A translation of short stories by the well-known Indonesian author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Written in the 1950s, these stories are intensely regional in flavor and modern in approach. This collection ...includes such works as Stranded Fish, Creatures Behind Houses, and the great Ketjapi.
A translation of short stories by the well-known Indonesian author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Written in the 1950s, these stories are intensely regional in flavor and modern in approach. This collection ...includes such works as "Stranded Fish," "Creatures.
One day, a friend of mine invited me to go with him to look at a 1952-model 150 cc. Express motorcycle that he wanted to buy off a friend of his. “Come and help me check it out,” he said. So the two ...of us set off for the friend’s house. The motorcycle seemed still in good condition, and the price wasn’t bad either—5,000rupiah.
When the paperwork had been completed, my friend’s friend said, “Watch out! In the next few days, you’ll be getting a visit from Mrs. Veterinary Doctor Suharko!”¹ “What about?” “This motorcycle. Have you really
Stranded Fish Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
Tales from Djakarta,
05/2018
Book Chapter
In this story, Idulfitri will get an inspiration after enduring eleven hours of hunger.
Almost the whole of this story is enacted by him, while However—a puny, scrawny but agile youth—merely helps ...him play the principal role.¹
Actually, the story of this Idulfitri isn’t really important, because even for him the history of his daily life all this while hasn’t been important. For him, everything has glided along its rails. At first he was duly impressed when he had to begin his new life. For a few days he made some effort to overcome it, but after a
For the past two years, he has been unable to come to terms with the infantile condition of drama within the field of Indonesian arts.
“Why isn’t it possible?” he fortifies his hopes. “They can carve ...statues straight of stone without any preparation, without any training! The sculptor’s blood, suppressed for centuries, suddenly bursts into the open. Why not with drama? Drama is even older than literature.”
And when his desire to create drama is no longer containable, he goes off to house. But Kila only laughs, and ends up augmenting the laughter with words shatter his hopes: “So you
Through the screen of my house’s porch a well is visible. No more than five meters from my porch. Surprising that the well is in front of my house, and only five meters away. Actually it’s not in ...front of my house by design. The thing is that my house is located at the back of a line of row-houses. (My house is also a row-house!) It’s from behind this screen that I observe the existence of a strange form of life—the life of creatures behind houses.
And these creatures are the maids.
If maids in Chinese families eventually
News from Kebajoran Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
Tales from Djakarta,
05/2018
Book Chapter
Once again—as usual when night arrives—her thoughts go back to Kebajoran.¹ Her attraction to that place is overwhelming. She dreams of meeting her husband, Saleh, once again; her younger sister, ...Chatidjah; and her mother;—she has known all of them since she was little, and she has always kept them in her heart. But there is no bridge any longer between her and Kebajoran and the people she loves. The one bridge that did exist was destroyed long ago. Destroyed by her fear. And she remains tethered to Fromberg Park.² Tethered by a necessity.
At first, she and
Houseboy + Maid Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
Tales from Djakarta,
05/2018
Book Chapter
Ever since the time of Jan Pietersz. Coen, this family had servant’s blood—from generation to generation.¹ Servants without reserve! Loyal down to the last hair on their bodies. Or perhaps not merely ...since Coen. It’s highly possible that it had been that way since Pieter Both or the era when Houtman wandered the seven seas.² No one knows for sure. What is certain is that this family was known at a time before Coen had become a statue evicted from in front of the Department of Finance by the Japanese.
The first generation became known because it was recorded
No Resolution Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
Tales from Djakarta,
05/2018
Book Chapter
I did not know her well.
To be sure, her appearance was enticing—a young virgin, her body tall and slender, with fair skin that was almost white, an aquiline nose, small full lips, and a graceful ...easy sway to her hips as she walked. Seeing her for the first time, my eyes were immediately drawn to her. There was no mistaking it: it was as if she had been a placed on this earth to arouse men’s desire, her full lips as if created especially for drawn-out kisses. Her coquettish manner shocked the foundations of moral reason—
And I
Gambir Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
Tales from Djakarta,
05/2018
Book Chapter
Djakarta 1952. Daybreak. Mist floated and gently fell to earth. The whistle of the first locomotive shrieked like a demon of legend demanding a sacrifice. Some of the people groaned for an instant, ...sat up, rubbed their eyes still firmly in the embrace of darkness, coughed, and left their sleeping places. One or two among them walked unsteadily, leaving the boxcars behind, moving off into still darker places.
Having spat out the phlegm in their throats, two men reached the station fence, slipped through the barbed wire, and emerged on the bicycle-path. The whistles of the connector engines began to
