By Damhuri Muhammad

Review of Para Lavida: antologia de poesia, edited by FX Rudy Gunawan, Jorge Albornoz Figueroa, et al, translated by Annecy Nur Madina (Chile: Libros del Pez Espiral, 2024)

In 1930, a young Chilean diplomat named Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto arrived in Batavia (now known as Jakarta). He worked as a staff member of the Chilean embassy to the Dutch East Indies. Reyes was 26 years old at the time, but he already had an international reputation as a poet under the popular name of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)—later known as the Chilean poet who won the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature. Shortly after his assignment to Batavia, Neruda married a Dutch girl born in Yogyakarta, Maria Antonieta Hagenaar. Jodie A. Shull in Pablo Neruda: Passion, Poetry, Politics (2009) writes that Hagenaar met Neruda at a tennis club and married shortly after. Regarding the marriage, an Indonesian journalist, Seno Joko Suyono, in Pablo Neruda, Batavia, dan Kudeta (2001), quoted a letter written by Pablo Neruda to his family in Chile—now stored in a valuable archive at the Chilean embassy in Jakarta—which reads: “...I've to tell you something important. I'm married. My wife lives in this city (Batavia). My wife is a mix of Dutch and Javanese and isn't rich. If you could meet her, you would be proud of her. Don't worry about me, because I'm not alone anymore. We're poor, but happy” (my translation).

94 years after the Chilean poet set foot in Indonesia, two Indonesian poets arrived in Chile. In 2022, the Directorate General of Culture of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture sent Afnan Malay and FX Rudy Gunawan to Chile for a writing residency. The result of the visit was the book Para Lavida: antologia de poesia (Santiago; Libros del Pez Espiral, February 2024). In his foreword to the book, Muhammad Anshor, Indonesian Ambassador to Chile, explains, "The visit of these two Indonesian writers has given them the opportunity to learn about various practices and social institutionalization of various forms of artistic expression, and their appreciation in the very dynamic political and social context in Chile" (my translation). The anthology consists of works by five Chilean poets and eight Indonesian—who are all contemporary poets from the two countries. It was published in two languages, Spanish poetry translated into Indonesian, and vice versa. The book has been presented at various forums to the literary communities in Santiago in order to strengthen an ethos of collaboration between the two countries, in which the souls of two nations meet through poetry.

What is the social and political foundation of the Chilean-Indonesian poetry collaboration? The question can be answered by the poem “6 de Octubre 2019” (“6 October, 2019”), by the Chilean poet Jorge Albornoz Figueroa, in the anthology. The prefatory dedication of his poem reads, “In memory of my father, Jorge Albornoz Cerda, who was shot dead from behind by a soldier in 1975 during the Chilean dictatorship” (this and all other translations of the poetry into English are mine). The text signifies how the bloody events during the rule of Augusto Pinochet's military junta (1974-1990) in Chile still leave a painful impression on the current generation of Chileans. As a tribute to his father—one of hundreds of thousands of Chilean civilians who were victims of the military dictatorship—Figueroa writes, “Your cold body covered in cardboard and newspapers with stale news/ read by unrecognizable eyes/ 30 years in absolute solitude/ to a small stone at the bottom of the river/ visited by fish and warm rays.” This violence, with its resulting sorrow, is not alien to the history of the Soeharto dictatorship in Indonesia. During the New Order Era, which lasted for 32 years, numerous pro-democracy activists were detained without trial, and protesters were killed by military violence. The poetry collaboration in this book is moved by the common experience of military dictatorships.

After the end of both dictatorships, Chile and Indonesia continue to share another experience, the deprivations of poverty. In his poem, “Selamat Datang, Desember” (“Bienvenido, Diciembre”/“Welcome, December”) the Indonesian poet FX Rudy Gunawan seems to be merely reporting from Santiago when he writes, “When life is ruled by the power of numbers and data/ memories become luxury goods/ poor people can only see them in the window displays/ along the sidewalks of Santiago.” However, he is also recalling the current plight of poor Indonesians: “Welcome, December/Are your lips still as red as the blood of the oppressed people?” Rudy seems to be asking, why are Chileans and Indonesians—who have been freed from military dictatorship for decades—not yet free from poverty and an oppressed mentality? Thus, the second line of identification between the Chilean and Indonesian poetic traditions is that both countries are still fighting against poverty.

Although Indonesia and Chile share a similar history and current reality, this anthology also highlights differences in poetic style. Albornoz Figueroa's "18 de Octubre" (“18 October”) is composed in an experimental form, using different font sizes in each line and enlarging the main words, such as "yestallaron" (explode), to create a symbol with a special significance in Spanish. Similarly, Leonora Diaz's "Arrullo sefaradi" (“Sephardic Lullaby”) features bold and italicized lyrics meant to be sung, placed between verse stanzas, thus conveying the importance of sound in the Chilean poetic tradition.

Such experimental forms do not appear in the works of the Indonesian poets. "Laut Neruda" (“El mar de Neruda”/“Neruda's sea”), by Afnan Malay, simply expresses Afnan’s admiration for Pablo Neruda when he visited Isla Negra—Neruda's favorite home. He represents the vastness and profoundness of Neruda's poems as an endless ocean, likening it to the stunning seascape of Batavia, which Neruda experienced. "KAMU DI MANA?" (“DONDE ESTAS?”/“WHERE ARE YOU?”), by FX Rudy Gunawan, expresses Rudy’s respect for the well-known Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. In his poem, Rudy compares the fame of Mistral, who won the 1945 Nobel Prize for Literature, to the ancient Indonesian banyan tree, a symbol of the shelter of Indonesian childhood. Neither poem displays experimentation in font or layout, nor is sound their outstanding feature. However, both poems highlight the importance of symbols drawn from nature.

In this anthology, the Indonesian poetic tradition, represented by the works of Achmad Munjid, Afnan Malay, FX Rudy Gunawan, Dorothea Rosa Herliany, Sihar Ramses Simatupang, Ulfatin Ch, and Nezar Patria is put in a thought-provoking, extended dialogue with the Chilean poetic tradition, represented by Elisabeth Manosalva, Ulises Mora, Jorge Albornoz, Leonora Diaz, and Oscar Quiroz Muzat. It is clear that the collaboration, which is a part of a new strategy in Indonesian cultural diplomacy in the Latin American region, is not just to mourn similar dark experiences, but to raise awareness and to build resilience for the future life of both countries.

A Jakarta-based writer, Damhuri Muhammad was nominated for the 2023 Pushcart Prize. His recent works have appeared in 101 Words, Five Minutes Lit, Mekong Review, Switch Microfiction Journal, Kitaab and elsewhere. He is the managing editor of Porch Literary Magazine. X handle: @damhurimuhammad.