and Idiomatic Expressions by Peter Suwarno
Javanese, a rich and complex language spoken by over a hundred million people, has profoundly influenced the development of the Indonesian national language. It’s not uncommon for Indonesians "dari Sabang ke Merauke" (describing the outer limits of the nation) to use untranslated Javanese words and expressions when speaking and writing modern Indonesian.
This highly refined language, which scholars claim is the most complicated device ever created to indicate social rank, has through its thousands of years of evolution developed an impressive and varied store of proverbs, both witty and profane.
In its own way, this substantive compilation of more than 1600 aphorisms and expressions, translated into English, is packed with as much distilled wisdom as Aesop’s Fables, Poor Richard’s Almanac, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Confucius’s Anelects, the Bible, the Koran and all the other great and timeless compendiums of ancient knowledge.
The scope of the dictionary is not restricted to polite forms of speech, but includes hundreds of expressions that are considered crude, even vulgar - the verbiage of the "little people" (wong cilik). These common everyday sayings are regularly used by Javanese of all social positions when addressing subordinates. Evident in the entries on every page, readers are often able to recognize situations they themselves have encountered. Mistakes are like old friends. When certain danger signals appear, we become more watchful, more suspicious. Every time I dip into the lexicon, I find myself thinking of how much I could’ve once used its sly advice.
These proverbs reach back to the very genesis of the language, reflecting Java’s deep agrarian past. Number 1302: pisah kebo, "to separate a water buffalo," means agreeing to a separation. A husband and wife will pisah kebo while waiting for the authorities to approve the paperwork for their divorce.
Others have obvious relevance in the lives of people we know. For example, my friend’s business partner is no longer talking to his wife, yet she is still forced to encounter him as he is satru mungging cangklakan or "in her armpit," i.e. she can’t avoid running into him in the office.
Many proverbs have to do with the heartbreak and passion, like what may occur when dry sugar palm fiber comes in contact with fire (duk sandhing geni) as when a beautiful female student visits a single, womanizing male teacher late at night. Who has not in their own lives known of someone who has put themselves in that or a similar situation?
They go on and on, page after page. The imagery of the sayings can be stark and earthy or bright and lively. After an old and homely man is approached by a pretty women, he later discovers that she is only interested in his money. It is said that he mambu ati or "smelled her heart."
I even found immediate and timely application in my own situation when I asked my Javanese wife not to return to a certain salon because I had heard through a friend that the women who frequent it spread negative rumors. I found the phrase ana catur maungkur ("hearing words, turn back"); she understood in an eyeblink.
Not a few of the expressions have their equivalents in English: yuyu rumpung ambarong ronge, "noiseless river crab in a hole," is the same as our "snug as a bug in a rug," and embuh si nila embuh si etom, "not knowing whether it is blue dye or the indigo plant," is the equal of our "a pot calling the kettle black."
There are numerous examples based on the ancient epics. When one reads Bima akutha watu, "a frightening warrior of the Mahabharata defending his fortress," it means a powerful person who has strong support. One thinks of the rapacious children of President Suharto who had the full backing of their father.
Once I left a laptop in a taxi during a torrential downpour in Jakarta. I didn’t even bother going to the local police and reporting it because they would ngalap gang, "take power, strength," or have taken full advantage of the circumstance. I knew in the end I would end up losing even more.
A friend of mine entered into a garment export partnership with a Balinese. He already had years of experience in the rag trade and should’ve known better, but he went ahead with an unsound business arrangement anyway and ngangsu banyuing kranjang or "carried water in a woven basket."
The principles behind a great many idioms are not just confined to Java, but can be found in active use among hundreds of other ethnic groups. The expression mutung pematang, "to break the spear bearer," is used to describe an out-of-court settlement. I actually saw this customary law in action in Papua. A German man had killed a jealous husband, but was able to pay his way out of many years of incarceration.
Because Javanese is the most commonly spoken regional language of Indonesia, the mother tongue of the country’s largest ethnic group who wield unchecked and unyielding power, comprehending and committing to memory the proverbs in this book goes a long in understanding the unwritten rules governing the majority Indonesian societies.
In a sense, to know how the Javanese mind works is to have a grasp on their concept of power, their belief system and the myriad of age-old customs or adat systems which are the true laws of the land.
It’s value to the linguist or to the student of Javanese culture and language is evident, but the dictionary would have been more useful to the lay person if it had been divided into subject categories - love, money, government, sins, passions, ethics, business - as is the case in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.
The examples given above are just a sampling of the wealth of knowledge and experience found within this volume. In its pages you will find the wisdom of the ages.
***
Dictionary of Javanese Proverbs and Idiomatic Expressions by Peter Suwarno, Gadjah Mada University Press, Yogyakarta 1999, 422 pages, ISBN 979-420-452-8. Available for Rp40,000 (plus Rp10,000 postage and handling) from Gadjah Mada University Press, Jl. Grafika 1, Kampus UGM, P.O. Box 14, Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta 55281. Email gmupress@ugm.ac.id for more detailed ordering information.
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