Inventing a Poetic Tradition for Old Javanese belles lettres - Kakawin

What is it about?

Kakawin - the classical literature of Java and Bali - is striking on account of the strong presence of ecological elements in the Kakawin poems. Reading Kakawin, one is struck by how the non-human entities interact with human and human-like figures in well-ordered poetic codes – we call them kawisamaya -- frame as well as intensify our reception of the human characters' lives and loves. In this article we trace the crystallization of a kawisamaya, taking examples from Kakawin that draw upon the imagery of Kapat - the first rainy month in the Javanese calendar. Through a close reading of these verses, we identify the recurrent ecological, emotional and literary themes and items that are all part of the semiotic space of the topoi of Kapat. What does this mean? Things such as thunder, the hawk's screeches, the sprouting creepers, separated lovers, wandering poets, blank writing pads - are all part of a web of associations, and the mention of any item is a trigger that evokes the whole network. A systematic survey of other such ecosemiotic codes in Javanese and Balinese literature would give us a glimpse into the mind of the premodern poet and the connoisseur.

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Why is it important?

There are not many traditional texts of literary theory for Kakawin poetry. Hence, we have to excavate the poetic principles that undergird Old Javanese (OJ) poetry by reading these texts closely, along and against the grain. This article is one such attempt to uncover the enmesh of the semiotics of weather and ecology with emotion in the poetry of Java. At another level, it is fascinating to see how certain natural elements are thematized, then canonized as literary topoi, then become the building blocks of 'classicism'. What does this mean for readers and writers of OJ poetry? The ability to use them 'correctly' becomes the hallmark of a good poet, and the ability to recognize the topoi along with their allusive baggage is a shibboleth for the knowledgeable connoisseur.

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