Man Tiger: Eki Kurniawan

Guest Post 

By Aleksandra Skiba

Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin. 

An encounter with a tiger is fraught with potential danger, even if the striped predator appears only on the border of dream and reality. The ephemeral and elusive animal can also leave bloody traces as experienced by the characters in Indonesian author Eki Kurniawan’s book ManTiger.

Written in 2004, the novel is deeply saturated with emotions and secrets and reads like a crime story, but if it really has to be defined it can only be described as à rebours. This is because right at the beginning of the book Anwar Sadat's murder by Margio becomes a hot topic of conversation in the village. The news about Margio's deed, a friendly 20-year-old man in love, shocks a small society. 

The graphic depiction of the brutal murder is horrifying; it's this graphic depiction that makes Eki Kurniawan’s writing resemble the pulp fiction genre but that is a clever, deliberate poly. The Javanese writer mixes literary conventions, drawing inspiration from popular fiction, Mahabharata, oral storytelling or theatre wayang, jumping from cheap sensation to literal depiction, from lyricism to fantasies and dreams.

The narrative deserves particular attention because of the underlying universalism of the characters. There are four members of the family who like gods or heroes from myths or Javanian Shadow Theater, present their intentions by acts.  The dialogue is almost absent from the narrative, and if there is any interaction between the characters it happens mostly because of a strong sense of duty that brings these indoors enemies together and they increasingly resemble mythic characters.

Every member of the family creates their own world – with better or worse results – to find a way to channel negative emotions. Therefore, the need to express pain and anger presents itself as a mother’s deliberately abandoned garden or a symbolic white female tiger that personifies the son’s determination and uncontrolled explosion.

The tradition and local customs are, next to family relationship, also a strong barrier on the island. However, these problems touch mostly inequalities of village society. What is tolerated in a rich playboy can be deprecated in a poor woman; so Nuareni, the unhappy wife, can’t alter her fate and defy societal norms openly.

Although the Nuareni and Komar bin Syueb’s arranged marriage isn’t doomed to fail, it does because of the impossibility to their circumstances to behave less conventionally, the rigid social expectations and their growing poverty which doesn’t allow them to break walls of initial shyness and lack of confidence. 

This is when good intentions are abandoned and the violence starts to be a constant element of their life.

The inequality visible in the family and in the social relationships builds the readers’ attitude to characters and from the beginning evokes sympathy for the victims. The author enables the other side to fight against this opinion but the reasoning is weak and unconvincing. The principle of classical tragedy is preserved in this case too so the real evil stays evil without place, for explanations from popular psychology literature. 

Man Tiger is an acclaimed book and won the Financial Times and Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices awards and was nominated for The Man Booker International Prize in 2016 – a first for an Indonesian author. We can only hope that such recognition will lead to more translations of his work in English and Polish.

---

Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin. She has contributed to this blog occasionally. Her earlier posts are:

Rediscovering a Poet
Goetel & Gandhi
To look for something and find another

The Scarlet Muse

Thanks to the efforts of my nephew Tapan Ramchandran, I have received a copy of The Scarlet Muse, an anthology of Polish poems translated into English by Umadevi (Wanda Dynowska) and Harischandra Bhatt (my grandfather).

The anthology was published in 1944 by Nalanda Publishers (NM Tripathi Limited), Princess Street, Bombay.

About a couple of years back, I had tried to get a copy of the anthology for Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin.

Skiba, the researcher and librarian, had done good work unearthing information about Harischandra and Umadevi available in Polish library archives. If you’re interested, you may read the earlier posts here: Rediscovering a poet.

Poland is engulfed in a fresh bout of constitutional crisis. I’m reproducing two poems from the anthology from the World War II era, but have resonance even today.

The Song of Warsaw

(Broadcast by the Warsaw radio station Blyskawica)

With our feet on the grave, still our spirits

are high,

Fighting Warsaw fights on, none here weeps

in despair!

We straddle the Hun and with bare hands we try

To strangle the beast as he creeps to his lair.

While you still complain of the bloodshed

and flame

Devouring Warsaw as day succeeds day,

We here with our bare breasts the enemy stay

And laugh at your praise and suggestions of

fame.

But why must your song of lamenting still

sound

When everyone, men, women, children are

found

Fighting and bleeding for Poland, for home!

Let the mournful dirges no longer be heard.

Here beats the great heart of Poland – intact!

Warsaw speaks! Warsaw thunders! And

this is her word:

“Spare us your praise. Give us arms. We

must act!”

(Translated by Elizabeth Clark Reiss)

The other poem is The Muse Scarlet (perhaps the poem which gave the anthology its name).

The poem is by Marian Hemar (1901-1972). When the anthology was published, Hemar, a Polish Jew, was alive and in exile in London, having escaped the clutches of the dreaded Gestapo. He could never return to Poland, because the Communist regime that ruled Poland after the end of the war. He died in England in 1972.

The Muse Scarlet

O Poetry full of grace

Do pray for us.

Thy honour is now coming

In thunder’s crash,

Thy hour is now pouring

In torrents of flame.

Lift up on us thy golden face

Thy wonderous countenance.

The glare of God’s wrath

Falls upon us,

Cast thyself in despair like a lion

On the path of His blaze,

Seize His hand which lifts up

His heavy sword over our heads,

O Poetry! Thou art the last

Rampart of Polish defences!

O walls of Zbarazh!*

Of Kamyenyets** invincibly proud

O tower of Mountain of Light!

Westerplatte falls,

Hell – villains will steal,

But thou wilt endure

Holy fortress of our Poets great.

Over our heads that lie in dust

Burst the bowl of thy dew.

Grant the grace of a sob

To our dumb, silent lips.

Wash our wounds and defeats

With thy holy tears.

O Poetry! Kneel and weep

And pray thou for us.

When by the flame

All words are twisted and curled

Like metal’s shabby plates,

Thou knowest alone the secret

Of words which defy all fires,

Born themselves out of flames,

Words – tears, words which are

Bread and salt of all life,

Which grow from the soil

And from heaven come down.

Sweep thou above us!

In a current og blazing white

And another of crimson-blood!

O poet, your hand to the standard!

No wreath for your brow,

No place for laurels now,

What matters it’s the flag

Not the hand

That holds the shaft

* a city at present in Ukraine
** a city at present in Belarus

Goetel & Gandhi

Polish writer Ferdynand Goetel’s encounter with Gandhi

Guest Post by Aleksandra Skiba

Ferdynand Goetel (1890-1960)

A hotel owner was surprised and perhaps dismayed when he asked the route to the meeting. 

A policeman shrugged his shoulders and showed him the way. He realized that the event he was so keen to witness wasn’t one that interested these sections of the society.

When he reached the venue, he also realized that his presence there wasn’t entirely welcome. The crowd glanced at him with a mix of suspicion and caution. He could sense tension, but he was determined to see Gandhi. 

The Polish journalist Ferdynand Goetel’s passion for travelling definitely shaped his writing. However, it is difficult to imagine when and how it all started.  As an Austrian citizen living in Warsaw, Ferdynand, a young architect then, was interned by the Russian authorities to Tashkent at the beginning of WWI. He worked there for four years but after the Bolshevik Revolution he decided to escape.

Returning to Poland was not easy.

With his wife, a new-born baby, and a group of desperate Poles, he travelled through Persia, Afghanistan, India and England to reach Poland after a fourteen-month journey. The experiences of that journey resulted in a memoir – Przez płonący Wshód (Across the Blazing East) released in 1922.

The readers loved it. Encouraged by the success of his book, he continued to write and soon became an editor of a travel magazine, a novelist and the President of Polish PEN.

Despite his busy schedule, he continued to travel extensively and had a prolific output of travelogues. In 1930, he visited India again, and three years later Podróż do Indyj (Journey to India) appeared in the bookshops.

In writing that book, Ferdynand observed India through the eyes of the common people. In an interview, he explained that he wrote for his Polish readers who had no access to India in Polish language.

Ferdynand’s simple style of writing was sharp and without adulation. It succeeded in altering the impressions about India and created a more realistic impression about the land.

Of course, one has to look at his writing from the perspective of early 20th century European prism. This perspective is evident in the description of his meeting with Gandhi in Allahabad in 1930.

Neither an Englishman nor an Indian, Ferdynand’s observations of Gandhi are unexpectedly different.

Waiting for Gandhi to arrive, he minutely observed the members of the Congress leadership, comparing their postures and dresses to Roman senators.

That characterization was to prepare the readers for Gandhi’s appearance at the meeting, which the Polish visitor discovered, was in a sharp contrast to the other Congress members. However, Ferdynand was unimpressed. Gandhi seemed like an ordinary clerk or a teacher, a bit weary and looking around absently.

He was objective in his observations, and had the courage to express inconvenient and unpalatable opinions.

He was unfamiliar with Gandhi’s low-key style. He had imagined that he was attending an archetypal political meeting – where other politicians were awaiting their leader, and the presence of a large and restive crowd.

But Gandhi was nothing like a politician. His monotonous and dry voice disappointed Ferdynand. Also, while he was speaking, the loudspeaker broke down, and Gandhi quietly began to spin the wheel.

At this, he couldn’t stop himself from loudly expressing his displeasure. “Madman,” he muttered loudly, in Polish.  Even when Gandhi spoke, Ferdynand observed that the crowd wasn’t attentive.

Ferdynand’s admiration for Gandhi swiftly turned to disillusionment, and he eventually left meeting mixed feelings. His description of Gandhi’s public meeting conveys the disappointment: “I imagined that moment totally different…” or “…and there things which were incomprehensible for me…”

However, there was one fact which could bring his readers a warm feeling of recognizing something well known. The Poles, who regained their freedom after a long break in 1918, noticed the similarity of Indian struggle and sympathized with that.

It is hard to say how much of the writer is contained in that description. He definitely appreciated “the genius of India” and Gandhi’s role but perhaps his European perspective clouded his judgement.

Interesting is his reflection at the end of the book: “I don’t know if I understand the East but I understood and learnt to appreciate Europe. This is the most important result of my journey.”

It seems that the initial aim of his exploration was redirected but finally it brought the knowledge and...understanding.

Bibliography:

Ferdynand Goetel, Pisma podróżnicze, edition and preface Ida Sakowska, Kraków, Arcana, 2004.

Antologia polskiego reportażu XX wieku. T. 1, 1901-1965, edition Mariusz Szczygieł, Wołowiec, Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2014.

• Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin

To look for something and find the other...

Guest post 

by Aleksandra Skiba

---

It was pure chance that I visited http://www.joga-joga.pl/ I've been training yoga for seven years but, to tell the truth, my interests concentrated on the asanas than philosophy itself. The yoga accessories which I wanted to see were to help me to simplify my exercises and only by accident I noticed a title of an article which was advertised there.

It read: Wanda Dynowska (Umadevi – Bogini Światła) by Kazimierz Tokarski.

If it had been just a Polish name I would have left it without a second look but it seemed like a strange or rather an exotic compilation. I looked at the preface and didn't realize when I finished the whole article – fascinated by its subject, its heroine.

Wanda Dynowska seemed an unusual woman who met unusual people.

Wanda Dynowska - Umadevi

She was acquainted with Mahatma Gandhi who called her Umadevi, and Dalai Lama who said in all probability about her that a Polish woman encouraged him to vegetarianism. She spent her life helping people and it didn’t matter to her whether one was a Hindu or a Pole or a Tibetan.

She searched her path between her Polish roots and her Indian choice but the thing which drew my attention was her involvement in writing, translation and the most important part – publishing.

Over 30 years Dynowska's Polish-Indian Library (Biblioteka Polsko-Indyjska) was bringing Indian literature closer to Polish language readers. But her activity, known only to a niche, was broadly unrevealed.

I decided to find out more about her work on this field. I knew it could be an uneasy task.

She published in India in the second half of the last century, so sending the books to Poland, which at that time was behind the iron curtain, must have been a challenge even if books didn't include political topics.

Wondering if there is anything in Poland, and more closer in my town on Dynowska, I started my search – as a typical librarian would – from a catalogue. To my great joy, I found many works listed on the Polish union catalogue KaRo. What's more important, I found the books belonging to Dynowska's series in Książnica Pomorska, my home library.

I discovered also there were two series Indian-Polish and Polish-Indian Library which included reprints as well as original works. The first one was to show the English-speaking readers Poland with its geography, history, policy and culture. The second series was directed to the Polish readers and contained Dynowska's own writing and her translations related to yoga, religious or mystic topics and literature.

My efforts of getting information about Dynowska's publishing activity started to take a proper shape but I didn't know that another figure would emerge on the stage soon.

The next step to broaden my knowledge was to borrow the books which Książnica Pomorska had in its collection. I did it and began to look at them, studying the text and the covers and mastheads. Studying the mastheads I noticed a name which was repeated constantly as a publisher's one, Maurycy Frydman.

Maurycy Frydman - Bharatanda

I had encountered the name for the first time in Tokarski's article and when I began to see his name more frequently, I decided to look closer at his activity. It wasn't an easy task though.

Frydman led a modest life and didn't reveal too much information about himself. Known as Bharatanda he was a Mahatma Gandhi's friend and a person absorbed in such experiments as drafting a new constitution for the State of Aundh, or organising a free custodian colony in Atpadi.

It was also obvious there were strong friendship and cooperation between him and Dynowska but it appeared his involvement in the publishing was more important than I thought at the beginning. Although he didn't translate the texts or edit them, he supported the process of publishing for years. I discovered later, he took over Polish-Indian Library when Dynowska, being 81 years old, retired from her duties.

Going on with my search in the paper and online sources I was impressed by two Poles' effort. Living abroad they published about 132 books almost without help and with limited amount of money (they started with a sum earned by Dynowska at the Polish Consulate in Bombay in 1940s).

The books were published in a small number of copies but some of them had even second edition and many of them contained not only the text but also illustrations, footnotes, comments. I believe that such efforts need to be remembered and recorded for posterity. That is the reason I wrote an article on them which will be published in Bibliotekarz Zachodniopomorski, a Książnica Pomorska periodical.

I hope there will be an English-language publisher who would be interested in Dynowska and Frydman's publishing activity too. The English version of my article is still waiting for its editor.

---

About the author: Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin
Read previous post on GAB on the same / related subject: Rediscovering a poet

---

Images:  
Wanda Dynowska - Umadevi: http://cosmopolitanreview.com/wanda-dynowska-umadevi/
Maurycy Frydman - Bharatanda: http://www.gurusfeet.com/guru/maurice-frydman

---

Cosmopolitan Review a transatlantic review of things Polish, in English has more articles of on similar subjects by Irene Tomaszewski. Tomaszewski is a writer, editor at CR, founding president of the Montreal-based Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies and program director of Poland in the Rockies. She is the author of "Inside a Gestapo Prison 1942-44: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska" and "Codename Żegota: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Occupied Europe," co-authored with Tecia Werbowski, published by Praeger in Spring 2010.

Rediscovering a poet

Aleksandra Skiba is a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin. 

I got an email from her last week, inquiring about my grandfather Harischandra Bhatt (1906-1950), eminent Gujarati poet credited with introducing western sensibilities in Gujarati literature and ushering a new post-nationalistic era in Gujarati poetry.

Harischandra’s only major collection of poems – Swapnaprayan – was published posthumously in 1959. (Incidentally, Swapnaprayan was also Dwijendranath Tagore's second collection of poems). 

He worked briefly at the Polish consulate in Bombay during the Second World War and translated several Polish poets into Gujarati in collaboration with his colleague Wanda Dynowska at the Polish consulate. They published Scarlet Muse, an anthology of Polish poems.

Dynowska subsequently edited an anthology of Polish translation of Indian poems titled Indian Anthology. Vol. IV Gujarati Literature The second edition Gandhi – Selected Writings. (Ed. Wanda Dynowska, Madras, 1960)

Aleksandra translated into English the Polish preface of the anthology that reveals hitherto unknown  (to his family) details about Harischandra. 

Reproduced below is Aleksandra's translation:

Antologia Indyjska. T. IV Gudżerati. Wydanie drugie znacznie rozszerzone. Gandhi – wyjątki z pism. Oprac. Wandy Dynowskiej, Madras, 1960, s. XXIII-XXVIII.

(Indian Anthology. Vol. IV Gujarati Literature. The second edition. Gandhi – Selected Writings. Ed. Wanda Dynowska, Madras, 1960, p. XXIII-XXVIII.

“Before describing Gandhi’s work and his influence on the Gujarati culture and literature I would like to say about Harishchandra Bhatt. I wish India to find among Polish writers as devoted friend as he was for Poles. He worked many years at the Polish Embassy in Bombay and was a tireless supporter of Polish affairs that’s why the longer note should appear in Polish-Indian Library in order to immortalize his name.

He came from the poor but intellectual Brahminic family (Surat). His father died early so being the oldest son he had to take responsibility for the whole family, especially for his younger brother. Thanks to Harishchandra’s devotion and after 8-year study in France his younger brother is a professor of French in Bombay now.

Since he was a teenager Harishchandra was interested in the European literature but mainly the Slavic one. Limiting drastically his needs he acquired foreign books which were almost unknown in India (i.e. he subscribed Slavonic Review). 

The big collection was gathered in his flat. There were the books written by French, German, Polish, Czech and other authors in the beautiful bookbinders because their owner was a bibliophile (until recently it was unique in India where the beautiful bookbinders were rare).

His collection gathered numerous writers from Whitman and Verlaine to Hofmanstahl; from Mickiewicz and Słowacki to Kafka. He was a sensitive aesthete dreaming about a new way of publishing which would be close to the European model. Many years it was his unattainable goal but he was aspiring to it constantly.

He enjoyed his work at the Information Department (Polish consulate) which enabled him to express his love to Polish culture and literature. The numerous articles in the newspapers, countless talks about Poland among friends and the wide correspondence gave him the chance to “serve” Poland and approached it to India.

Harishchandra prepared monograph on Marshal Piłsudski. He translated with me Crimean Sonnets and Wojciech Bąk’s poetry (the last one moved him especially). Working at the embassy he published (thanks to help of his friends) his anthology of Polish poets “The Scarlet Muse” and a volume about great people of contemporary India “Among the Great”. The last one was written by the eminent musician and poet Dilipkumar Roy.

The results of his work was so excellent that some friends decided to cooperated with him and he established a publishing group Nalanda  which was famous in the whole India. The group published over a dozen books which aesthetic standards were equally to the Western ones. That time was the intense for his writing as well as the happiest in his life.

He could create much more but painful disappointment was a reason of his early death. Harishchandra, a sensitive and nervous artist, coped with suppression and burdens too heavy for his mind. Firstly, the family situation made impossible to complete his education and he was suffering because of that the whole life.

Secondly, his work which was hard and wearisome took so much time that he almost didn't have chance for own study, meetings with other poets, writings and the books. What’s more he was in fragile health so heavy work and daily problems were enervating him slowly. His dreams about creative work were not achievable for a long time and when they started to become true the sudden blow broke his spirit completely. He was seriously taken ill and committed suicide.

Harishchandra was fully engaged in his publishing house. The results of Nalanda were great but the costs too high. The only member of the publishing house who had funds began to have financial problems and was forced to give up this project. Harishchandra suddenly had to face the breach of obligations. His plans were ruined and he was deprived from creative work again. It was too hard for his sensitivity. Everybody who knew him and had observed the happiness of the last three years could understand his sadness and despair. Not only he lost the goal but also his viability.

Harishchandra’s writing stopped halfway. He could be among the best Gujarati poet soon. The poems which are dispersed in the newspapers and the only collection of his poetry which he was preparing for publishing cannot guarantee him immortality in Gujarati literature though.

Unfortunately, his best cycle of sonnets titled “For Her” written because of his platonic love to a young girl was never published. The girl was a Catholic and worked as a typist in his friend’s office. It was beautiful, fresh love. I was a witness and confidant of that feeling. The poems about Jesus Christ written because of her were never published either.

The first could get his wife down whom he loved deeply too. The second one needed a longer preface for the readers to explain Harishchandra’s understanding of Christ (Jesus Christ is known in India and he is not only respected but also worshiped and treated as a one the greatest prophet and teacher of the world. There are a lot of houses where His portraits is hanged among other great figures.)

Harishchandra understood Christ particularly and without an explanation about the context his poems wouldn't be comprehensible for his countryman. He didn't prepare anything before his death, so it was impossible to publish them.

In Polish-Indian Library I edited only a one poem from that cycle and some (For Her) which we translated few years ago.

Let the reader have his opinion about Harishchandra’s poetry but I want to add that his language was clear and soft and the style full of undertone and half-light.”

The book also has his biography:

He is very gifted poet but less known and not so widely-read by his countryman. He didn't have enough time to flower his talent and died crushed by hard conditions.

His four year devoted work at the Polish Embassy in Bombay makes him especially close to Poles.

He was honoured with Order of Polonia Restituta for his propagation the knowledge about Poland and advocacy of its side (spoken and written).

Knowing perfectly Polish literature (he had a big collection of books) Harischandra informed his countryman about Poland writing numerous articles and having talks.
He wrote a monograph about Józef Piłsudski which was published in Gujarati and translated into Tamil.

He also translated Crimean Sonnets and Wojciech Bąk's poetry. He loved Poland and dreamt about visiting it. He was a romantic, idealist and enthusiast.     

Photos: Aleksandra Skiba