Chairil Anwar - Biography

Biography

Anwar was born in Medan, North Sumatra on 26 July 1922. As a child, he was hard-headed and unwilling to lose at anything; this was reflective of his parents' personalities. He was also spoiled by his parents. He attended local schools for native Indonesians, until dropping out at the age of 18 or earlier. Anwar later said that he had known he wanted to be an artist since the age of 15, having already written poetry in the then-dominant style.

After his parents' divorce, his father continued to financially support him and his mother, who moved to Batavia (Jakarta after Indonesia's independence). Although originally intending to continue his schooling, he eventually dropped out again. In Batavia he mixed with many rich Indo children, as well as the local literary scene. Despite him not finishing his schooling, he was capable of actively using English, Dutch, and German.

After Anwar's poem "Nisan" ("Grave"; reputedly his first), inspired by his grandmother's death, was published in 1942, Anwar gained recognition. However, his poems were at times still rejected. For example, in 1943, when he first approached the magazine Pandji Pustaka to submit his poems, most were rejected for being too individualistic and not keeping with the spirit of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. However, some, including the poem "Diponegoro", were able to pass the censors. During this period he continued associating with other writers, trading ideas and later becoming a leader amongst them. He later established the magazine Gema Gelanggang. He wrote his last poem, "Cemara Menderai Sampai Jauh" ("Fir Trees Are Sown Off Into the Distance"), in 1949.

Anwar died in CBZ Hospital (now R.S. Ciptomangunkusomo), Jakarta, on 28 April 1949; the following day, he was buried at Karet Bivak Cemetery. His cause of death is uncertain, with some suggesting typhus, some syphilis, and some suggesting a combination of the two as well as tuberculosis. Dutch scholar of Indonesian literature A. Teeuw suggests that Anwar was aware that he would die young, pointing to "Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus" ("The Seized and the Broken"), which has a theme of surrender, and predicts that he will be buried in Karet.

During his lifetime Anwar wrote approximately 94 works, including seventy poems. Most of those were unpublished at the time of his death, but were later collected in several collections of his work published posthumously. Of these, Anwar considered only 13 to be truly good poems. The first published was Deru Tjampur Debu (Roar Mixed with Dust), which was followed by Kerikil Tadjam (Sharp Pebbles) and Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus; all of these were published by Pustaka Rakyat. Although several poems in those collections had the same title, they were slightly different. The most celebrated of his works is "Aku" ("Me").