The song of Samsu Tabriz in Ronggasasmita’s "Suluk Acih"

Abstract

Nancy Florida is Professor Emerita of Indonesian and Javanese Studies at the University of Michigan. Her research concerns Javanese and Indonesian cultural history as well as Javanese literature and the expression of Islam in Java. Her publications include Javanese literature in Surakarta manuscripts , volumes 1-3 (1993, 2000, and 2012, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University), Writing the past, inscribing the future; History as prophecy in colonial Java (1995, Duke University Press), and Jawa-Islam di masa kolonial; Suluk, santri, dan pujangga Jawa (2020, Yogyakarta: Buku Langgar). Nancy Florida can be reached at: nflorida@umich.edu. The article contributes an excerpt from the Karaton Surakarta poet Ronggasasmita’s Suluk Kutub (also known as Suluk Samsu Tabriz ) along with an annotated translation of the text into English. Suluk Kutub is one of the metaphysical poems that belong to this Sufi poet’s Suluk Acih , a text that he compiled in Aceh in 1815. The poem is a Javanese rendition of the meeting of Jalaluddin Rumi (Jav. Mulana Amir Kaji Rum) with his beloved, Shamsuddin Tabrizi (Jav. Samsu Tabriz). The commentary forms a short meditation on, and guide to, the specific practices of translating Javanese poetry into English – performed in part in dialogue with Ronggasasmita.