Gurindam ( Jawi: ڬوريندام) is a type of irregular verse forms of traditional

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

poetry. It is a combination of two clauses where the relative clause forms a line and is thus linked to the second line, or the main clause. Each pair of lines ( stanza) provides complete ideas within the pair and has the same rhyme in its end. There is no limit on the number words per line and neither the rhythm per line is fixed. Although Gurindam looks similar with

Syair Syair ( Jawi: شعير) is a form of traditional Malay (also subsequently modern Indonesian and Malaysian) poetry that is made up of four-line stanzas or quatrains. The syair can be a narrative poem, a didactic poem, a poem used to convey ideas ...

which also have the same rhyme at the end of each stanza, it differs in the sense that it completes the message within the same stanza while Syair unfolding the message in several stanzas. The first line of gurindam is known as ''syarat'' (

protasis In drama, a protasis is the introductory part of a play, usually its first act. The term was coined by the fourth-century Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus. He defined a play as being made up of three separate parts, the other two being epitasis an ...

) and the second line is ''jawab'' ( apodosis). In other words, the first line states a condition while the second line provides the answer. One of the most well known literary works on Gurindam was the ''Gurindam Dua Belas'' (Twelve Gurindam) of

Raja Ali Haji Raja Ali Haji bin Raja Haji Ahmad (1808–1873) was a 19th-century Bugis- Malay historian, poet and scholar. He was elevated to the status of National Hero of Indonesia in 2004. Haji has been described as one of the most important Malay writ ...

written in 1847. Below is the 5th clause of the famous 12 Gurindam:

References

{{reflist Malay-language poems