Before Dawn: The Poetry of Sapardi Djoko Damono

by Sapardi Djoko Damono, John H. McGlynn (Translator), Jeihan Sukmantoro (Illustrator)

Before Dawn - Suddenly the Night, Lontar first publication, was released in 1987. Before Dawn, a completely revised and expanded version of this work, contains an additional thirty poems by Sapardi Djoko Damono, on of Indonesia’s most prominent poets. The writer, through the language of his poetry and its meaning, sound and rhythem, proves himself capable of depicting a highly imaginative awareness of experience.

Genres: Poetry, Indonesian Literature

209 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Riwayat hidup
Masa mudanya dihabiskan di Surakarta. Pada masa ini ia sudah menulis sejumlah karya yang dikirimkan ke majalah-majalah. Kesukaannya menulis ini berkembang saat ia menempuh kuliah di bidang bahasa Inggris di Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.

Sejak tahun 1974 ia mengajar di Fakultas Sastra (sekarang Fakultas Ilmu Budaya) Universitas Indonesia, namun kini telah pensiun. Ia pernah menjadi dekan di sana dan juga menjadi guru besar. Pada masa tersebut ia juga menjadi redaktur pada majalah "Horison", "Basis", dan "Kalam".

Sapardi Djoko Damono banyak menerima penghargaan. Pada tahun 1986 SDD mendapatkan anugerah SEA Write Award. Ia juga penerima penghargaan Achmad Bakrie pada tahun 2003. Ia adalah salah seorang pendiri Yayasan Lontar.

Karya-karya
Sajak-sajak SDD, begitu ia sering dijuluki, telah diterjemahkan ke dalam berbagai bahasa. Sampai sekarang telah ada delapan kumpulan puisinya yang diterbitkan. Ia tidak saja menulis puisi, tetapi juga menerjemahkan berbagai karya asing, menulis esei, serta menulis sejumlah kolom/artikel di surat kabar, termasuk kolom sepak bola.

Beberapa puisinya sangat populer dan banyak orang yang mengenalinya, seperti Aku Ingin (sering kali dituliskan bait pertamanya pada undangan perkawinan), Hujan Bulan Juni, Pada Suatu Hari Nanti, Akulah si Telaga, dan Berjalan ke Barat di Waktu Pagi Hari. Kepopuleran puisi-puisi ini sebagian disebabkan musikalisasi terhadapnya. Yang terkenal terutama adalah oleh Reda Gaudiamo dan Tatyana (tergabung dalam duet "Dua Ibu"). Ananda Sukarlan pada tahun 2007 juga melakukan interpretasi atas beberapa karya SDD.

Berikut adalah karya-karya SDD (berupa kumpulan puisi), serta beberapa esei.

Kumpulan Puisi/Prosa

* "Duka-Mu Abadi", Bandung (1969)
* "Lelaki Tua dan Laut" (1973; terjemahan karya Ernest Hemingway)
* "Mata Pisau" (1974)
* "Sepilihan Sajak George Seferis" (1975; terjemahan karya George Seferis)
* "Puisi Klasik Cina" (1976; terjemahan)
* "Lirik Klasik Parsi" (1977; terjemahan)
* "Dongeng-dongeng Asia untuk Anak-anak" (1982, Pustaka Jaya)
* "Perahu Kertas" (1983)
* "Sihir Hujan" (1984; mendapat penghargaan Puisi Putera II di Malaysia)
* "Water Color Poems" (1986; translated by J.H. McGlynn)
* "Suddenly the night: the poetry of Sapardi Djoko Damono" (1988; translated by J.H. McGlynn)
* "Afrika yang Resah (1988; terjemahan)
* "Mendorong Jack Kuntikunti: Sepilihan Sajak dari Australia" (1991; antologi sajak Australia, dikerjakan bersama R:F: Brissenden dan David Broks)
* "Hujan Bulan Juni" (1994)
* "Black Magic Rain" (translated by Harry G Aveling)
* "Arloji" (1998)
* "Ayat-ayat Api" (2000)
* "Pengarang Telah Mati" (2001; kumpulan cerpen)
* "Mata Jendela" (2002)
* "Ada Berita Apa hari ini, Den Sastro?" (2002)
* "Membunuh Orang Gila" (2003; kumpulan cerpen)
* "Nona Koelit Koetjing :Antologi cerita pendek Indonesia periode awal (1870an - 1910an)" (2005; salah seorang penyusun)
* "Mantra Orang Jawa" (2005; puitisasi mantera tradisional Jawa dalam bahasa Indonesia)

Musikalisasi Puisi

Musikalisasi puisi karya SDD sebetulnya bukan karyanya sendiri, tetapi ia terlibat di dalamnya.

* Album "Hujan Bulan Juni" (1990) dari duet Reda dan Ari Malibu.
* Album "Hujan Dalam Komposisi" (1996) dari duet Reda dan Ari.
* Album "Gadis Kecil" dari duet Dua Ibu
* Album "Becoming Dew" (2007) dari duet Reda dan Ari Malibu
* satu lagu dari "Soundtrack Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti", berjudul Aku Ingin, diambil dari sajaknya dengan judul sama, digarap bersama Dwiki Dharmawan dan AGS Arya Dwipayana, dibawakan oleh Ratna Octaviani.

Ananda Sukarlan pada Tahun Baru 2008 juga mengadakan konser kantata "Ars Amatoria" yang berisi interpretasinya atas puisi-puisi SDD.

Buku

* "Sastra Lisan Indonesia" (1983), ditulis bersama Subagio Sastrowardoyo dan A. Kasim Achmad. Seri Bunga Rampai Sastra ASEAN.

Reviews

[Anastasia Eugenia Ika Wulandari]

(one of my favorites)


The day will come
When my body no longer exists
But in the lines of this poem
I will never let you be alone

The day will come
When my voice is no longer heard
But within the words of this poem
I will continue to watch over you

The day will come
When my dreams are no longer known
But in the spaces found in the letters of this poem
I will never tired of looking for you
(The Day Will Come-Sapardi Djoko Damono)

[Manik Sukoco]

Sapardi’s poems are humble like the man who wrote them. Every time I read his poems, I am always reminded of my first date, when I was in college. The poems are grammatically and semantically complete. They didn’t speak loud like (political) pamphlets, but slow and beautiful, wants to mend the morals of society. I will pick two of my favorite poems:

"I WANT"
I want to love you simply, in words not spoken: tinder to the flame which transforms it to ash
I want to love you simply, in signs not expressed: clouds to the rain which make them evanescent

"RAIN SPELL"
Rain knows well the tree, the road
the gutter too-their voices can be distinguished:
and you can hear them too, even when you close the door
and window. Even when you dim the light.
Rain, who really can distinguished between them,
has fallen on the tree, the road and the gutter-
casting a spell so that you have no chance at all to protest
when you find the revelation that you may not reveal

[Theresia]

(Reread) The only book of mine that has touched four continents with me. I'm a crappy poetry reader, but when it comes to poetry translation, I'd pick John McGlynn over Harry Aveling.

SDD:
Tuan Tuhan, bukan? Tunggu sebentar,
saya sedang ke luar.

McGlynn:
It's Mister God, is it not? Wait a moment, will you?
I'm out.

Aveling:
Mister mystery, aren't you? Just a moment,
I'm out to lunch.

Both are a great miss, in terms of lyricism and wittiness, but Aveling's translation made me go all 'What the hell?' In the wise words of SDD himself, to translate a poem one must be a poet oneself. Indeed. If I could trade a career, I'd rather die a happy SDD translator than anything. Sadly, the first urge I have whenever I'm thinking of translating a poem is to Leipzig gloss it. Crappy, I told you.

[Sherinesky Suryanegara]

"Walking Westward in the Morning"

walking westward in the morning the sun follows me from behind
walking, I follow my drawn-out shadow before me
the sun and I don't argue about which one of us creates the shadow
the shadow and I don't argue about which one of us must lead the way..

one of my fave!

[Astri]

Kumpulan puisi yang indah. Kualitas bukunya bagus, kertasnya juga bagus.

[Helix]

The book that inspires me to write poetry and be a poet. I remembered sneaking to the bookshelf in the living room to read this, the copy belongs to my dad. I still yet to find it after we moved houses and after all these years.

Thank you, Mr Sapardi, for always inspiring me. We true poets know that yang fana adalah waktu. Kita abadi.

[Denrophile]

👍👍👍

[Nadia Pasaribu]

This is amazing book

[Dame]

The poems of Sapardi Djoko Damono always make me fall in love, when I have some free time this before dawn book is the one I always look for and read again and again.

[霜降 。]

the poet's versatility is impresive as he able to draw powerful picts with a minimum of words to a palette of poems, which a glance appear to be prose

[Irwan]

Thanks to Lita for the kind gift :-)


p.169

SHOES

you didn't feel it when your shoes trod on
the pebbles and old leaves on the footpath;
you didn't hear the insightful comments
of the leaves and the pebbles about your shoes


p.142

I WANT

I want to love you simply,
in words not spoken:
tinder to the flame which transforms it to ash

I want to love you simply,
in signs not expressed:
clouds to the rain which make them evanesce

[Famega Putri]

i love this book so much, read it over and over again. Even the too-much-quoted poem of Sapardi (aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana) feels like brand new.

Date i finish? No i never finished read it :D

[gieb]

nemu di periplus juanda. belum sempat dibuka. sudah berpindah tangan ke orang lain. hehe.

[Alfian]

kumpulan puisi sapardi yang ditranslasikan ke dalam bahasa inggris. banyak puisi bagus di dalamnya.

[Indah Threez Lestari]

495 - 2013

[Dania Syarwan]

amazing words ..

[Rohman Muhamad]

Selalu kagum dari karya - karya seorang Sapardi Djoko, terkesan lawas, berisi dan tidak lebay seperti buku - buku jaman sekarang.

[Rosi Simamora]

Tulisan Sapardi menurut saya abadi, selalu baru setiap kali saya menjenguknya. Padahal sudah puluhan kali saya membacanya.