Vladimir Braginsky

Jurnal e-Utama, Vol.
2 (2009)
J urnal Elektronik J abatan Bahasa & K ebudayaan Melayu
The Story of Four Dervishes: The First Translation from Urdu in Traditional Malay Literature
Vladimir Braginsky
A historico-literary background: Two waves of Islamic Indias impact on Malay literature The significance of literary contacts between the Malay world and Islamic India has not yet been properly assessed in Malay literary scholarship. This assessment, however, is an important (and overdue) task, since thanks to these contacts traditional Malay literature was enriched with a substantial number of literary works: translations and more frequently peculiar re-workings of source texts written in both the Persian language (one of the major literary languages of India) and Indian vernaculars. We may speak of at least two waves of Islamic Indias literary impact upon Malay literature. The first of these waves reached Pasai in the fourteenth century and brought such compositions in Persian as Hikayat-e Muhammad-e Hanafiyah and Qissa-ye Amir-e Hamzah. The influence of this wave, enhanced by close economic, cultural and religious connections with the empire of the Great Mughals and the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda, continued in Aceh of the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries. As an outcome, by the mid-seventeenth century quite a few identical or similar pieces of literature such asheroic epics, framed tales (Kalilah va-Dimnah, stories of the wise parrot, the tale of Bakhtiyar), and edifying mirrors for kings enjoyed equal popularity in the Mughal India and the Sultanate of Aceh. At the same era, Islamic India exerted a substantial influence on the formation of Malay Sufi literature and the genre of Malay fantastical romances, which synthesised constellations of HinduJavanese and Islamic-Indian narratives and descriptive motifs and not infrequently also represented Sufi allegories (for instance, Hikayat Indraputra, Hikayat Syah Mardan, partly Hikayat Isma Yatim and some others). In the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, the Dutch colonial expansion weakened ties (including literary) between Islamic India and the Malay world, although it failed to undermine these ties completely. Paradoxically, the same colonial expansionism, now British sponsored, restored these ties, having united India and a part of the Malay world, Penang and Singapore in particular, in the framework of British Empire. And once again, literary contactsthe second wave of Islamic India impact became one of the forms of these ties. A salient feature of this wave was the fact that
14 Vladimir Braginsky
it brought new works, both narrative and dramatic, in Urdu, not in Persian as it had been earlier. Needless to say, socio-political environments of the first and the second wave of Indo-Malay literary ties were quite different. Their cultural backgrounds were also rather dissimilar. For instance, in the sphere of literary production, the lithographic press came to replace the chirographic tradition, while histrionic forms influenced by the Victorian theatre (the Parsi theatre, wayang bangsawan) began to oust such earlier kinds of performance as oral story-telling and reading aloud from the book. And yet, the cultural situation in Penang and Singapore of the nineteenth century revealed a number of resemblances with that in Pasai and Malacca of the fourteenth to early sixteenth century or in Aceh and Johor of the late sixteenth to seventeenth century. In both cases this situation developed in a flourishing, cosmopolitan trading port and contacts with Islamic India played an extremely important role. In both cases the port accommodated a considerable Indian community with its indispensable aureole of bilingual Indo-Malay metises Muslims (Jawi peranakan) with their potential as cultural and literary brokers. In the course of time, a constellation of Indian narratives and plays of the Parsi theatre, such as Gul-i Bakawali, Indar Sabha, Laili Majnun and half a dozen of the others, were translated into Malay in the form of hikayat, syair or theatrical librettos.1 Alongside these fairly free translations, there appeared Malay compositions, which preserved only the core and basic motifs of Urdu plots so much supplemented by local elements that they can be considered original pieces of Malay literature (such is, for instance, Hikayat Ganja Mara2). The earliest Malay works inspired by the second wave of Indian impact were composed in the mid-1870s, which, together with the fact that the Parsi theatre first appeared either in Singapore in 1862 or in Penang in the 1870s, provided the date of the coming of this wave to the Malay world. However, the unique manuscript of Qissa-ye char darvesh (Malay translation: Cetra empat orang fakir, i.e. Stories of four dervishes), which is kept in the National Library of Singapore under the accession number Q 11.4A/27, allows us to reconsider the above date. This manuscript, as we shall see, contains a Malay translation of the famous Bagh-o bahar (The garden and spring, composed in 1802) by the classic of Urdu literature Mir Amman (1750-1837).3 The translation was completed in 1845 and copied in 1846. Thus, it presents the earliest known example of the Malay rendering of an Urdu text, which, in addition, is not related to the Parsi theatre. The study of this manuscript, to which we turn now, can shed the new light on the beginning of the second stage of literary contacts between Islamic India and the Malay world.
For these translations, see V. Braginsky and A. Suvorova, A New Wave of Indian Inspiration: Translations from Urdu in Malay Traditional Literature and Theatre, Indonesia and the Malay world 36-104 (2007): 115-153. 2 Ibid., pp. 118, 143-145. 3 Sh.M. Faruqi and F.W. Pritchett, A Date List for Urdu LiteratureA Work in Progress, Annual of Urdu Studies 9 (1994): 143, 173-211.
1
The Story of Four Dervishes 15

Manuscript of the Stories of four dervishes4 The manuscript (henceforth MS) of the National Library of Singapore Q 11.4A/27 (call number 891.5523 CET, microfilm NL 1885) contains a Malay translation of Qissahe char darvesh (rendered into Malay as Cetra empat fakir). This work known in Persian and Urdu versions is sometimes attributed (probably mistakenly) to the great IndoPersian poet Amir Khusrau Dehlavi (1253-1325). According to the preface of the translator, Mahmud b. *Almarhum+ Sayid Mualim b. Arsyad Marikan, he translated this cetra from Persian. The MS numbers 270 pages with the pencil per page pagination. The size of the page31x22 cm, the size of the text26x17; 25 lines per page. Good European paper, thick and strong, with two watermarks: tre lune (three moons) and VG. The MS is written in large naskh with some cursive features. It is generally clear and copied by good hand of a professional scribe. Black ink. The Arabic phrases of the doxology as well as the words Allah, Allah Taala and Quran, the formulae of syahadah and Maka berkata sahib al-hikayat al-syaikh Amir Khusrau, the beginnings of passages, such as sebermula, al-kisah, hatta, syahdan, et cetera are irregularly written in red ink. Two first (a) and two last (b) pages of MS Q 11.4A/27 kept in the National Library of Singapore (a)
For the earlier descriptions of the MS, see Haji Wan Ali Wan Mamat, Katalog Manuskrip Melayu di Singapura (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 1993), pp. 18-19; Chan Fook Weng, Catalogue of Rare Materials in Lee Kong Chian Reference Library (Singapore: National Library Board, 2008), p. 217.
4
(b)
The MS has the modern binding covered with reddish marble paper, with pieces of fabric in the corners and spine. The date of the texts composition is given by Mahmud b. Syed Mualim in the form of chronogram as 8 Dhulhija 1262 AH (1845/6 AD). On 10 Jumad al-awwal 1263 AH (1846/7 AD) Mahmuds translation was copied by the scribe Ismail b. Ali. The place of both the translation and copying is Singapore. On the back of the front cover there is a sticker with another title of the work: Bunga anggrek di atas pagar (An orchid flower on the fence). Neither origin, nor the relation of this title to the text (which mentions no orchids) is comprehensible. Probably, like in Mir Ammans composition which is the source of the Malay translation, this strange title is related to the chronogram. The latter contains the Arabic-Persian word sargh, grape-vine, anggur in Malay. This word might have been confused with the word anggrek, orchid, which is written similarly in Jawi, by a later user or owner of the MS. This conjecture is no more than a guess, indeed. On the MSs flyleaf there is the stamp of Raffles library and the inscription in English: Four poor men. A Malay translation from the Persian. Done in Singapore. These manuscript is dated 1791 A.D. Added to Raffles library, 1923. The origin of the intriguing, although wrong, date 1791 is unknown. The MS itself mentions more than once or twice only the dates 1845 and 1846. On the unnumbered first folio (recto) there is a brief excerpt from the story of the King Azadbakht (the third story of the composition), narrating the help given by two young brahmans to the protagonist during his stay in Sarandip (the same pas-

sage is found in the MS, p. 176). Below this excerpt in Jawi there are hamdala, the title Cetera empat darvesh and the date 1263 AH. A little closer to the bottom of the page there is another Jawi note in Ismail b. Alis hand: Ini surat daripada saya Ismail *one illegible word+ bin Ali, Kampung Kadi (?). The excerpt and note are probably Ismail b. Alis samples of writing. The manuscript begins with a preface of Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim and includes all five tales of the Story of four dervishes (for this preface, see Appendix 1; for the summary of the composition and page numbers of each tale in the MS, see below, pp. 13-16).
Preface of the translator The preface of the Story of four dervishes (henceforth SFD) contains a doxology, some information of the original of the translated piece and its translator, a history of the translation, the date of its composition in the form of a chronogram and a request to correct errors in the translation, addressed to the readers, so that having received an appropriate expression, this work will benefit all the servants of God who will read it (MS, p. 1). Fairly detailed and extensive in terms of traditional Malay literature, the preface of SFD is worthy of thorough examining. However, I shall only deal with some aspects of it. The translator of SFD, Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim, informs the reader that he hails from Malacca (anak Melaka). The note of the copyist, Ismail b. Ali, adds to this that the complete name of the translator is Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim b. Arsyad Marikan and that his father demised (<b. Almarhum Mualim<) by the time of the MS copying. The Malaccan origin and the family name MarikanTamil in its roots and not infrequently encountered in Malaysia and Singaporeallow us to assume that Mahmud, just as the later translators from Urdu (for instance, Syaikh Muhammad Ali b. Ghulam Husain al-Hindi, Datuk Saudagar Putih, et al.) was a Jawi peranakan. Since Mahmud received the Urdu original of SFD during his stay in Singapore on some commercial business, he may have been a merchant. The one who brought this original to Singapore was another Jawi peranakan (peranakan orang Hindustan), Rahman Khan. He also helped his friend Mahmud, who did not have enough experience in writing literary Malay (lughat Melayu Jawah [Jawi?]), to translate the composition which captivated him so much. All these data sufficiently clarify the issue of the socio-cultural milieu from which the translation of SFD originated. In his preface Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim also repeats a few times that he translated SFD from the Persian language (dipindahkan dari bahasa Parsi). Although the name of the author of the Persian source text is not mentioned in the preface of the work, in the work itself this source text is attributed to Amir Khusrau Dehlavi (12531325) again and again.5 It is true that there are several Persian versions of SFD, of which at least one was composed in the nineteenth century, while the rest dated from before the 19th century (although usually from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries).
For Amir Khusrau Dehlavi, see, for instance, Muhammad Wahid Mirza, The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press,1935); Zoe Ansari (ed.), Life, Times and Works of Amir Khusrau Dehlavi (New Delhi: National Amr Khusrau Society, 1975); A. Schimmel, Amir Kosrow Dehlavi, in Encyclopaedia Iranica online (http://www.iranica.com/newsite/authors/ index.isc). Last visited 18 February 2010. The formula: Maka berkata sahib al-hikayat syaikh Amir Khusrau occurs in our MS on pp. 24, 64, 70, 71, 152, 160, 161, 198, 216, 251, etc.
5
Besides, according to the tradition conveyed by already mentioned Mir Amman, SFD was narrated by Amir Khusrau to his Sufi master, Nizam al-Din Auliya, the celebrated sheikh of the Chishtiyya order, in order to entertain him during his illness. After his recovery, the sheikh pronounced the following benediction: That whoever will hear this tale, will, with the blessing of God, remain in health.6 However that may have been, Mahmud b. Sayid Mualims statement that he translated SFD from Persian cannot fail to provoke serious doubt. Leaving aside the debatable problem of Amir Khusraus authorship,7 we can note that two important peculiarities contrast Persian versions of SFD which predate the nineteenth century to its Urdu versions. First, these Persian versions do not mention Amir Khusrau as their author.8 Second, the successions of stories in Urdu and Persian versions of SFD are different: the second dervishs story of the Persian versions is told by the third dervish in Urdu versions, whereas the third dervishs story of the Persian versions is told by the second dervish in the Urdu versions. In other words, the stories of the second and the third dervishes in the Persian and Urdu versions exchange their positions9. These two easily comparable features show that none of the pre-nineteenth century Persian versions of SFD could have been the source text of Mahmud b. Sayid Mualims Malay translation. In his translation Amir Khusrau is repeatedly mentioned as SFDs author, and the stories of the second and the third dervishes follow the order of Urdu versions. It is also hardly possible that the Persian version of SFD composed in 1802 by the Indian author Muhammad Ivaz Zarrin could serve as the source text of the Malay translation. As Abdul Haq remarks: In his *Zarrin's+ work, the qissahs are given very
Bagh-o bahar, or Tales of the Four Darvishes. Translated from Hindustani of Mir Amman of Dihli by Duncan Forbes (London: Wm.H. Allen, 1857), p. 3 (henceforth: Forbes translation, 1857). 7 Abdul Haq, Muqaddimah-e murattib (Editors introduction), pp. 1-36. Translated into English from Urdu by F.W. Pritchett, [in Mir Amman. Bagh-o Bahar, the late 1920s], (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/baghobahar/intro_abdulhaq.html). Last visited 18 February 2010, pp. 1-2 (henceforth Abdul Haqs introduction, 1920s). Cf., however, the different position of Muhammad Salim-Ur-Rahman, Classics Revisited, Annual of Urdu Studies 13 (1998), pp. 161-167 (http://www.urdustudies.com /pdf/13/12salimClassics.pdf), Last visited 18 February 2010,, pp. 161-162). According to the catalogue of the former India Office, SFD popularly ascribed to Amir Khusrau *<+ also considered to be by Muhammad Wahid, but is probably by an unknown author of the early Mughal period (see Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in India Office. Qissa-i Chahar Darvish [n.d.] (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/ indiaoffice selectpd/FullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=015-000019754). Last visited 18 August 2008. 8 Abdul Haqs introduction, 1920s, p. 2. 9 See G.A. Zograf, Predisloviye (Introduction), in Mir Amman, Sad i vesna (The garden and spring). Translated from Urdu into Russian by G.A. Zograf (Moscow: Izdatelstvo Vostichnoy Literatury, 1962), p. 13. The illustrated Persian manuscript of SFD from the former India Office collection confirms this exchange of the positions and adds some more details contrasting Persian versions to their Urdu counterparts. For instance, the prince from the second story (in the Persian sequence) is in love with the princess of peris, while in Urdu versions he is in love with the princess of Farang. In the same second story (in the Persian sequence) there appears the prince who carries with him his dead wifes body in the coffin, while in Urdu versions, the princes foster-brother carries with him the coffin with the murdered princes body (see Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in India Office. Qissa-i Chahar Darvish [n.d.]). In the Malay translation of SFD all these details are like in Urdu versions.
6

briefly; the situations are just the same.10 Contrary to Zarrins version, in Mahmuds translation all the qissahs (stories) are extensive and detailed narratives, of which the majority of details, as we shall see, occur in the Urdu version by Mir Amman. Therefore, the Malay translation of SFD is traceable not to Persian, but to Urdu versions of this composition. There were at least two Urdu versions of it. One of them, entitled Nau tarz-e murassa (A new style of adornment), was composed around 1775 by Mir Muhammad Husain Ata Khan, better known under his pen-name Tahsin. The language of this version, according to Abdul Haq, is extremely colourful, and filled with similes and metaphors from head to foot. So much so that while reading, at some points ones mind begins to feel nauseated. *<+ the style of the language is archaic and it is overflowing with Persian constructions and words. 11 The second version is the classic Bagh-o bahar (The garden and spring) composed by Mir Amman in 1802 in simple, clear and idiomatic language, the style of which is eloquent and elegant. As Abdul Haq notes, There is neither inappropriate prolongation, nor useless verbiage *in this book+. To write in simple language is extremely difficult. *<+ To combine simplicity with eloquence and to maintain an enjoyable style is a great achievement *of Mir Amman+12. Mahmud b. Sayid Mualims translation does not reveal even accidental echoes of the excessively metaphoric, artificial style of Tahsins Nau tarz-e murassa, let alone any attempt to somehow reproduce it. This, by itself, questions the possibility that this work could be the source of his translation. Moreover, judging by the fact that even insignificant complications in the imagery of descriptive passages in Mir Ammans compositionthe actual source of the discussed translation, as I shall try to argue presented insurmountable obstacles for Mahmud, it is unlikely that he was competent enough to translate the text as difficult as Tahsinss. A number of facts confirm the assumption that Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim rendered into Malay none other than Mir Ammans Bagh-o bahar. First of all, the Malay version of SFD contains all the episodes of this work in Urdu, which follow one another exactly in the order of the latter. Narrative passages of these episodes in Malay translation normally contain most of sentences of which they consist in Bagh-o bahar. Here is only one example of how closely the Malay translation corresponds to this Urdu text, its suggested source: The episode with a young man riding the yellow bull13 Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Story of four dervishes in Malay Forbes translation, 1857, pp. 113(SFD), 114 MS, pp. 88-89. One day, the moment the morning ap- Maka adalah pada suatu hari sekalian peared, all the inhabitants of the city, lit- orang di dalam negeri itu kecil besar dan tle and great, young and old, poor and tua(h) muda(h) sekalian berjalan keluar rich, issued forth. They went out and assem- negeri itu. Adalah di luar negeri [one ilbled on a plain; the king of the country legible word] itu adalah suatu padang went there also mounted on horseback, besar sekali. Maka pergilah orang itu seAbdul Haqs introduction, 1920s, p. 24. Ibid., p. 14. 12 Ibid., pp. 4-5. Cf. Muhammad Sadiq, A History of Urdu Literature (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 210-211. 13 For the place and significance of this episode from the tale of the second dervish in the general composition of the Story of four dervishes, see its summary below.
10 11
and surrounded by his nobles; then they all formed a regular line, and stood still. I also stood among them to see the strange sight, for it clearly appeared that they were waiting for [the arrival of] some one. In an hours time a beautiful young man, of an angelic form, about fifteen or sixteen years of age, uttering a loud noise, and foaming at the mouth, and mounted on a dun bull, holding something in one hand, approached from a distance, and came up in front of the people; he descended from the bull, and sat down [oriental fashion] on the ground, holding the halter of the animal in one hand, and a naked sword in the other; kalian kepada padang itu, berkampung serta bersaf-saf beratur. Dan adalah di situ raja negeri itu dan orang besarbesarnya sekali adalah hadir di-situ. Maka hamba pun adalah serta orang banyak itu. Maka datanglah seorang muda(h) daripada pihak hutan negeri itu. Maka adalah rupanya itu sahib al-jamal dan berbusa-busa pula mulutnya, terlalu baik sekali parasnya. Adalah umurnya itu tiga-empatbelas tahun umurnya. Dan rupanya seperti anak-anakan raja besar jua dan adalah ia kendaraan di atas lembu seekor kuning warnanya. Maka datanglah ia kepada sekalian khalk (or: khalayak?) Allah yang banyak di padang itu. Setelah ia sampai, maka turunlah ia dari atas kendaraannya itu, duduk ke tanah seraya memegang tali lembunya itu dan sebelah tangan memegang pedang bercabut dan ada pula pegang suatu bendahamba tiadalah ketahui. Maka dipanggilnya seorang budak, umurnya enam-tujuh tahun budak itu. Maka budak itu bawalah kepada orang banyak itu, ditunjukkan kepada sekalian orang yang ada di padang itu. Setelah orang itu sekalian melihat akan benda yang dibawa oleh budak itu, maka menangislah sekalian orang yang melihat itu. Setelah habislah sudah ditunjukkan oleh budak itu, maka pergilah ia kembali kepada orang muda(h) yang naik di atas lembu itu. Setelah budak itu datang, maka dijinjangnya oleh orang muda itu dengan pedangnya yang dipegangnya itu kepada leher budak itu, maka budak itupun matilah. Maka orang muda(h) itu pula naiklah di atas kendaraannya itu, lalu ia berjalanlah pergi, dari mana datangnya itu di situlah kembali. Maka sekalian orang banyak yang di padang itu sekaliannya kembalilah ke dalam negeri.
a rosy-coloured, beautiful [attendant] was with him; the young man gave him that which he held in his hand; the slave took it, and went along showing it to all of them from one end of the line to the other; but such was the nature [of the object], that whoever saw it, the same involuntarily wept aloud and bitterly [at the strange sight]. In this way he continued to show it to every one, and made every one weep; then passing along the front of the line, he returned to his master again. The moment he came near him, the young man rose up, and with the sword severed the attendants head *from his body], and having again mounted his bull, galloped off towards the quarter from whence he had come. All [present] stood looking on. When he disappeared from their sight, the inhabitants returned to the city.
Roughly the same degree of closeness to Bagh-o bahar is characteristic for the majority of narrative passages in the Malay translation of SFD. Interestingly, all the passages of Bagh-o bahar that Abdul Haq considers particularly typical of Mir Ammans manner of writing14 occur in Mahmuds translation and contain most of the expressive details to which the Indian scholar draws the readers attention (see Appendix 2).
14
Abdul Haqs introduction, 1950s, pp. 6-7.

Alongside the close correspondence of Mahmuds translation to Bagh-o bahar, two more specific, and therefore more convincing, features are indicative of the fact that Mir Ammans work does represent the original of the Malay SFD. One of them is the rendering, sometimes rather awkward, of Mir Ammans verses from Bagh-o bahar that occur in SFD (see, for instance the MS, pp. 11, 64, 97, 125). Here are some examples: Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857
Beloved of God, turn towards me, and hear this helpless one's narrative. Hear what has passed over my head with attentive ears, Hear how Providence has raised and depressed me. I am going to relate whatever misfortunes I have suffered; hear the whole narrative (p. 29). O friends, to this faqir's story listen a little; -I will tell it to you, --from first to the last, listen; Whose cure no physician can perform; My pain is far beyond remedy, --listen (p. 93)
Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD)

MS, p. 11. Ya abd Allah (ertinya, hai hamba Allah), dengan sebaik-baik pendengaran tuantuan dengarkanlah / dan memberi telinga dengan sebaik-baik pendengaran. / Tuan, dengarkan cetera hamba akan hal fakir ini berceteracetera yang hamba mendapat dan hamba mendengar dan melihat. / Cetera seperti kepala ke bawah dan kaki ke atas yang hamba dapat yang hamba ceterakan ini. MS, p. 64. Maka sekarang mahulah tuan-tuan mendengar akan cetera fakir ini, dengan bersungguh-sungguh hamba bercetera daripada permulaannya hingga datang kepada kesudahannya. / Maka katanya adalah hal hamba ini seperti seorang jua mendapat penyakit yang besar sekali yang tiada dapat ditadbirkan (yani tiada dapat dibicarakan oleh seorang juga). / Jika hakim dan hukama atau tabib yang besar-besar sekali pun kehendaki hendak mengobati akan penyakit hamba, tiadalah boleh sekali-sekali. / Karena hamba itu celah hati hamba yang hamba menurutkan itu, maka menjadilah penyakit besar sekali. MS, p. 125. Adalah kening tuan seperti taji dibentuk; kenapakah gerangan tuan tiada datang kemari? / Dan sebab kerana tuanlah, maka hamba bertapa empat puluh hari.
Why should not she of the arched eyebrows come [to my house], She for whose sake I have fasted for forty days (p. 148).
Another feature is the appearance of colloquial expressions, so characteristic of Mir Ammans idiomatic language, in Mahmuds translation. Some of themfor instance the expression the frog caught cold, which implies something absurd and is to ridicule the extravagant idea of a merchants son presuming to be in love with a princess15are rendered rather whimsically, whereas the others are translated fairly precisely, though not without a certain Malay colouring:
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857 On hearing these words, she was greatly offended, and frowning with anger, she exclaimed, Very fine indeed! What, thou art my lover! Has the frog then caught cold? (p. 61).
15
Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD) MS, p. 28. Maka rupanya yang seperti bulan itu menjadi kelamlah serta masam, dan karut dahinya dengan marahnya, maka katanya tuan puteri: Baiklah, jikalau begitu selama ini engkau menaruh asyikkah kepadaku in?
Forbes translation, 1857, p. 61, note 1.
Adalah seperti misal dikata orang-orang tua: Adapun kodok tempatnya di dalam air. Maka sekarang kudengar katamu itu adalah seperti kodok berkata ini duduk di dalam air, menjadi lemas konon? MS, p. 206. Engkau makan nasi di kebun itu dan engkau basuh tangan di sini.
Return quick, as if you ate your dinner there and drank your wine here (p. 260)
Finally, one more argument in favour of Bagh-o bahar as the source of the Malay translation is that Tahsins Nau tarz-e murassa was a marginal work, difficult to obtain. In contrast, much more popular Mir Ammans composition had already been lithographed six times before 1845, the year of the Malay version of SFD16. It was issued in Calcutta in 1804, 1813, 1824 and 1834, in Cawnpore in 1833 and, which is particularly interesting, in Madras (Tamilnadu) in 1840, only 5 years before the date of the Malay translation. With all these arguments in mind, it seems safe to state that the text, which Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim translated into Malay with an assistance of his friend Rahman Khan, was none other than Bagh-o bahar. Another remarkable feature of the preface of the Malay SFD is that it contains the date of the translation in the form of chronogram. Quite usual in literatures of the Middle East and Islamic India, chronograms rarely occur in traditional Malay texts. I can quote only Taj as-salatin as an example, in which the word ghaib stands for the year of this works composition (1603 AD)17. The chronogram in SFD is the Arabic word-combination bi-sargh. Since, according to abjad, numerical value of ba is 2, sin 60, ra 200 and ghain 1000, the year in question is 1262 AH = 1845/6 AD. Chronograms not infrequently contained hints and allusions of various kinds. For instance, the chronogram Jahangir (289) az (8) jahan (59) raft (680), which literally means World conqueror left the world, points to 1036 AH, the year of the Emperor Jahangirs death18. What draws attention in SFDs chronogram, which means on an offshoot of the vine or thanks to an offshoot of the vine, are its garden associations, moreover offshoots appear on vines in the springtime. Could, consciously or unconsciously, the title Bagh-o bahar (The garden and spring), which is at the same time the chronogram for the year of this books composition (1802 AD), bring forth these associations in Mahmud b. Sayid Mualims mind? On the other hand, Mahmuds chronogram could allude to the fact that his translation sits, as it were, on an offshoot (Mir Ammans composition) of the vine (Amir Khusraus original of SFD) or that his translation appeared thanks to this offshoot. Needless to say, the two interpretations do not contradict each other. In both cases an allusion to Bagh-o bahar cannot be excluded. However, what could force Mahmud to conceal the real source of his translation? There might have been several reasons for this. One of them was that the original author of SFD had after all been Amir Khusrau, who composed it in Persian. No matter whether this attribution is correct or otherwise from the point of view of
G. A. Grierson, A Bibliography of Western Hindi, including Hindostani (Bombay: Education Society Press, 1903), p. 32 17 A. Marre (transl.), Makota Radja-radja, ou la couronne des rois / par Bokhari de Djohore (Paris: Maisonneueve et Cie, 1878), p. 13, notes 1-2. 18 M.A. Farooqi, The Secret of Letters; Chronograms in Urdu Literary Culture, Edebiyat 13-2 (2003): 147158, p. 150.
16

modern scholarship, Mahmud undoubtedly believed in it, although, paradoxically, he found this attribution not in Persian versions of SFD (in which it is absent), but in the work of that same Mir Amman. Another reason was the high authority of Persian works in traditional Malay literature, which at the time of Mahmuds translation by far surpassed that of pieces in Urdu. Andlast but not leastreligious considerations may have played an important, if not decisive, role in the concealment of the source-authors name. The point is that Mir Ammans creation had a distinct smell of Shiism, it berbau Syia, as Malay literati would have put it. Not only contained the introduction to Bagh-o bahar a long eulogy addressed to twelve imams, but none other than Ali Murtaza saved the life of each protagonist of the book in the instant of his utter desperation. It goes without saying that these features of Mir Ammans narrative are removed from its Malay translation (Ali, for instance is transformed into a nameless, mysterious prince). And yet, more subtle Shiite motifs of Mir Ammans book continued to worry Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim. It is hardly accidental that in the beginning of his preface to SFD he pleads Allah to protect us from unbelief and treacherous (or rather apostate) words and in its ending he asks the readers to improve everything in his book that is unacceptable in terms of the law (syara) of our Prophet.19 With all this in mind, it is little wonder that Mahmud preferred to attribute SFD to a great Persian poet, not to a less known Urdu writer the Shiite. Both his Sunnite piety and his striving for the success of the translation with the Malay audience required this attribution. Curiously enough, in his false attribution Mahmud as if followed the example of Mir Amman himself who had also presented his Bagh-o bahar as a translation of the Persian work by Amir Khusrau and had chosen to ignore Tahsin, the genuine author of the Urdu source text that he reworked20.
This narrative includes the stories told by saints and wise men and those who turned their back to the world and it consists of five tales Now, after a discussion of some issues brought forward by the preface to SFD, we can get acquainted with the content of SFD itself more closely. Similarly to many fantastic adventure narratives Urdu and Malay alike, the hikayat begins with the story of the childless king, in this case the king of Rum (Turkey) Azadbakht (MS, pp. 2-11).
Once, looking in the mirror, the king notices a grey strand in his hair. He meditates on the transitoriness of the world and wishes to leave his realm in order to spend the rest of his life in prayers and deeds of piety. However, his wise vizier Khiradmand persuades the king that he should perform his royal duties in the daytime and serve God at night. One night the king sets out to a cemetery in the hope that he will meet self-denying dervishes there and will be able to learn from them. Having approached to the cemetery, he actually notices four dervishes who while away the night telling tales about what happened to them in their life. Azadbakht hides himself and listens to their stories. The first dervish tells (pp. 12-41)21 that his father, a merchant from Yemen, left him a great fortune. Having thoughtlessly wasted his inheritance, the merchants son pleads his sister to help him. He buys various goods for her money and departs for a trading trip to Dimasyk (Damascus). While spending the night at the closed gates of Dimasyk, he sees MS, p. 1. Abdul Haqs introduction, 1920s, pp. 2-14. 21 All page numbers refer to MS Q 11.4A/27.
19 20
how someone lowers a chest from the city wall and finds a badly wounded beautiful girl in the chest. The merchants son brings a physician to cure the girl and spends all his money taking care of her. He is head over heals in love with the belle who, however, remains unattainable to him and prohibits the merchants son to ask her any questions about her past. When the young merchants money is exhausted, the girl sends him to a certain Siti Bahar who, without a question, gives him a lot of gold. The belle insists that the merchants son should become friends with a young jeweller Yusuf. Yusuf invites him to his luxurious house, arranges a sumptuous feast and acquaints the young merchant with his lover who is exceptionally ugly. The merchants beloved tells him that he, in his turn, should invite Yusuf and throws a banquet even more splendid than that of the jeweller. At the banquet the merchants son gets drunk and loses consciousness. Next morning, when he comes to, he finds the decapitated bodies of Yusuf and his ugly lover and learns that his beloved deserted him. The young merchant eventually finds the belle who is infuriated by his reckless behaviour at the banquet. Yet, in the end she forgives and marries him. After a lot of coaxing, the merchants wife agrees to tell him her story (pp. 41-58). She is the princess of Dimasyk who fell in love with her handsome servant Yusuf. Playing on her passion for him, the servant became rich and famous in their city and persuaded the princess to buy a beautiful garden and a female-slave for him. Once, wishing to admire the gardens, the princess set off to pay a visit to Yusuf. Together with his ugly slave Yusuf made her drunk, injured her with his sword and, considering the princess dead, lowered her in a chest from the city wall. The merchants son saved the princesss life and helped her to take revenge on the treacherous servant, even though he did not know that. The princess does not want to stay in Dimasyk any longer and leaves the city with her husband. After a long journey, they come to the sea and the merchants son sets off in search of a boat. However, when he returns, he does not find the princess on the seashore. In vain the merchants son looks for her everywhere. His desperation is so great that he is ready to commit suicide, but at this moment a mysterious rider who is wrapped in the green cloak and whose face is covered appears before him. He dissuades the merchants son from suicide and advises him that he should go to Rum to the king Azadbakht. There he will meet three dervishes and will reach the fulfilment of his desire. The second dervish begins his story (pp. 64-128) and tells that he was born as a prince of Fars. From the early years he was fond of tales about people who had managed to achieve eternal fame, particularly those of extraordinarily generous Hatim Tai (pp. 66-72). After his father died and he became the king, he decided to become famous for equal generosity. However, a dervish, who annoyed him by getting alms forty times in a row during one and the same day, explained to the prince that he was still very far from the genuine generosity, of which the only possessor is the princess of Basra. The prince of Fars sets off to Basra in order to meet the princess. However, before their meeting, the princesss servant, Bahrawar, tells him about strange events in the city of Nimroz. Every month all the people of the city gather in a broad plain. The prince of Nimroz comes to the plain on the back of a white bull, breaks a vase of emerald and kills his young slave. Afterwards he leaves the plain and, with loud groans and moans, disappears in the forest (pp. 87-89). When the prince of Fars meets the princess of Basra, he expresses his admiration with her generosity and beauty. A lady in waiting of the princess tells him that the princess was unjustly expelled from the palace by her father, but, by the mercy of God, she found a treasury with inexhaustible riches (pp. 95-106). The prince offers the princess his hand and heart, and she agrees to marry him, if he knows the secret of the prince of Nimroz. The prince of Fars arrives in Nimroz and, with a great risk to his life, persuades the prince of Nimroz to tell him his story (pp. 111-127). Astrologers foretold that at the age of fourteen a disaster may have befallen the prince. Therefore, his parents hid him in an underground chamber, where he saw no sunlight. However, no one can escape from his fate. Once, a throne, on which a beautiful peri was seated, descended into the chamber through its dome. The prince and the peri fell in love with each other, but the peris father, the king of jinns, separated them. Distraught with grief, the prince fell seriously ill, and his parents sent him to a great yogi to be cured. There he took hold of the book containing the greatest name of Allah and, with its help, summoned the king of jinns. The poor enamored talked

the king to leave the princess of peris with him and promised that he would not touch her. However, he failed to keep his promise, and the jinns took away his magic book and separated him from his beloved again. Since then, every month he rides on the bull, into which he has turned one of the jinns, to the plain and performs strange actions, so that every one could see how deeply he suffers. The prince of Fars, who feels compassion for him, promises his help to the enamored and sets off in search of the peri. However, he fails to find her and is ready to commit suicide in desperation. At that moment, the same green horseman appears, stops the prince and advises him that he should go to Rum. Meanwhile the dawn cracks. Azadbakht returns to his palace and sends a courtier to bring the dervishes. The king tells them that last night he listened to the stories of two of them and now wishes to learn about adventures of two others. To encourage the dervishes the king suggests that he will tell them his own story first. Once an Iraqi merchant arrives in Rum and presents a very big ruby to him. Azadbakht is extremely proud of the ruby and likes to boast of it, but his wise vizier says that this jewel, like all other earthly riches, does not deserve to be praised so much. Moreover, a merchant from Nishapur has embellished the collar of his dog with twelve rubies that are bigger than this one. Azadbakht calls the vizier a liar and throws him in dungeon. In the guise of a young male-trader, the viziers daughter sets off to Nishapur in order to find the merchant who is the owner of the dog and to prove that her father told the truth. The young trader charms the merchant and persuades him to go with him to Rum. The young trader and the Nishapur merchant arrive in Rum. The merchant brings the dog and two his brothers, who are put into cages, with him. Infuriated by the fact that the merchant keeps human beings in cages, but does everything to please the dog, Azadbakht is ready to execute him. To save his life the merchant has to explain his strange behaviour, for which he was nicknamed a dog-worshipper, and to tell him his story (pp. 144-195). When his father died, the merchants brothers stripped him off his share of the inheritance and tried to kill him many times. However, each time his faithful and extraordinarily clever dog managed to save the life of its master. Having lost all his possessions, the merchant found himself in a new country, where he experienced many amazing adventures, such as his liberation from the horrible dungeon of the Prophet Sulaiman, about which his rescuer, the princess of Iraq, narrates a story (pp. 155-157). Eventually, thanks to the mercy of Allah, to whom the merchant is as loyal as his dog is loyal to him and to whose faith he converts a few princess-idol-worshippers, the merchant becomes rich again. Afterwards he learns that his evil brothers have committed a new crime and have got into trouble again. He rescues them, and the whole situation repeats. In the end the merchant puts his incorrigible brothers in the cages, but surrounds the faithful dog with comfort and luxury. Azadbakht approves the merchants actions and asks him about the origin of his enormous rubies. The dog-worshipper replies that once he met a young man who presented him these rubies and told the following story (pp. 180-193). After a shipwreck he found himself in a magical city, where there was a plenty of such jewels. Although he was buried alive in that city, he managed to escape from the place of the burial together with his beloved and took the rubies with him. The story of the merchant convinces the king that his vizier told him the truth. He releases the vizier and marries his intelligent daughter to the merchant-dog-worshipper. When Azadbakht finishes his narrative, the third dervish agrees to relate the story of his misfortunes (pp. 198-225). In fact, he is the prince of Ajam. Once he goes for hunting, chases a very beautiful she-deer, wounds her in the leg and finds himself in the house of an old man, Niman Sayah, whose pet the wounded she-deer is. The old man curses the prince and, although he forgives him later, the prince is doomed to suffer from pangs of love. In the house of Niman Sayah, the prince finds a statue of an incomparably charming girl and passionately falls in love with her. The old man tells the story of this sculpture (p. 202-210). It portrays the princess of Farang whom he hopelessly loves. The prince of Ajam departs to Farang and after a number of adventures unites with the belle thanks to the help of the powerful warrior Bihzad Khan. However, when on the way back the pair of lovers crosses the river, the princess of Farang suddenly disappears in the waves. Because of his grief the
prince nearly looses his mind, dresses up as a dervish and starts wandering over jungles and mountains. He wishes to commit suicide, but the green horseman keeps him from this reckless step and sends to Rum. The time of the fourth dervishs story comes (pp. 225-251). He was the prince of China (Cin). Before his father the king dies he entrusts the only son to his brothers care. However, the treacherous uncle only looks for the opportunity to kill the prince and to usurp the throne. The loyal servant Mubarak rescues the prince and brings him to his fathers friend, the king of jinns Malik Sadik. Malik Sadik is ready to help the prince to get back his realm, provided the prince finds and brings to him the belle depicted on the portrait. However, the king of jinns repeatedly warns the prince that, in case of a treachery or an attempt to get the girl for himself, he will be severely punished. The prince and Mubarak set out in search of the belle, but, when they finally find her, her father tells them the sad story of his daughter (pp. 239-244). Anyone who wishes to marry her dies in a mysterious manner, just as this happened to the son of the king, whose courtier her father is. The prince falls in love with the belle and, although he has to bring her to Malik Sadik, he does not want to give her to the king of jinns. With the help of a ruse Mubarak tries to save the girl from Malik Sadik. However, the latter guesses what his ruse is, attacks the prince, wins the victory and takes away the girl from him. In desperation the prince sets off for wanderings. He is ready to throw himself from the high mountain, when the same green rider stops him and sends him to Rum. When the fourth dervish finishes his tale, the king Azadbakht suddenly learns that one of his wives has just born the son to him. Overwhelmed with joy, the king orders to arrange a great feast. With the help of the great king of jinns, Malik Syahpal, Azadbakht marries all the separated lovers to one another: the merchants son from Yemen to the princess of Damsyik, the prince of Fars to the princess of Basra, the prince of Ajam to the princess of Farang, the prince of Nimroz to the princess of jinns, and the prince of China to the daughter of the courtier, who was kidnapped by Malik Sadik. Everyone happily achieves the fulfilment of his or her desire.
And love and passion for these stories entered my soulso that I asked him to help me in their translation While trying to identify the source text of the Malay version of SFD, we have already touched upon some specific features of its translation. Now we shall discuss this issue in more detail. The principles that Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim and his assistant adhered to in their rendering of Mir Ammans work did not largely differ from those of their predecessors from the first wave of Islamic India literary impact, translators of Persian literary pieces. In both cases, an idiomatic and an unidiomatic rendering of the source text constituted two poles of the translation strategy. The choice of one or another strategy normally depended on the character to be born and the function to be performed by a particular section of the source text in the semantic and stylistical fabric of the target text. The idiomatic strategy of translation was usually used for narrative sections of the source text, whereas the unidiomatic strategy for its edifying sections, which often included quotations from the Quran and hadith, poetical insertions and all kinds of passages written in a religious, legalistic or scholarly manner. In the eyes of the Malay translators, the authority of such quotations and passages, or their great significance within the context of the work, or both, required the reproduction of not only their meaning, but also their syntax. It is little wonder, therefore, that the attempts to fulfil this most contradictory task frequently brought forth a kind of translationese, not only distinguished by its clumsiness and its weird constructions, but also

by a distinctly deviant use of prepositions22. Between these two poles, there lay the whole spectrum of transitional forms, more or less idiomatic or otherwise. A number of these forms we find in Mahmuds translation. A considerable, if not greater, part of Bagh-o bahars narrative segments are rendered into idiomatic Malay. Once again, just as in translations of the predecessors from the first wave, Mahmuds idiomatic strategy is based on a sentence-by-sentence (or close to sentence-bysentence) Malay paraphrase of the Urdu original. Inherent in this paraphrase are relatively few additions and omissions, embellishments of the source text and skipping them over, and only slight traces of its vocabulary. A good example of this idiomatic and fairly exact translation presents the episode about the prince on the yellow bull, which was quoted above. However, also not infrequently, Mahmuds translation of Urdu narrative passagesparticularly those combining narration with edificationshow different degrees of deviation from the idiomatic strategy. In such cases, Mir Ammans elegantly lucid, concise narration is substantially extended by various explanatory remarks, deliberations intended to enhance didactic overtones of a passage or to add such overtones to it, and sometimes simply by repetitions of words and word-combinations rather awkwardly arranged and only leading to the translated passages longwindedness. The latter is particularly characteristic for the rendering of Mir Ammans verses (see examples of it above, p. 10). Self-standing segments in Bagh-o bahar, in Malay SFD these verses are occasionally reworked into a part of the characters prose monologue23 or integrated into a prose narrative as one of its sentences (see below, p. 19-20 and notes 23-24). A typical example of the didactic (and long-winded) amplification of the SFDs source text has already been referred to, when I mentioned characteristic (from Abdul Haqs viewpoint) passages of Mir Ammans work that occur in Mahmuds translation (see Appendix 2, I). The real extent of this amplification becomes clearer if the preceding part of the above passage is also quoted:
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857, pp. 32-33 This mendicant [i.e., the first dervish telling this story] had no sooner reposed himself in [the vacant] seat [of his father] than he
22
Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD), MS, pp. 13-14 Setelah berapa lamanya hamba duduk di atas itu, maka datanglah pula tahunnya dan bulannya dan harinya dan saatnya sesal di atas
L.F. Brakel, The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah; A medieval Muslim-Malay Romance (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1975), p. 43. 23 For instance, the princess of Basra addresses Allah with a long speech, which includes a prose reworking of Mir Ammans verse:
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman Forbes translation, p. 185 When I had no teeth, then thou gavest milk; When thou hast given teeth, wilt thou not grant food! Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD) MS, p. 97 Maka tiadalah ada bergigi, maka Tuhanku memberi pula akan hambamu rezeki daripada susu jua, dan telah besarlah hambamu maka Tuhanku kurniakan gigi kepada mulut hambamu makanlah rezekiMu daripada nimatMu sekalian. [...] Sekarang haraplah akan hambamu kepada Tuhanku dengan Kamu mudah-mudahan jua hambaMu mendapat rezeki Tuhanku jua.
was surrounded by fops, coxcombs, thiggars and sornars *parasites+, liars and flatterers, who became his favourites and friends. I began to have them constantly in my company. They amused me with the gossip of every place, and every idle, lying tittle tattle; they continued urging me thus: In this season of youth, you ought to drink of the choicest wines, and send for beautiful mistresses to participate in the pleasures thereof, and enjoy yourself in their company. In short, the evil genius of man is man: my disposition changed from listening constantly [to their pernicious advice.] Wine, dancing, and gaming occupied my time. At last matters came to such a pitch, that, forgetting my commercial concerns, a mania for debauchery and gambling came over me. My servants and companions, when they perceived my careless habits, secreted all they could lay hand on; one might say a systematic plunder took place. No account was kept of the money which was squandered; from whence it came, or where it went: When the wealth comes gratuitously, the heart has no mercy on it. Had I possessed even the treasures of Karun [the rich man, a personification of wealth], they would not have been sufficient to supply this vast expenditure. kepala hamba ini, maka datanglah orang muda-muda belia terlalu banyak daripada pihak orang tiada bermalu dan tiada bersopan dan fitnah dan hasad sekalian, daripada akal yang jahat datanglah ia bersahabat kepada hamba. Maka hamba pun mengikutlah akan nasihatnya yang keji-keji, maka hamba pun mengikutlah kepadanya dan hamba pun termasuklah di dalam pukatnya yang celaka itu. Sebermula diajarnya oleh orang celaka itu kepada hamba seraya katanya: Hai tuan yang baik paras dan muda(h) belia(h), apakah gunanya semua [an illegible word] itu dan harta yang sebanyak itu jikalau tiada tuan menyukakan tatkala muda(h) ini. Jika tuan nanti apalah apalah gunanya lagi? Adapun yang baik kepada hamba sekalian, baik juga tuan berlajar minum khamr [wine] dan minuman-minuman yang memberi asyik berahi serta dengan mabuk-mabuk selasih. Itulah yang baik kepada hamba sekalian. Dan kedua, maka mahulah tuan minum janganlah tuan seorang diri. Menjadi tiada mendapat rasanya dan lezatnya sekali-sekali. Baik juga tuan mengambil anak-anakan perempuan yang muda(h)-muda(h) serta dengan elok parasnya. Tatakala itu barulah tuan mendapat rasanya dan lezatnya minuman sekalian itu. Setelah hamba mendengar, maka terbukalah hati hambamu dan sukaria dengan terlalu amat sangat. Maka hamba pun kabulkanlah, maka hamba pun mengikutlah pengajaran dan nasihat sekalian itu. Maka menjadilah lupa sekalian perbuatan dan perniagaan pun tiadalah teringat sekali-sekali. Maka hamba pun belanjakanlah harta yang ditinggalkan oleh ayahanda baginda itu yang tiada terhisab itu tiadalah dengan kadarnya atau kira-kira bagaimana garuk harta ini datangnya kepada hamba. Maka bagaimana datangnya, demikianlah perginya dengan tiada boleh dapat terhisab lagi dan hingganya melainkan dengan belanja jua seperti orang tiada sedarkan diri adanya. Maka hamba pun ngapallah [stubbornly] menurut akan perkataan syaitan yang berpengajaran manusia jua. Bukannya syaitan yang dijadikan tuhan kita, mengajarkan pengajaran syaitan manusia itu? Dan cukuplah kepada hamba pengajarannya syaitan manusia itu. Dan tiada kasihan kepada hak yang ditinggalkan oleh

ayahanda baginda itu, dengan sia-sia jua perginya. Karena apa sebabnya? Bukannya hamba penatkan aku, ta hamba mencarikan harta itu. Jikalau sekiranya hamba yang empunya pencarian, niscaya hamba tiadalah berani kerjakan [demikian].24 Adapun sekarang, pada sangka hamba, tatkala hamba belanjakan harta itu, jikalau seperti khazanah Karun sekalipun habis juga hamba belanjakan dengan sekejap mata juga. Maka berkata sahib al-hikayat: Dengarkan olehmu nasihat saudaramu, dengan seboleh-bolehnya ambillah olehmu ibarat ini, pakaikan kepada akalmu dan hatimu. Hai saudaraku tua dan muda, dengarkan olehmu cetera telah hilang harta daripada tangannya itu.
One more reason for changing the source text that caused its lengthening was its adaptation to the expectations of the target audience. Such change-adaptations in Mahmuds rendition of SFD are numerous and can be examined on many levels of their semantics and their expression in the word. I, however, limit myself to only one example that seems to combine Mahmuds edifying intentions and his striving to meet the audiences tastes and idiosyncrasies. Although stories of two dervishes describe their early life as princes, Mir Amman tells next to nothing of their education. Yet, it is likely that this was an issue of great importance for Mahmud b. Sayid Mualim. Moreover, traditional Malay literature in general paid sufficient attention to the education of princes, and not only of them indeed. Such compositions as Taj as-salatin, Hikayat Isma Yatim, Hikayat Hang Tuah and Hikayat Aceh to mention only several works of many bear witness to this fact. Therefore, the Malay translation of Bagh-o bahar adds narratives, even though highly formulaic, of the educational background of its characters. Here is an example:
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman Forbes translation, 1857, p. 251 *<+ my father was king of that country, and had no children except myself. In the season of my youth, I used to play with my companions at chaupar cards, chess, and backgammon; or mounting my horse, I used to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD), MS, p. 198 MS, p. 198. Setelah diperanakkan baginda kepada hamba, maka dipeliharalah baginda dengan beberapa kesusahan serta dengan inang pengasu[h] dan dayang-dayang daripada anak orang yang besar-besar jua. Maka setelah sampailah umur hamba tujuh tahun, maka disuruh baginda mengajar mengaji Quran. Tiada berapa lama mengaji Ouran telah tamatlah sudah dengan karunia Allah Taala dan baginda menyuruh pula berlajar mengaji kitab-kitab dan ilmu alat. Dengan tolong Tuhan yang menjadikan sarwa sekalian alam, dengan segera jua hamba dapatlah ilmu yang hamba pelajari
The italicised part of the paragraph corresponds to one line of poetry in Mir Ammans text: When the wealth comes gratuitously, the heart has no mercy on it.
24
itu dengan mudahnya jua. Telah sampailah usianya hamba empat belas tahun, maka hamba pun duduklah dengan bersukasukaan kepada sahabat hamba, iaitu anak menteri hulubalang serta anak orang kayakaya.
In the preface to his translation, Mahmud asks the readers to improve his translation, as, for his traditionally announced ignorance, he extended short passages and shortened long passages of the original. It is true that, like his predecessors and successors, he shortened or even omitted some pieces of Mir Ammans text, too difficult for the translation or the understanding of the audience and too rhetorically refined or artificial to the Malay literary taste. However, for the reasons discussed above, the extension of short passages is by far prevalent over the shortening of long ones in Mahmuds rendering of Bagh-o bahars narrative sections, which nevertheless is sufficiently adequate as a whole. A totally different strategy was chosen by Mahmud for the translation of numerous descriptive passages of Mir Ammans composition. This is even not so much a strategy of translation as a strategy of substitution. Mahmud mostly replaces Bagh-o bahars portrayals of palaces and gardens, female beauty and sumptuous attires and ornaments, picturesque ceremonies and distant marvellous lands, exquisite but alien to Malay literature, by typically Malay versions of these topoi. In many cases, Mahmud extends descriptive passages of Mir Amman, too. For example, in the story of the fourth dervish from the Urdu original the wedding ceremony is described briefly, only in its general outlines:
From that day the preparations for the marriage were begun by both parties; and on an auspicious hour, all the qazis and muftis, the learned men and the nobles were convened, and the marriage rites were performed; the bride was carried away with great clat, and all the ceremonies were finished25.
The Malay translation, which in this case has little in common with its Urdu source text, describes the event at length, completely in the manner of Malay fantastical adventure romances (such as Hikayat Indraputra), using the majority of their stock formulae.
Story of four dervishes in Malay, MS, pp. 240-241 Maka raja pun bertitah kepada menteri hulubalang hendak memulai pekerjaan kahwin anak raja,27 seperti adat kahwin anak raja yang besar-besar empat puluh hari empat puluh malam dengan bersuka-sukaan, Hikayat Indraputra26 Maka Raja Syahsian pun memulai kerja berjaga-jaga akan mengawinkan tuan puteri *<+ dengan Indraputra. *<+ Maka Indraputra pun duduklah pada negeri itu makan minum dengan segala anak raja-raja
Forbes translation, 1857, p. 292. See Rujiati S.B. Mulyadi, Hikayat Indraputra; A Malay Romance (Dordrecht: Foris, 1983), pp. 150-153, 195-198. There are seven descriptions of weddings in Hikayat Indraputra. As we are interested in Malay formulae typical of the wedding topoi, the description below is constructed from two Indraputras marriages: those to the princesses Mengindera Seri Bulan and Mengindera Sari (should be Seri) Bunga. 27 This anak is the rajas daughter, bride, whereas anak aku is the bridegroom.
25 26

makan minum, pencak tari, masing-masing dengan halnya bersuka-sukaan jua. Setelah genaplah empat puluh hari empat puluh malam, maka anak raja pun diarakkan oranglah berkeliling negeri dengan terlalulah ramai permainannya sekali dan bunyibunyian pun terlalu ramai dan gegakgempita di dalam negeri itu sebab permainan belaka. Maka anak hamba pun diriasi oranglah dengan sekalian hiasan pakaian daripada emas perak dan intan manikam. Penuhlah sekali tubuhnya dengan permata menjadi teranglah seperti bulan dan cahaya api pun hilanglah sudah, sebab karena cahaya intan manikam menjadi kelamlah sekalian cahaya yang lain-lain. Maka didudukkan oranglah di atas pelaminan tujuh tingkat, dan rupanya terlalulah elok sekali, tiadalah boleh dipandang nyata. Maka anak raja berarak pun dekatlah sudah istana raja, maka berbunyilah sekalian tempik dan sorak sekalian menteri hulubalang dan rayat, menjadi seperti kiamatlah negeri itu. Maka anak raja pun sampailah ke istana, lalu dibawa masuklah duduk ke atas pelaminan itu. Maka menjadilah anak raja dan anak aku seperti bulan dan matahari. Maka raja dan orang besar-besar dan aku pun datanglah mengadap kepada penganten kedua-dua itu. Maka raja pun bangunlah membuat suapsuapan dan sekalian menteri dan orang besar-besar dan aku pun bangunlah membuat suap-suapan. [Se]telah sudahlah, maka keduanya pun dibawa masuk oranglah kepada tempat peraduan. dan memalu bunyi-bunyian. Bermula setelah genaplah empat puluh hari empat puluh malam *<+ maka diarak *<+ oranglah *tuan putri] berkeliling negeri tujuh kali *<+. Maka berbunyilah segala bunyi-bunyian gendang gong serunai nafiri *<+ terlalu azmat bunyinya. Maka tuan puteri [...] dihias oranglah dengan pakaian yang keemasan, bergelang dan bercincin [...] dan bermalai intan dikarang, gemerlapan seperti bintang [...]. Setelah sudah tuan puteri [...] dihias orang maka didudukkan di atas puspa pemajangan, maka rupa tuan putri [...] gilang-gemilang, kilau-kilauan, tiada dapat ditentang nyata.
Setelah keesokan hari, maka segala hulubalang dan rayat sekalian pun mengaraklah air mandi berkeliling negeri dengan permainan pun jua. Setelah sudah, anak raja dan anak aku didudukkan oranglah di atas panca persada 28 seraya bersiram.
Maka Indraputra pun dihias oranglah dengan pakaian yang keemasan bertatahkan ratna mutu manikam [...]. Maka dinaikkan [Indraputra] di atas perarakan [...]. Maka dibawa oranglah perarakan itu berkisar sendirinya. Maka berpalu-palulah segala rumbai-rumbai mutianya seperti bunyibunyian. [...] Hatta maka Indraputra pun sampailah ke istana Raja Syahsian. [...] Maka didudukkan baginda di atas puspa pemajangan di kanan tuan putri [...]. Maka terlalulah amat baik rupanya [tuan putri], bercahaya-cahaya, gilang-gemilang, kilaukilauan seperti bulan purnama empat belas hari [...] dan rupa Indraputra seperti matahari. [...] Maka nasi adap-adap pun dibawa oranglah di hadapan Indraputra. Setelah sudah santap, maka tuan putri pun dibawa Indraputra masuk ke dalam peraduan. Bermula setelah genap tiga hari, Raja Dewa Lela Mengerna dan Nabat Rum Syah dengan segala anak raja-raja itu berbuat pancapersada [...], tempat Indraputra dengan tuan putri [...] mandi. [...] Maka Raja Dewa Lela Mengerna dan Nabat Rum Syah pun mengatur segala pawai dan air mandi. [...] Setelah sudah maka diarak oranglah segala pawai itu dengan air mandi [...] dengan bunyi-bunyian terlalu azmat bunyinya.[...] Maka diarak oranglah berkeliling negeri [...]. Setelah itu maka [Indraputra dan tuan putri] dimandikan orang di atas pancapersada.
Beauty of the belle is described in the story of the third dervish from Bagh-o bahar as follows:
28
MS mentions puncak persada.
*<+ her face was like the moon, and her ringlets on both sides [of her head] hung loose; she had a smiling countenance; and she was dressed like a European, and with a most charming air; she was seated [on the throne] and looking forward.29
In the Malay translation this description is substituted for the one well known to any reader of traditional Malay literature from countless fantastical adventure romances in prose and verse, hikayat Indraputra for one:
Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD), MS, p. 201 Adalah rupanya itu seperti gambar ditulis dan warnanya putih kuning dan mukanya bujur dan pipinya seperti pauh dilayang dan hidungnya seperti kuntum melur dan keningnya seperti taji dibentuk dan matanya bundar dan giginya lentik dan bibirnya merah seperti gincu Cina dan rambutnya ikal seperti mayang mengurai dan pelipisannya pun terulur dipandang manis dan pakaiannya seperti perempuan Inggeris. Hikayat Indraputra30 *<+ terlalu elok rupanya *of Candra Lela Nurlela+: *<+ rambutnya seperti cincin dituang *<+ keningnya bagai taji dibentuk, *<+, matanya bagai bintang timur, hidungnya bagai kuntum melur, *<+ pipinya bagai pauh dilayang, bibirnya bagai pati dicarik, giginya bagai delima merekah *<+
After this description, in the following narrative passage, Mahmud returns to his somewhat lengthened sentence-by-sentence paraphrase close to the translation proper, as if to contrast two different strategies of his rendering of the source text:
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman Forbes translation, 1857, p. 254 *<+ when I recovered, I got up, and went up to the angelic woman and saluted her; she did not in the least return my salute, nor did she open her lips. I said, O lovely angel, in what religion is it right to be so proud, and not to return a salute. Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD), MS, p. 201 Setelah sudah hamba lihat belaka, maka hamba hampirilah kepada perempuan itu serta dengan beberapa hormat dan salam. Maka tiadalah ia menyahut salam hamba itu sekali-sekali perempuan ini, sebab rupanyakah? Maka kata hamba: Hai tuan puteri badan seperti bunga, mengapakah tuan tiada mau menyahut salam hamba? Kepada adat siapakah itu dan pada agama manakah itu tiada mau menjawab salam orang? *...+.
The strategy of substitution can create the impression that Mahmuds translation does not contribute to traditional Malay literature in its descriptive aspect at all. However, as we shall see, this is not completely so.
29 30
Forbes translation, 1857, p. 254. Mulyadi, Hikayat Indraputra, p. 108.

The most beautiful stories that should bring benefit to all Gods servants Judging from the preface to his translation, the unspeakable beauty (terlalu indah-indah sekali) of Bagh-o bahar was one of the major reasons of Mahmud b. Syed Mualims passionate love for this story (berahi hatiku dan asyik kepada cetera itu). This is quite natural both in terms of traditional Malay aesthetics, in which precisely the beauty of a literary piece that evoked love in the heart of the reader turned this piece into a powerful psychotherapeutic means31, and of the quality of Mir Ammans composition, famous primarily for its beauty32. The Urdu original and the Malay translation of SFD alike are permeated with beauty. It is manifested in captivating, well-balanced and enjoyable plots of its five stories, new to Malay literature in many respects, and in the orderly overall composition of the piece; in the characters of the protagonists, their love experiences and adventures33 and in the portrayal of their travels over amazing, miraculous countries; in elegant, wise sayings and in the smooth, expressive style of writing (in the case of Mahmud at least partly). Be that as it may, like in many earlier Malay fantastical adventure romances, both translated and original, beauty of SFD reveals itself in particular fullness through emotionally active descriptions34. SFD is saturated with such descriptions, both brief and extensive. The best of them, again like in earlier romances, are based on the three-fold unity, or synaesthesia, of visual, acoustic and olfactory impressions. Particularly important among them are: a specific illumination created by gleaming precious metals and iridescent jewels, against the background of which more intensive lighting effects flash now and then 35; loud sounds of music, birds and crowds of people; smells of flowers and fragrances. The majority of these impressions and the traditional imagery intended to express them occur in the Malay version of SFD, for which reason descriptions in this text deserve special attention. Here we shall touch upon only two, although especially representative, descriptive topoi those of the palace and the park or garden which usually form a complex of sorts.36 As I have noted above, a number of descriptions in Malay SFD represent substitutes rather than translations of their Urdu counterparts. Descriptions of the palace-garden complex largely follow this translation strategy, although not as strictly as descriptions of weddings. For instance, in the original Urdu text the portrayal of the palace and garden of the princess of Basra from the story of the second dervish sounds as follows:
V. Braginsky, The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature; A Historical Survey of Genres, Writings and Literary Views (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004), pp. 254-258. 32Abdul Haqs introduction, 1920s, pp. 4-7; Salim-Ur-Rahman, Classics Revisited, p. 163. 33 Importantly, indahbeautiful is a conceptual synonym of ajaibamazingand gharib uncommon in Malay aesthetics. 34 Braginsky, The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature, pp. 335-336. 35 For more details of these specific illumination, see V. Braginsky, The Sight of Multi-coloured Radiance; Lighting Effects in Malay Love-and-adventure Narratives and the Sufi Concept of Visuality, in Rainbows of Malay Literature & Beyond; Festschrift in honour of Professor Md. Salleh Yaapar, ed. Lalita Sinha (Penang: Universiti Sains Malaysia Press, 2010), pp. 1-11. 36 On this complex in Urdu literature, see A.A. Dekhtyar [Suvorova], Problemy Poetiki Dastanov Urdu (The problems of poetics of Urdu dastan) (Moscow: Nauka, 1979), pp. 50-58. For the complete text of descriptions, excerpts from which are discussed below, see Appendix 3.
31
*<+ then the female servant came to me and said, Come, the princess has sent for you. I went along with her; she led me to the private apartment; the effect of the lights was such that the shab-i kadr was nothing to it. A masnad, covered with gold, was placed on rich carpets, with a pillow studded with jewels; over it an awning of brocade was stretched, with a fringe of pearls on [silver] poles studded with precious stones; and in front of the masnad artificial trees formed of various jewels, with flowers and leaves attached, (one would say they were natures own production,) were erected in beds of gold.37
Although the Malay rendering of the Urdu text follows the original closer than the examples of the substitution strategy quoted above, it can hardly be considered as its translation proper. In fact, this rendering is more similar to descriptions of the palace-garden complex in the earlier hikayat with their stock formulae that developed not without the influence of the first wave of Islamic Indias impact.
The story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD), MS, pp. 93-94 Maka [...] lemah sudah anggota hambamu melihat terlalu indah-indah sekalian mahaligai tuan puteri itu. Adalah seperti sekalian ruma[h] itu dan isinya sekalian serasa sudah menjadi manikam sekalian di ruma[h] itu dan boleh dikatakan rumah manikam semua pula bertambah dian pelita dan kandil setulup gemerlapan tiadalah dapat ditentang nyata. Maka setelah hamba sampai ke dalam mahaligai itu, maka hamba amat-amati adalah suatu majlis terlalu besar sekali. Adalah hamparannya daripada katifah buatan negeri Rum dan beberapa pula katifah daripada suf sakhlat ain albanat dan makhmal z-ri b-t-ng (?) emas belaka. Dan adalah pada sisi hamparan itu adalah sebuah singgasana dibuatnya terlalu indahindah sekali, perbuatannya daripada emas bersendikan perak suasa, tiangnya singgasana itu empat batang, adalah tiangnya itu daripada manikam jua adanya beberapa pula bertatahkan intan baiduri dan manikam jawahir dan beberapa pula
37 38
Combination of traditional Malay descriptive formulae from several hikayat38 Maka [perbuatan mahligai itu] daripada gading dan kayu harang bersendi-sendi dengan pualam *<+. Syahdan pada kemuncak*nya+ ada dibubuhnya sebuah kemala amat bercahaya-cahaya *<+ Maka *<+ suatu pangkat*nya+ *<+ daripada baiduri dikarang, dan kedua pangkat *<+ daripada nilam dikarang, *<+ dan keempat pangkat *<+ daripada mutia dikarang, *<+ dan keenam pangkat *<+ darpada ratna dikarang, dan ketujuh pangkat *<+ daripada zamrut dikarang. Maka dian, tanglung, kandil, pelita pun dipasang, gemerlapan rupanya *<+ tiada dapat ditentang nyata. Maka istana pun dihiasi daripada hamparan permadani yang keemasan, maka daripada suf sakhlat ainulbanat dan beledu khatifah. Maka dibuatnya *<+ singgasana daripada emas dan perak bertatahkan ratna mutu manikam, tiangnya daripada tembaga suasa, bersendi-sendi dengan gading. Dan empat biji kemala tergantung pada *<+ empat penjuru[nya], kemala [itu] amat bercahayacahaya. Maka segala cahaya dian pelita kandil tanglung sekaliannya pun suramlah
Forbes translation, 1857, p. 118. The text below is made up from descriptive formulae that occur in Hikayat Indraputra (Mulyadi, Hikayat Indraputra, pp. 68, 79, 107, 148, 203), Hikayat Isma Yatim (Hikayat Isma Yatim [Singapore: Educational Service of the Straits Settlements, 1910], pp. 20, 24, 28, 58) and Hikayat Syah Mardan (Hikayat Syah Mardan, ed. Zabedah Abdullah [Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2000], p. 48). As in the hikayat tradition the formulae in question are used in a number of descriptions, they are not necessarily applied to the same objects in these hikayat and in our text.

tergantung manikam yang besar-besar harga dan yang melekat (?). Ada yang tergantung sekalian itu seperti siang harilah sebab karena cahaya manikam itu, maka sekalian api pelita itu menjadi kelam. Adalah suatu taman dibuatnya daripada emas perak jua, dan adalah jambangan dan pohon bunga-bunga(h)an daripada intan manikam jauhar zamrud nilam pualam puspa ragam panca logam dibuatnya pohon bunga-bunga(h)an. [...] Sekalian itu perbuatan dari batu-batu jawahir belaka. Maka hamba melihat dengan sebenarbenarnya pada pihak taman itu adalah seperti bukannya perbuatan manusia sekalisekali hanyalah kudrat Ilahi jua datangnya itu sekalian. oleh sebab terkena sinar cahayanya.
Maka [hamba] lalu masuk dalam suatu taman *<+, syahdan dalam taman itu beberapa jambangan daripada emas dan perak dan tembaga suasa yang bertatahkan ratna mutu manikam. [Maka di taman itu] ada sepohon kayu, batangnya daripada emas dan daunnya daripada pirus dan bunganya daripada zamrut dan buahnya daripada manikam yang merah. Adapun *<+ ini bukanlah perbuatan manusia pada firasatku. [Inilah] kekayaan Allah SubhanaHu wa Taala, Tuhan sarwa sekalian alam.
And yet, the influence of the Urdu original is also perceivable in this very Malay description. Turning to classical hikayat of the late 16th-18th centuries, it is difficult, if at all possible, to find a portrayal of the palace and garden, of which every component is made of iridescent jewels alone to produce together the image of a genuine house *and park+ of gems, their radiance reigning supreme over all and everything in the description. This specific turn in the manner of representation of a standard Malay topos, which, hailing from the Urdu source text of SFD, contributed to this toposs expressive potential, is also important in another aspect. It shows how intimate is the connection of beauty and didacticism in SFD, the former being a means of manifestation of the latter. The point is that the princess of Basra, the owner of the house of gems is unreservedly faithful to God. Expelled because of this faithfulness from her fathers palace, she addresses Him in a moving prayer, and God gives her that inexhaustible reserve of jewels from which her house of gems is built. It is not accidental either that none other than precious stones appear in this story. Their radiance (in contrast to their rough nature of stones) is symbolically associated with the Divine principle39, and thus, they, so to speak, shine about the Source of the princesss riches and the reason for her becoming rich. The rendering of SFDs descriptions of gardens, which stand half-way between the translation and the substitution strategy, also brings new options to Malay representations of this old topos. For instance, the image of leaves similar to emeralds is most common in the Malay hikayat tradition. However, the exquisite combination of properties of this jewel with those of pearls is a novelty contributed by the Malay translation of SFD:
*<+ maka hamba melihat pada daun pohon sekalian itu, adalah daun itu seperti batu zamrud yang hijau. Dan jatuh titik-titik hujan di atas daun itu, maka men-
39
See Braginsky, The Sight of Multi-coloured Radiance, pp. 9-10.
jadilah seperti disendikan mutiara dan manikam di atas batu zamrud yang hijau itu40.
Another example of descriptive novelties drawn from Mir Ammans version of SFD is a portrayal of the illumination and fireworks that follows the formulaic, typically Malay, representation of a palatial house:
Maka adalah terang pada ruma[h] itu seolah-olah lebih pula terangnya daripada bulan dan beberapa pula daripada permainan seperti bunga api dan banum (?) dan belerang m-t-a-f-u menjadi ramailah ruma[h] itu.41
Yet another example is the representation of the protagonists respectful circumambulation of his beloved as a flight of a winged insect around the candle that irresistibly attracts it:
Maka tatkala itu hamba melihat rupanya tuan puteri itu seperti kandil tanglung terpasang, maka ada pula kumbang berkeliling-keliling hendak masuk kepada api itu. Maka hamba pun bangkitlah tiada sedarkan dirinya, lalu hamba naik ke atas balai itu, seraya berkeliling kepada tuan puteri serupa tabiat hamba tatkala itu samalah bagaimana kumbang yang hamba sebutkan dahulu itu. Maka hamba pun hampir juga kepada tuan puteri itu [...]42.
Finally, Mahmud b. Sayid Mualims translation reproduces a description from the Urdu original, which portrays how the protagonists vision of the nocturnal park changes as his melancholy in separation from the beloved gives way to the joy of his encounter with her. It is true that trysts of lovers in the moon-lit garden are a commonplace in the earlier Malay hikayat. However in this form, with its transfiguration of the landscape, when the metaphoric thorn of sufferings is at last taken out from the enamoureds eye, this description is undoubtedly an innovative elaboration of the old topos:
Maka sebab tiada tuan puteri itu di sini, maka menjadilah sekalian pandangan pada mata hamba kebun itu dan pohon-pohon bunga dan bunganya yang kembang itu dan bulan yang terang dan menerang itu menjadi seperti durilah menyocok kepada mata hamba. Antara yang demikian itu, maka Tuhan [...] telah dimasukkan gerak kepada hati mahbu[b] hamba itu, maka ia pun datanglah kepada kebun itu. Maka setelah hamba melihat rupa mahbu[b] hamba itu datang ke dalam taman itu, maka hamba pun sukalah yang maha sangat.[...] Maka tatkala itu pada mata hamba taman itu baharulah berseri-seri
See MS, p. 50. In Bagh-o bahar we find the following presentation of this image: As the raindrops fell on the fresh green leaves of the trees, one might say they were like pearls set in pieces of emerald *<+ (Forbes translation, 1857, p. 78). 41 MS, p. 50. In Bagh-o bahar: The illuminations within were magnificent; on every side, gerandoles, in the shape of cypresses, and various kinds of lights in variegated lamps were lighted up; even the shabi barat, with all its moonlight and its illuminations, would appear dark [in comparison to the brightness which shone in the pavilion]; on one side, fire-works of every description were displayed. (Forbes translation, 1857, p. 79). 42 MS, p. 27. In Bagh-o bahar: After strolling for a few minutes about the garden, she sat down in the alcove on a richly-embroidered masnad. I ran, and like the moth that flutters around the candle, offered my life as a sacrifice to her *<+ (Forbes translation, 1857, p. 60).
40

karena sebab tuan puteri ada melihat itu. Maka hamba pun barulah terang mata hamba yang seperti dicocok duri itu43.
As we see, the Malay version of SFD balances the old and the new, the strategy of substitution oriented to expectations of the audience and the strategy of translation intended to enrich habitual descriptions with novel shades and tones of the imagery and/or uncommon possibilities of its use. Thus, SFD not only contributes to the beauty of emotionally active descriptions, the core of Malay literary aesthetics, but also shed new light on the process of these descriptions formation in the earlier, worse documented period.
MS, p. 26. In Bagh-o Bahar: *<+ when I beheld the roses, I thought of the beautiful rose-like angel, and when I gazed on the bright moon, I recollected her moon-like face. All these delightful scenes without her were so many thorns in my eyes. At last God made her heart favourable to me. After a little while that lovely fair one entered from the [garden] door adorned like the full moon *<]By her coming, the beauties of that garden, and the joy of my heart, revived (Forbes translation, 1857, p. 38).
43
Appendices
Appendix 1. Preface to the Malay Char Darvesh (MS, p. 1) Bismillah al-Rahman al Rahim *<+ Segala puji bagi Allah yang menunjuki kita dengan iman dan Islam, *<+ dan dipeliharakan kita daripada kufur dan kalam durhaka. *<+ Dan kita pohonkan padaNya bahwa ditetapkan iman pada hati kita dan pada lidah kita. *<+ Dan rahmat Allah atas penghulu kita Saidina Muhammad yang membawa kita ke negeri yang sejahtera, *<+ dengan rahmat yang senantiasa daripada Raja yang mengetahui segala yang ghaib-ghaib, *<+ dan atas segala keluarganya dan segala taulannya yang suci mereka itu daripada segala suci. Amma baad hadha al-qissah bil-lughat Farsi Car Darvesh, yani cetera-cetera daripada bahasa Parsi Empat orang fakir. Adapun kemudian daripada itu, memuji Allah dan mengucap salawat akan Rasul-Nya, maka inilah kisah yang dipindahkan daripada bahasa Parsi kepada bahasa Melayu dan daripada segala cetera-cetera orang dahulu *<+ dan daripada cetera-cetera segala auliya dan hukama *<+ dan daripada segala cetera-cetera orang yang membelakangi dunia [dan] daripada cetera-cetera yang berbuat kebaktian di bumi dan di langit. *<+ Dan dibahagikan dia atas lima kisah. Maka kata seorang fakir bil-dhanb wal-taqsir, iaitu Mahmud bin Sayid Mualim, anak Melaka, dan adalah pada zaman dan masa itu bahwa adalah hamba itu berniaga di dalam negeri Singapura. Maka datanglah seorang sahabatku, peranakan orang Hindustan, dan namanya Rahman Khan. Maka datanglah ia membawa sebuah kitab kisah ini yang terlalu indah-indah sekali akan ceteranya itu. Maka setelah sudah hamba mendengar akan cetera itu, maka datanglah berahi hatiku dan asyik akan cetera itu. Maka hamba minta tolong aku kepadanya dengan seboleh-boleh minta(?) pindahkan daripada bahasa Parsi ke dalam bahasa Melayu. Setelah ia melihat keluan berahiku itu, maka datanglah rahim kepada hatinya, maka ia pun minta tolong pula kepada Tuhan [.?.], maka datanglah himmat hatinya, maka menolonglah ia akan membuatkan serta memindahkan daripada bahasa Parsi kepada bahasa Melayu. Sebermula adalah pada tahun bisaragh dan dualapan haribulan Dalhija (sic). Maka adalah fakir itu tiada mengetahui bahasa Melayu istimewa lughat Melayu Jawah (= Jawi?) sekali tiada mengetahuinya, sebab karena tiada paham dan tiada berilmu barang sedikit sekali. Maka berpeganglah aku dengan bersungguh-sungguh kepada Tuhanku serta berkat Nabiku Saidina Muhammad. Maka kubuatkanlah kitab ini dengan tiada sepertinya ini. Maka kuuraikan juga dengan seboleh-bolehnya, maka jadilah perkataan yang pendek menjadi panjang dan yang panjang menjadi pendek, sebab tiada kutahu loghat Melayu. Hai ikhwanku sekalian yang melihat atau yang mendengar dan yang membaca hikayatku ini, jikalau tia[da] munasabah kepada syara Nabi kita Saidina Muhammad, melainkan aku harap-harap sangatsangat kepada sekalian saudaraku yang tahu lughat Parsi dan yang tahu lughat Melayu mengubahkan perkataan itu supaya memberi manfaat pada sekalian hamba Allah yang membaca kisahku ini serta mengambil ibaratnya yang sahih. Wa Allahu alam!

Note of the copyist (MS, p. 270) Setelah (?) selesai daripada menyurat hikayat ini di dalam negeri Singapura wa-l salam(?) kepada sepuluh haribulan Jumad al-awal, yaum al-Ithnain, pada hijrat seribu dua ratus enam puluh tiga tahun. Hak Mahmud ibn al-Marhum Sayid Mualim bin Arsyad Marikan (or Marigan). Yang menyuratnya al-kerani Ismail bin Ali.
Appendix 2. Examples of passages which, according to Abdul Haq, are typical of Mir Amman in Malay translation
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857 I. My servants and companions, when they perceived my careless habits, secreted all they could lay hand on; one might say a systematic plunder took place. No account was kept of the money which was squandered; from whence it came, or where it went *<+.Had I possessed even the treasures of Karun, they would not have been sufficient to supply this vast expenditure. In the course of a few years such became all at once my condition, that a bare skull cap for my head, and a rag about my loins were all that remained. Those friends who used to share my board, and who so often swore to shed their blood by the spoonful for my advantage, disappeared; yea, even if I met them by chance on the highway, they used to withdraw their looks and turn aside their faces from me *<+. I had no companion left but my grief and regret (p. 32). Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD) MS, pp. 14-15 Adapun sekarang, pada sangka hamba, tatkala hamba belanjakan harta itu, jikalau seperti khazanah Karun sekalipun habis juga hamba belanjakan dengan sekejap mata juga. *<+ Maka antara tiada berlama duduk yang demikian itu, maka sekalian orang yang megajar itu terlalulah karib dan rafik kepada hamba bersahabat. Maka adalah tatkala itu sekalian tua-muda, laki-laki perempuan sekaliannya barang kata hamba darwis ini melainkan44 sekalian itu membenarkan sahaja tiada yang ada membatalkan sekali-sekali, melainkan ditambah pula dengan berlebihlebihan. Jikalau hambamu harus hendak minum air, hamba melihat lakunya sahabat hamba sekalian itu, jikalau hamba meminta kepadanya, jangan katakana air, jikalau darah anggotanya sekali pun dirinya dengan sukarelanya jua. Maka hamba pun haraplah sangat mengikut kepadanya. Dan tiada berapa tahunnya lamanya sudah, maka harta yang sebanyak itupun habislah sudah, tiada berketahuan perginya. Sebab dilihat oleh mereka yang wakil ayahanda baginda itu sekalian melihat kelakuan dan perjalanan hambamu itu, maka sekalian harta yang di tangan masing-masing itu maka dimiliki olehnya serta angkara dan m-n-k-r 45 belaka. Hatta maka habislah sekalian harta itu, hanyalah yang tinggal kepada hamba kain sehelai dan sepinggang w-gh-i(ai)-r46 tiada sekali-sekali. Antara sehari dua hari yang demikian itu adalah sahabat yang jauh-jauh datang mahu
44 45
Refers to not only in English. Probably Angkara-murka(?) or greed and ruthlessness. 46 Wa ghair, an Arabic term, which loosely means and nothing else.
mengupas kepada hamba, maka didapatinya47 pula tiada suatu apa yang ada kepada hamba. Maka ia sekalian pun larilah daripada hamba. Apalagi yang telah tahu sudah hal-ihwal hamba, jauhlah sekali. Jika ia bertemu kepada hamba di jalan raya, jikalau boleh dengan seboleh-bolehnya ia berjalan menyimpang kepada jalan lain. Jikalau tiada berdaya lagi, melainkan pura-pura ia melihat kepada pihak yang lain. Jikalau hamba menegur dan menyapa, adalah ia seperti orang tuli. Demikianlah hal hamba. Tiada berapa lama, maka makan minum pun tiadalah mendapat sekali-sekali *<+ MS, p. 200. Bagaimana sakit engkau kena panah ini, demikianlah sakit hatiku. Dan bagaimana ia menyakitkan memanah hatiku, iapun barang dikenakan Allah Taala akan panah hatiku berahi itu kepadanya. Dan biarlah ia terbuang muda belianya didalam berahinya jua! MS, p. 217. Maka datanglah seorang perempuan tua, dan mukanya hitam, dan memakai baju hitam, giginya putih, bibirnya tebal, matanya terbuka, rupanya terkutuk (?), rambutnya beruban putih, dan ditutup mukanya dengan selendang hitam. Maka adalah pada tangannya seutas tasbih seraya membilang-bilang dan terbungkuk lalu berjalan datang masuk ke dalam rumah itu, pura-pura ia meminta. Setelah ia memandang kepada tuan puteri, maka menangislah yang sangat, lakunya seperti Iblis. Maka katanya: Ya tuanku, berilah hamba ini barang yang ada pada tuanku, sebab patik ini terlalu miskin dan anak patik baru beranak dan hendak dibelanjakan ubat pun tiada ada, dan hendak memberi upah mengerat pusat dan upah bidan, dan hendak membeli minyak pelita pun tiada, suatu pula daripada makan dan minum tiadalah sekali-sekali.
II. O, child, may the arrow of my grief stick in the heart of him who hath struck thee; may he derive no fruit from his youth, and may God make him a mourner like me (p. 253).
III. An old hag, the aunt of Satan (may God make her face black), with a string of beads in her hand, and covered with a mantle, finding the door open, entered without fear, and standing before the princess, lifted up her hands and blessed her, saying: I pray to God that he may long preserve you a married woman, and that thy husband's turban may be permanent! I am a poor beggar woman, and I have a daughter who is in her full time and perishing in the pains of child-birth; I have not the means to get a little oil which I may burn in our lamp; food and drink, indeed, are out of the question. If she should die, how shall I bury her? and if she is brought to bed, what shall I give the midwife and nurse, or how procure remedies for the lying-in woman? it is now two days since she has lain hungry and thirsty. O, noble lady! give her, out of your bounty, a morsel of bread that she may eat the same along with a drink of water (p. 270-1). IV. It happened that on the day the Wazir was sent to prison, the girl (his daughter; V.B.) was sitting with her young companions, and was celebrating with [infantile] pleasure the marriage of her doll; and with a small drum and tumbrel she was making preparation for the night vigils; and having put on the frying pan, she was busy making up
47
MS, p. 133. Maka tatkala itu adalah anak orang besar-besar dan orang kaya-kaya bermain-main dengan anak menteri itu dengan bersuka-sukaan. Maka datanglah isteri menteri berlari-lari serta terurai rambutnya dan menangis-nangis, datang kepada anaknya lalu ditampar pada kepala anakda dengan kedua-dua tangan, katanya:
Can be translated as understood.

sweetmeats, when her mother suddenly ran into her apartment, lamenting and beating [her breasts], with disheveled tresses and naked feet. She struck a blow on her daughter's head [with both her hands], and said, Would that God had given me a blind son instead of thee; then my heart would have been at ease, and he would have been the friend of his father (p. 158). Celaka sekali aku beranakkan engkau. Jika ada anakku laki-laki, jikalau buta sekali pun, dapatlah ia sejukkan hatiku. Dan apalah gunanya engkau ini perempuan!
Appendix 3. Descriptive passages from the Urdu text in Malay translation Gardens
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857 I. I amused myself with admiring the beauty of the flowers of the garden, and the brightness of the full moon, and the play of the fountains in the canals and rivulets, a display like that of the months of Sawan and Bhadon; but when I beheld the roses, I thought of the beautiful rose-like angel, and when I gazed on the bright moon, I recollected her moonlike face. All these delightful scenes without her were so many thorns in my eyes. At last God made her heart favourable to me. After a little while that lovely fair one entered from the [garden] door adorned like the full moon, wearing a rich dress, enriched with pearls, and covered from head to feet with an embroidered veil; she stepped along the garden walk, and stood [at a little distance from me]. By her coming, the beauties of that garden, and the joy of my heart, revived. After strolling for a few minutes about the garden, she sat down in the alcove on a richlyembroidered masnad. I ran, and like the moth that flutters around the candle, offered my life as a sacrifice to her, and like a slave stood before her with folded arms (pp. 59-60). Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD) MS, pp. 26-27. Maka hamba melihat kepada taman itu, pohon bunga-bunga(h)an terlalulah banyak sekali, kembang bunga itu serta di taman harum ba(h)unya. Maka tatkala hamba melihat akan bunga banyak kembang itu, maka hamba pun teringatlah akan mahbu[b] hamba itu badannya yang seperti bunga itu, dan hamba melihat pula pada pihak bulan, maka hamba terkenanglah akan masyuk hamba tuan puteri ke sini parasnya yang seperti bulan itu. Maka sebab tiada tuan puteri itu disini, maka menjadilah sekalian pandangan pada mata hamba kebun itu dan pohon-pohon bunga dan bunganya yang kembang itu dan bulan yang terang dan menerang itu menjadi seperti durilah menyocok kepada mata hamba. Antara yang demikian itu, maka Tuhan yang menjadikan sekalian alam pun telah dimasukkan gerak kepada hati mahbu[b] hamba itu, maka ia pun datanglah kepada kebun itu. Maka setelah hamba melihat rupa mahbu[b] hamba itu datang ke dalam taman itu, maka hamba pun sukalah yang maha sangat. [Se]telah itupun maka tuan puteri berjalanlah kepada kebun itu serta ia berdiri melihat rupanya taman itu, serta ia melihat akan bunga-bunga[h]an. Maka tatkala itu pada mata hamba taman itu baharulah berseri-seri karena sebab tuan puteri ada melihat itu. Maka hamba pun barulah terang mata hamba yang seperti dicocok duri itu. Maka tuan puteri pun berjalan-jalan serta dayang sekalian memungut bungabunga(h)an dan permain sama sendirinya.
Setelah sudah bermain-main dan berjalanjalan, maka tuan puteri pun naiklah kepada sebuah balai peranginan. Maka adalah balai itu terlalulah indah-indah sekali dibuat orang dan berapa pula hamparan daripada suf sakhlat ainul-banat dan berapa pula tilam dihamparkan orang sekalian ke atas balai itu dan berapa pula bantal seraga daripada mukhmal (?) yang keemasan diatur orang. Maka tuan puteri pun naiklah ke atas tilam itu serta bersandar kepada bantal seraga itu. Maka tatkala itu hamba melihat rupanya tuan puteri itu seperti kandil tanglung terpasang, maka ada pula kumbang berkeliling-keliling hendak masuk kepada api itu. Maka hamba pun bangkitlah tiada sedarkan dirinya, lalu hamba naik ke atas balai itu, seraya berkeliling kepada tuan puteri serupa tabiat hamba tatkala itu samalah bagaimana kumbang yang hamba sebutkan dahulu itu. Maka hamba pun hampir juga kepada tuan puteri serta dengan takut dan gentar dan mengikat tangan berdiri hampir juga tuan puteri seperti abdi yang tiada laku sekali-sekali. MS, pp. 49-50. Maka setelah hamba dan dayang sampai ke dalam kebun itu, maka hamba dan dayang pun lalulah tajub sekali melihat kebun taman itu serta diaturnya pula akan pokok kayu-kayuan dan bungabunga(h)an terlalulah indah-indah sekali dibuatnya oleh orang yang empunya kebun itu. Maka ada pula taman terlalu indah sekali daripada pohon bunga-bunga(h)an, dan ada pula kolam besar, diikatnya kolam itu dengan batu hablu[r]. Maka adalah airnya itu jernih sekali seperti cermin, dan airnya pun ditiup oleh angin yang lemah-lembut itu maka terombak-ombaklah airnya itu seperti kilat manikam. Maka hamba melihat akan perbuatan kebun itu, kecuali sahaja syurga yang Tuhan kita menjadikan itu, dan tiadalah bandingan sekali-sekali daripada sekalian kebun yang telah dahulu melihatnya. Maka adalah tatkala itu adalah hujan rintik-rintik satu-satu, maka jatuhlah ke atas daun buah-buahan, pada daun bungabunga(h)an, maka hamba melihat pada daun pohon sekalian itu adalah daun itu seperti batu zamrud yang hijau. Dan jatuh titik-titik hujan di atas daun itu, maka menjadilah
II. I involuntarily took a female servant with me, and went to the young man's house by the way of the mine; from thence I proceeded to the garden, and saw that the delightful place was in truth equal to the Elysian fields. As the raindrops fell on the fresh green leaves of the trees, one might say they were like pearls set in pieces of emerald, and the carnation of the flowers, in that cloudy day, appeared as beautiful as the ruddy crepuscle after the setting sun; the basons and canals, full of water, seemed like sheets of mirrors, over which the small waves undulated. In short, I was strolling about in every direction in that garden, when the day vanished and the darkness of night became conspicuous. At that moment, the young man appeared on a walk [in the garden]; and on seeing me, he approached with respect and great warmth of affection, and taking my hand in his, led me to the pavilion. On entering it, the splendour of the scene made me entirely forget all the beauty of the garden. The illuminations within were magnificent; on every side, gerandoles, in the shape of cypresses, and various kinds of lights in variegated lamps were

lighted up; even the shabi barat, with all its moonlight and its illuminations, would appear dark [in comparison to the brightness which shone in the pavilion]; on one side, fire-works of every description were displayed. In the meantime, the clouds dispersed, and the bright moon appeared like a lovely mistress clothed in a lilac-coloured robe, who suddenly strikes our sight. It was a scene of great beauty; as the moon burst forth, the young man said, Let us now go and sit in the balcony which overlooks the garden (pp. 78-79). seperti disendikan mutiara dan manikam di atas batu zamrud yang hijau itu. Maka hamba pun dengan kesukaan besar sekali, maka hamba menilik pula pada bungabunga(h)an adalah yang merah warnanya dan yang putih kuning, ada yang kembang, ada yang kuncup, sekalian pohon bungabunga(h)an berbunga belaka. Maka [pada] antara hamba berkeliling kebun itu serta melihat sekalian itu maka terciumlah bau bunga-bunga(h)an, maka menjadi tiadalah sedar baik anggota hamba, dan hari pun petanglah antara itu. [...] Ia memimpin tangan hamba seraya dibawanya berjalan kepada sebuah ruma[h] terlalulah [.?.] sekali, iaitu besar tinggi sekali ruma[h] itu. Maka setelah sampai kepada ruma[h] itu, maka hamba melihat terlalulah indah-indah sekali perbuatannya, dan adalah beberapa kandil setolop dan lantera tergantung terlalu banyak sekali serta dipasangnya api, maka menjadilah seperti kelip-mengerlip. Maka beberapa pula perhiasan yang diatur dan yang digantung dan beberapa pula yang melekat pada jidar (?) rumahnya itu. Setelah hamba melihat nyata akan (h)alatan rumah itu, maka hamba lupakanlah akan rupa kebun itu, maka lebih pula hamba berahi pada ruma[h] itu. Maka adalah terang pada ruma[h] itu seolah-olah lebih pula terangnya daripada bulan dan beberapa pula daripada permainan seperti bunga api dan banum (?) dan belerang m-t-a-f-u menjadi ramailah ruma[h] itu. Kemudiannya maka adalah seperti redup dan gelap malam itu hilanglah sudah, maka bulan pun terbitlah adalah bulan itu seperti seorang masyuk pun datang kepada orang yang asyik dengan pakaian terlalu indah-indah sekali.
Palaces
Bagh-o bahar by Mir Amman, Forbes translation, 1857 I. The same female returned, and conducted me to the apartment where the princess was; what [a display of beauty] I saw! Handsome female slaves and servants, and armed damsels, from Kilmak, Turkistan, Abyssinia, Uzbak Tartary and Kashmir, were drawn up in two lines, dressed in rich jewels, with their arms folded across, and each standing in her appropriate station. Shall I call this the court Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD) MS, p. 90. Setelah beberapa saat lamanya itu, maka datanglah dayang memanggil hamba lalu dibawanya berjalan-jalan samasama ke dalam istana tuan puteri itu. Maka setelah hamba sampai ke dalam istana tuan puteri itu, maka hamba melihat perbuatan istana itu terlalu indah-indah sekali dan banyak sekali dayang yang muda(h)-muda(h) beratur dan bersaf-saf mengadap serta me-
of Indra? or is it a descent on the part of the fairies? an involuntary sigh of rapture escaped [from my breast], and my heart began to palpitate; but I forcibly restrained myself. Regarding them all around, I advanced on; but my feet became each as heavy as a hundred mans. Whenever I gazed on one of those lovely women, my heart was unwilling to proceed farther. On one side [of the saloon] a screen was suspended, and a stool set with precious stones was placed near it, as well as a chair of sandal-wood; the female servant made me a sign to sit down on the [jewelled] stool; I sat down upon it, and she seated herself on the [sandal-wood chair]; she said, Now, whatever you have to say, speak it fully and from the heart (pp. 115-116). makai pakaian yang indah-indah serta bersunting-suntingkan bunga dan [be]berapa pula dipakainya daripada pakaian intan manikam dan jawahir. Maka rupanya dan pakaiannya tiadalah dipandang nyata kenalah(?) sudah rupanya dan pakaiannya sekalian itu. Maka jika kita memandang kepada suatu pihak, maka tiadalah berkehendak memandang kepada pihak yang lain. Maka adalah hal hamba tatkala itu adalah seperti tinggal sudah engkau, ta hamba daripada badan, dan nyawa hamba pun melayanglah sudah, tiada lagi ada pada badan hamba. Maka hamba pun terkejutlah. Maka hamba pun tetapkan jua anggota hamba dan himmat. Maka hamba berjalanlah dari situ kepada suatu tempat yang mulia jua. Adalah perbuatan tempat itu terlalu indah-indah sekali. Maka dayang pun memberi isyarat duduk di atas tempat itu. Adalah perbuatan tempat itu daripada emas dan bersendikan perak serta bertatahkan 48 ratna mutu manikam dan bersendikan jawahir dan berumbai-rumbaikan mutiara dikarang. Dan adalah di atas tempat itu adalah hamparan tilam daripada sutera serta bantal beratur daripada emas dan perak jua. Dan adalah sebuah kisi[-kisi?] emas serta bertatahkan ratna mutu manikam. Maka didudukkan dayang akan hamba ke atas tilam keemasan itu, maka hamba duduklah di situ. Maka hamba melihat beberapa pula ada perhiasan diatur orang daripada emas dan perak jua. Setelah tetap sudah hamba duduk di situ, maka kata dayang: Hai tuan, ceteralah olehmu barang apa kasadmu dan muradmu sekalian itu. Maka hamba pun berceteralah. MS, pp. 93-94. Maka hamba pun dipimpin dayang dibawa-bawanya berjalan dengan perlahan-lahan karena lemah sudah anggota hambamu melihat terlalu indah-indah sekalian mahaligai tuan puteri itu. Adalah seperti sekalian ruma[h] itu dan isinya sekalian serasa sudah menjadi manikam sekalian di ruma[h] itu dan boleh dikatakan rumah manikam semua pula bertambah dian pelita dan kandil setulup gemerlapan tiadalah dapat ditentang nyata. Maka setelah hamba sampai ke dalam mahaligai itu, maka hamba amat-amati adalah suatu majlis terlalu besar sekali. Adalah hamparannya daripada katifah buatan negeri Rum dan beberapa pula katifah daripada suf sakhlat ain al-banat dan makhmal z-ri b-t-ng (?)
II. *<+ then the female servant came to me and said, Come, the princess has sent for you. I went along with her; she led me to the private apartment; the effect of the lights was such that the shab-i kadr was nothing to it. A masnad, covered with gold, was placed on rich carpets, with a pillow studded with jewels; over it an awning of brocade was stretched, with a fringe of pearls on [silver] poles studded with precious stones; and in front of the masnad artificial trees formed of various jewels, with flowers and leaves attached, (one would say they were nature's own production,) were erected in beds of gold; and on the right and left, beautiful slaves and servants were in waiting with folded arms and down-cast eyes, in respect-
48
In MS the word is mistakenly written as bertahtakan.

ful attitude. Dancing women and female singers, with ready-tuned instruments, attended to begin their performances. On seeing such a scene and such splendid preparations, my senses were bewildered. I asked the female servant *who came with me+ there is here such gay splendour in the scene of the day, and such magnificence in that of the night, that the day may very justly be called 'Id, and the night shab-i barat; moreover, a king who possessed the whole world could not exhibit greater splendour and magnificence. Is it always so at the princess's court? The servant replied, The princess's court ever displays the same magnificence you see now; there is no abatement [or difference], except that it is sometimes greater: sit you here; the princess is in another apartment, I will go and inform her of your arrival. Saying this, the nurse went away and quickly returned; she desired me to come to the princess. The moment I entered her apartment I was struck with amazement. I could not tell where the door was, or where the walls, for they were covered with Aleppo mirrors, of the height of a man, all around, the frames of which were studded with diamonds and pearls. The reflection of one fell on the other, and it appeared as if the whole room was inlaid with jewels. At one end a parda was hung, behind which the princess sat. The female servant seated herself close to the parda, and desired me to sit down also; then she began the following narrative, according to the princesss commands (pp. 117-118). emas belaka. Dan adalah pada sisi hamparan itu adalah sebuah singgasana dibuatnya terlalu indahindah sekali, perbuatannya daripada emas bersendikan perak suasa, tiangnya singgasana itu empat batang, adalah tiangnya itu daripada manikam jua adanya beberapa pula bertatahkan intan baiduri dan manikam jawahir dan beberapa pula tergantung manikam yang besar-besar harga dan yang melekat (?). Ada yang tergantung sekalian itu seperti siang harilah sebab karena cahaya manikam itu, maka sekalian api pelita itu menjadi kelam. Dan adalah langit-langitnya terlalu indah-indah sekali daripada sutera anta kesuma perbuatan perikah atau dewa pun hambalah tiada ketahui. Sebagai lagi ada perhiasan singgasana itu. Adalah suatu taman dibuatnya daripada emas perak jua, dan adalah jambangan dan pohon bunga-bunga(h)an daripada intan manikam jauhar zamrud nilam pualam puspa ragam panca logam dibuatnya pohon bunga-bunga(h)an. Adalah pohon bungabunga(h)an itu terlalu lebat sekali: ada yang kembang, ada yang kuncup, ada yang kudu(p), ada yang mali(h). Sekalian itu perbuatan dari batu-batu jawahir belaka. Maka hamba melihat dengan sebenar-benarnya pada pihak taman itu adalah seperti bukannya perbuatan manusia sekali-sekali hanyalah kudrat Ilahi jua datangnya itu sekalian. Maka hamba pun tercengang-cengang tiadalah dapat lagi hendak diceterakan. Maka sebagailah lagi adalah dayangdayang perempuan yang muda(h) belia daripada sekalian jenis bangsa orang dan rupanya dayang-dayang itu sekalian seperti anak-anakan dewa dan peri atau mambang terlalu jamal sekalian rupanya serta memakai pakaian terlalu indah-indah sekali daripada intan manikam jua. Dan adalah sekalian dayang itu menjaga-jaga bersaf-saf diatur orang berkeliling majlis itu mengadap serta berdiamkan diri tiada bersuara sekali-sekali. Dan beberapa pula joget tari syair gurindam ada belaka hadir menanti titah sabda jua, dan beberapa saf pula ada orang memegang rebab kecapi dan bunyi-bunyian belaka menanti-nanti jua. Setelah hamba sudah melihat nyata akan hal-ihwal mahaligai tuan puteri itu, maka hamba pun sebenar-benarnyalah hilanglah sudah akal hamba, ke manakah gerangannya
pergi pun hamba tiada ketahui. Maka kata hamba kepada dayang: Adakah49 istana dan mahaligai tuan puteri ini sehari-hari malam dan siang demikianlah pada tiap-tiap harinya? Dan jika demikian tiap-tiap harinya dan malamnya sekaliannya, menjadi, pada sangka hamba, sekalian malam Lailat alQadri jua dan pada tiap-tiap siang harinya hari raya besar dan hari raya kecilkah? Dan jika demikian, tuan puteri telah sudah miliki dunia ini sekalian dengan isinya, maka sebab senantiasa hari demikian dikerjakannya. Maka kata dayang: Adalah hal tuan puteri senantiasa hari demikianlah halnya. Telah lamalah sudah lalu hal ini pada seharihari berlebih-lebih bertambah-tambah dan kurangnya tiada sekali-sekali. Maka kata dayang: Hai tuan, diamlah (?) tuan dahulu di sini dan adalah tuan puteri ini tiada di sini, adalah tuan puteri pada suatu ruma[h] yang lain. Maka dayang pun segeralah pergi kepada tuan puteri. Maka tiada berapa saatnya maka segera pula dayang itu kembali kepada hamba, maka katanya: Marilah tuan berjalan sama dayang, kita pergi mengadap tuan puteri.Maka hamba dan dayang pun berjalan sama kepada tempat tuan puteri itu. Maka setelah hamba sampai pada rumah tuan puteri itu, maka hamba pun pingsanlah tiada khabarkan diri lagi, seperti matilah sudah diri hamba, sebab karena cermin dan jawahir sekalian rumah itu, penuhlah sekali dengan cahaya belaka. Maka adalah di dalam rumah itu adalah suatu tirai terlabuh 50 dan di balik tirai itu adalah tuan puteri di situ. Maka dayang pun duduklah di hadapannya tirai itu serta menyuruh kepada hamba. Maka hamba pun duduklah dengan beberapa hormat dan tazim.
49 50
In MS the word is mistakenly written as adalah. In MS the word is mistakenly written as terlabur.

Vladimir Braginsky

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Descrizione originale:

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Vladimir Braginsky

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Jurnal e-Utama, Vol.

J urnal Elektronik J abatan Bahasa & K ebudayaan Melayu

The Story of Four Dervishes 15

The Story of Four Dervishes 17

The Story of Four Dervishes 19

Abdul Haqs introduction, 1950s, pp. 6-7.

The Story of Four Dervishes 21

Story of four dervishes in Malay (SFD)

Forbes translation, 1857, p. 61, note 1.

The Story of Four Dervishes 23

The Story of Four Dervishes 25

The Story of Four Dervishes 27

The Story of Four Dervishes 29

The Story of Four Dervishes 31

MS mentions puncak persada.

Forbes translation, 1857, p. 254. Mulyadi, Hikayat Indraputra, p. 108.

The Story of Four Dervishes 33

The Story of Four Dervishes 35

See Braginsky, The Sight of Multi-coloured Radiance, pp. 9-10.

The Story of Four Dervishes 37

The Story of Four Dervishes 39

Can be translated as understood.

The Story of Four Dervishes 41

The Story of Four Dervishes 43

In MS the word is mistakenly written as bertahtakan.

The Story of Four Dervishes 45

Potrebbero piacerti anche