Literature
There are many important literary works written in Kawi, most notably Empu Tantular's epic poem, "Kakawin Sutasoma" (E.M. Uhlenbeck, 1964: "A Critical Survey of Studies on the Languages of Java and Madura", The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff), from which is taken the National motto of Indonesia: "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika". Although often glibly translated as "Unity in Diversity", it is more correctly rendered as " scattered, remaining one"— referring to the scattered islands of the archipelago nation, not as an expression of multicultural solidarity as may be perceived in modern times.
A more modern work is the poem "Susila Budhi Dharma", by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, the founder of Subud. In this work, he provides a framework for understanding the experience of the latihan kejiwaan.
Famous poems, epics and other literature include:
- Kakawin Tertua Jawa, 856
- Kakawin Ramayana ~ 870
- Kakawin Arjunawiwaha, mpu Kanwa, ~ 1030
- Kakawin Kresnayana
- Kakawin Sumanasantaka
- Kakawin Smaradhana
- Kakawin Bhomakawya
- Kakawin Bharatayuddha, mpu Sedah dan mpu Panuluh, 1157
- Kakawin Hariwangsa
- Kakawin Gatotkacasraya
- Kakawin Wrettasañcaya
- Kakawin Wrettayana
- Kakawin Brahmandapurana
- Kakawin Kunjarakarna, mpu "Dusun"
- Kakawin Nagarakretagama, mpu Prapanca, 1365
- Kakawin Arjunawijaya, mpu Tantular
- Kakawin Sutasoma, mpu Tantular
- Kakawin Siwaratrikalpa, Kakawin Lubdhaka
- Kakawin Parthayajna
- Kakawin Nitisastra
- Kakawin Nirarthaprakreta
- Kakawin Dharmasunya
- Kakawin Harisraya
- Kakawin Banawa Sekar Tanakung
Read more about this topic: Kawi Language
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
“Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“All men are lonely. But sometimes it seems to me that we Americans are the loneliest of all. Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us almost like a national disease. Our literature is stamped with a quality of longing and unrest, and our writers have been great wanderers.”
—Carson McCullers (1917–1967)
“As a man has no right to kill one of his children if it is diseased or insane, so a man who has made the gradual and conscious expression of his personality in literature the aim of his life, has no right to suppress himself any carefully considered work which seemed good enough when it was written. Suppression, if it is deserved, will come rapidly enough from the same causes that suppress the unworthy members of a man’s family.”
—J.M. (John Millington)