Malayan literature; comprising romantic tales, epic poetry and royal ...

EASILY
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
the most charming poem of Malayan Literature
is the Epic of Bidasari. It has all the absorbing
fascination of a fairy tale. We are led into the dreamy
atmosphere of haunted palace and beauteous plaisance: we
glide in the picturesque imaginings of the oriental poet from
the charm of all that is languorously seductive in nature into
the shadowy realms of the supernatural.
At one moment the
sturdy bowman or lithe and agile lancer is before us in hurrying
column, and at another we are told of mystic sentinels from
another world, of Djinns and demons and spirit-princes. All
seems shadowy, vague, mysterious, entrancing.
In this tale there is a wealth of imagery, a luxury of pictur-
so al-
esqueness, together with that straightforward simplicity
luring in the story-teller. Not only is our attention so captivated
that we seem under a spell, but our sympathy is invoked
and retained. We actually wince before the cruel blows of
the wicked queen. And the hot tears of Bidasari move us to
living pity. In the poetic justice that punishes the queen and
rewards the heroine we take a childish delight. In other words,
the oriental poet is simple, sensuous, passionate, thus achieving
Milton's ideal of poetic excellence. We hope that no philoso-
pher, philologist, or ethnologist will persist in demonstrating
the sun-myth or any other allegory from this beautiful poem.
It is a story, a charming tale, to while away an idle hour, and
nothing more. All lovers of the simple, the beautiful, the pict-
uresque should say to such learned peepers and botanizers,
" Hands off !
" Let no learned theories rule here. Leave this
beautiful tale for artists and lovers of the story pure and simple.
Seek no more moral here than you would in a rose or a lily
or a graceful palm. Light, love, color, beauty, sympathy, en-
gaging fascination— these may be found alike by philosopher
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