Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd - Announcements
Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd - Announcements
Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd - Announcements
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Sentiments and Sensitivity of Love in the<br />
Resplendence of the Malay Language<br />
Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan<br />
– Genre of Poetic Romanticism in Malay Love Letters<br />
Syair surat kirim<br />
kepada perempuan.<br />
1796<br />
One of the numerous Malay syair and pantun stanzas in the form of<br />
love letters was a manuscript copy by Ibrahim, a scribe who was<br />
employed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Unfortunately,<br />
samples of surviving Malay personal love letters between two ordinary<br />
people remains difficult to be studied and were rarely recorded on<br />
original manuscripts.<br />
The contents of a Malay love letter were purely sentiments, expressed<br />
in glorious poetry. For example, in the printed manual of letter<br />
writing of its time, praises in love letters would start in poems that began with:<br />
Al-Hamd li-‘llah Rabb al-‘Alamin<br />
cahayanya terang laksana cermin<br />
seperti pohon kayu beringin<br />
lemah lembut ditiup angin<br />
As the essence of the Malay love letter was normally structured in this<br />
form, the dividing line between love letters as poetry and poetry in its form<br />
as love letters remains faint and distant.<br />
The manuscript’s execution reflects meticulous detail, combining ornamental<br />
geometrical and organic floral motifs. Its poem superfluous and sensuous, the<br />
inks and colours on English paper permeating a moment in time, captured<br />
in the zeal and flamboyance of romance.