Page 11 - Katut Kaca On Trial

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he world of
wayang —
the shadow and rod puppet theaters of Java, Bali, Lombok and other parts of Indonesia is
enticing and fascinating, however, it has remained fairly inaccessible for those uninitiated with the specific languages
and traditions of that world. It is not only non-Indonesians who remain outside peering in through the windows, but also
Indonesians themselves, as Sundanese
wayang golek
is not understood by the Central Javanese or vice versa, nor is
Balinese
wayang kulit
easily accessible to their neighbors on Java. This book, one of the first in a series of translations
of performances of the
wayang
theater, is an attempt to open one of the windows onto this vibrant and socially-relevant
world.
Wayang
is an extraordinary weave of entertainment, esoteric teachings, ritual observances, social realities, and
earthy humor. Throughout the performance, the performers and audience travel back-and-forth between myth and
reality.
Wayang
is a social event. This is especially evident in Sundanese and Cirebonese performances, where there is
direct interaction between the puppeteer, the characters on screen, the musicians and vocalists, and even the audience.
Although the focus is, of course, primarily on the puppeteer,
wayang
is not a "one-man show." The performance is, in
fact, created by the entire entourage.
The interaction between what is happening on the screen and off the screen, both before and during the
performance, is essential to understanding the entire phenomenon. This is partially why it is so difficult to "translate"
a performance. It is not only an issue of language and the inherent difference between the two languages (i.e., the
difference of speech registers used in Javanese is not apparent when translated into English), but also of cultural
intricacies deeply embedded in the characters, descriptions and situations, inferences, traditions, and soci al
circumstances.
The translations in this performance text series are valuable individually, as well as collectively, as they reflect the
range of
wayang —
by geography, by occasion, as well as by translator's approach. The translators involved with this series
are ethnomusicologists, linguists, and anthropologists. Each approaches the translation and performance from his or her own
professional perspective.
I