Gurindam (
Jawi: ڬوريندام) is a type of irregular verse forms of traditional
Malay 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
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...
) 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 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) 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