Sitor Situmorang (2 October 1923 – 21 December 2014) was an Indonesian poet, essayist and writer of short stories. Situmorang was born in Harianboho,
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
, and educated in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
. He worked as a journalist and literary critic in
Medan
Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four main ...
,
Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...
and
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
for a variety of newspapers and periodicals.
Sitor was considered by Dutch scholar and critic of Indonesian literature
A. Teeuw
Andries Teeuw (12 August 1921 – 18 May 2012), better known as A. Teeuw in scholarly circles and Hans Teeuw to his friends, was a Dutch critic of Indonesian literature.
Biography
Teeuw was born in Gorinchem, Netherlands, on 12 August 192 ...
to be Indonesia's preeminent poet from Angkatan '45 (The Generation of '45) after the decease of
Chairil Anwar
Chairil Anwar (26 July 1922 – 28 April 1949) was an Indonesian poet and member of the " 1945 Generation" of writers. He is estimated to have written 96 works, including 70 individual poems.
Anwar was born and raised in Medan, North Sumatr ...
. "His views were deeply influenced by French
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
of the early fifties, and his poetic forms, as pointed by Subagio, display remarkable similarities with French
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
(
Subagio Sastrowardojo 1976)."
Despite the European influence he is still deeply rooted in his
Batak
Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...
culture.
Early life
He was born in 1923 in
North Tapanuli
North Tapanuli Regency (''Tapanuli Utara'' - in Indonesian, "utara" means "north") is a landlocked regency in North Sumatra province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Its capital is Tarutung. The regency covers an area of 3,793.71 square kilometres and it had ...
,
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
and moved to
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
to study at AMS. After graduating from AMS, he went to the US to further study
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
at the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
(1956–57).
When he grew up, Indonesia was under Dutch rule and a European-style education was provided only for a small minority of the population. Therefore, during high school he studied mostly
European literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, and ...
and Dutch, which he found disturbing and provoked his sense of nationalism. When he was 15, he was inspired to translate "Saijah and Adinda" (a poem), a part of
Max Havelaar
''Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'' ( nl, Max Havelaar; of, De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy) is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role ...
by
Multatuli
Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel ''Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the a ...
, from
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
to
Batak
Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...
which was his mother tongue even though his Dutch was limited for this kind of literature. This was the starting point of his interest in literature. He began reading more and more Indonesian and western literature, and became inspired to work towards becoming a writer.
Career
He started his career as a journalist in
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
at Suara Nasional (1945–1946) and Waspada (1947). He was assigned to
Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...
(1947–1948) and later worked for Berita Indonesia and Warta Dunia (1957).
His first poem "Kaliurang" was written in 1948 in the style of
Pujangga Baru
''Poedjangga Baroe'' (pronounced ; Perfected spelling: ''Pujangga Baru'', also known by the intermediate spelling ''Pudjangga Baru'') was an Indonesian ''avant-garde'' literary magazine published from July 1933 to February 1942. It was founded ...
and published at Siasat, ten years after he translated Saijah dan Adinda by
Multatuli
Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel ''Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the a ...
. In the same year, he wrote a review of Gema Tanah Air, an anthology compiled by
H.B. Jassin.
During 1950 – 1953, he stayed in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and Paris to observe European cultures, funded by a scholarship from a Netherlands foundation.
His brief stay in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
influenced some of his works, such as Pertempuran dan Salju di Paris (1956, collection of short stories) and Paris la Nuit
(2002, collection of poems).
He published Surat Kertas Hijau (Green Paper Letters) in 1954, a collection of poems, in which he expressed his emotional and intellectual crisis of love and national identity.
This publication established him as a prominent and respected poet.
![Sitor Situmorang, Indonesia Literary Pioneers, 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Sitor_Situmorang%2C_Indonesia_Literary_Pioneers%2C_01.38.jpg)
Since 1950, he was actively involved in cultural
polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
, particularly on the shape and direction of Indonesia culture. He was one of African American author
Richard Wright's contacts and interlocutors during Wright's trip to Indonesia for the
Asian-African Conference
The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference ( id, Konferensi Asia–Afrika)—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–2 ...
in 1955. He became a prominent member of the Institute of National Culture (Lembaga Kebudayaan Nasional /LKN), which was closely tied to
Sukarno
Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of ...
, the President of Indonesia at the time. In 1967, following the
fall of Sukarno
Indonesia's transition to the New Order in the mid-1960s ousted the country's first president, Sukarno, after 22 years in the position. One of the most tumultuous periods in the country's modern history, it was the commencement of Suharto's ...
in 1965, he was imprisoned and was not released until 1976, without any trial.
He was once taught
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
at
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
, Netherlands during 1982–1990.
On 21 December 2014, he died at the age of 91 at his home in
Apeldoorn
Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is located about 60 km east of Utrecht, 60 km west of Enschede, 25 km north of Arnhem and 35 km south of Zwolle. The ...
, Netherlands.
Selected works
He won awards for his works: Pertempuran dan Salju di Paris (Struggle and Snow in Paris), (1956, collection of short stories) from Jakarta Arts Council and Peta Perjalanan (Travel Guide ), (1976, collection of poems) from Badan Musawarat Kebudayaan Nasional
Some of his works have been translated to other languages such as : Paris La Nuit (Paris at Night, 2001), a collection of poetry, into French, English and Russian,
and Rindu Kelana into English.
His complete short stories have been translated and published in English in two volumes b
Silkworm Books ''Oceans of Longing: Nine Stories'' (2018) and ''Red Gerberas: Short Stories'' (2018).
Collections of poems
* Surat Kertas Hijau (Green Paper Letters), (1953)
* Dalam Sajak (In Poems), (1954)
* Wajah Tak Bernama (Face Without a Name), (1955)
* Zaman Baru (A New Era), (1962)
* Dinding Waktu (Wall of Time), (1977)
* Peta Perjalanan (Travel Guide ), (1977) – Poetry Award from Jakarta Arts Council winner
* The Rites of the Bali Aga, (1977)
* Angin Danau (Lake Wind), 1982
* Bunga di Atas Batu: Si Anak Hilang (Flowers on Stone: The Prodigal Son), 1989
* Rindu Kelana (To Love, To Wander), 1993 – translated in 1996 by John McGlynn, The Lontar Foundation
* Paris La Nuit, 2000
* Lembah Kekal (Eternal Valley), 2004
* Biksu Tak Berjubah (Monk Without Cassock), 2004
*Si Anak Hilang (The Lost Child)
Collections of short stories
* Pertempuran dan Salju di Paris (Struggle and Snow in Paris), ( 1956) – winner of Hadiah Sastra Nasional BMKN
* Pangeran (The Prince),(1963)
* Danau Toba (The Lake Toba),(1981)
Oceans of Longing: Nine Stories(Silkworm Books, 2018; translated by H. Aveling, K. Foulcher, and B. Roberts)
Red Gerberas: Short Stories(Silkworm Books, 2018; translated by H. Aveling)
Other/related works
* Jalan Mutiara (Road of Pearls, collection of plays), (1954)
* Sastra Revolusioner, essay collections (1965)
* Sitor Situmorang Sastrawan 45, Penyair Danau Toba, autobiography (1981)
* Toba na Sae (1993), local history
* Guru Somalaing dan Modigliani Utusan Raja Rom, (1993), local history.
* Betlehem (1954) by M. Nijhoff, translation
* Rindu Kelana (The Need to Wander), (2004) short documentary by Ed Pesta Sirait – The Lontar Foundation
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Situmorang, Sitor
Indonesian male writers
Indonesian male poets
Indonesian dramatists and playwrights
Indonesian male short story writers
Indonesian essayists
20th-century Indonesian writers
20th-century Indonesian poets
20th-century male writers
Indonesian political prisoners
Indonesian expatriates in the Netherlands
Leiden University faculty
Indonesian Christians
People of Batak descent
People from North Sumatra
1923 births
2014 deaths