
There is no use for me to laying down
Into the lap I revered.
Just to move mind and heart
If I only could throw away, father of mine
Trembling voice inside breast
Heard at random, sensitive young
Gone are our knighthood
It’s forbidden for me to sit patriotic

The father meditated…….
The floodlight fading away, behind is dark, thunder light flickering . Noisy sound thundering . Lightning enraged.
Nature Play stopped.
In darkness behind seen a little light. Getting bigger , like coming out of a mountain chink until the foreground really bright.
Front side stay dim
Listen to ancients tale, horizon weathered time
When calamity was not yet come, inflicting the land, discharge river mouth
When people chat, when freedom untimed
When flourished timber are in the jungle, when kingdom fenced with dagger
Firm country pivoting in custom, crown are upheld by people saying
.......

* sembilu are very sharp edged chip made of bamboo skin, well known for often hurting uncautios hand.

( to be continued)

Note:
(for the time being, translation is limited to the words in brown in the original version in the next posting)




Roestam Effendi 1926
translation; saptono

Roestam Effendi was born in Padang, May 13, 1903.

Studied in  Kweekschool ( Teacher School) in Bukiltinggi in West Sumatra and then Hogere Kweekschool (Higher Teacher Training College) in Bandung,West Java.Got his Hoofdacte ( High Deed) in the Netherlands, and become a principal  in Adabiah school in Padang.
Between 1936 – 1946 he sat as a member of the Dutch parliament as a representative of he Communist Party of the Netherlands . Roestam Effendi  visited Soviet Union  and, returned to Indonesia in 1947 after quit the Communist Party and joined Tan Malaka, a prominent politician of Pre Indonesia era.
In the literature (he is) one of the leading writer  before an era known as “Pujangga Baru” (the New Poet).

He had the courage to experiment on language, even could be called as a pathfinder  to poetry after the second world war. 

His writing is not easy to read, because itis full of words ,dialect and language experiment.

Works: Percikan Permenungan (The spark reflection ,anthology 1920), Bebasari (rhyming drama 1926), Quo Vadis? (a political pamphlet).

Before writing Bebasari,  his  essays were published under a pseudonym in the Asyray , a women's magazine, . . During his Neteherlands stay he was a contributor to  De Telegraaf ( Daily) and De Branding.