presents a Malay-English mirror translation side by side. Translation is also explained in detail in the introduction, since
texts were created to be performed with music, instead of read in silence. The translation is based on one version of the epic, but occasionally includes stanzas from other versions where the original narrative or wording was fractured or unclear. The English text is translated in prose, focusing on story rather than wording, but the
parts - songs embedded in the story to express emotional high points - are translated closer to the original wording.
in performance gave an opportunity to inject more humor and folk art into the story through a minor character (such as a court lady). The book also includes a long study on the different versions of Bidasari, and the forms of oral performance that gave it birth. The translator specifically chose a manuscript that included
parts, as well as the side quest of Raja Putra and a more detailed history of the wicked queen.
What is it about?
TL;DR: Basically a Snow White type story, except a lot more elaborate. Young, beautiful maiden is persecuted by jealous queen, falls into a death-like sleep, but the king eventually takes her as a second wife and exiles his wicked first queen.
CW: References of abuse, domestic violence, dubious consent
A warlike garuda bird descends from the heavens and devastates a kingdom. The sultan flees with his wife, who is seven months pregnant. In exile, hiding from the garuda, the queen gives birth to a baby girl on an abandoned boat, with the help of her husband. With a heavy heart they decide to leave the baby behind - wrapped in precious jeweled fabric - and trust her to the will of Allah. The baby is found by a rich merchant named Lela Jauhara. He happily takes her home to his wife, and they name her Siti Bidasari. They place the girl's semangat (soul) in a fish, and they hide the fish in a strong box. They raise Bidasari as their own and she grows up to be a beautiful maiden.

In this other kingdom lives a sultan named Johan Mengindera, with his beloved wife Lela Sari. He dotes on her, madly in love. The queen, however, is insecure, and she keeps asking her husband whether he would take a second wife if he found someone prettier than her. The sultan tries to placate her by saying he would only take a second wife as a friend to her - obviously the queen is not placated. She decides to preemptively order a search, to see if she has a rival to fear. She sends out four of her handmaids to offer bejeweled clothes to young women, and watch closely to see if any of them is beautiful enough to be a threat. The four ladies encounter Bidasari. They immediately see how radiant she is. When she offers to buy the treasures, her mother, the merchant's wife expresses her suspicion, but Bidasari doesn't heed her warning. Her doting father buys her the goods. The four ladies report back to the queen.
The queen orders the ladies to kidnap Bidasari for her. However, the ladies have grown to like the young maiden, and they know their queen is cruel and jealous. They sing Bidasari's praises, trying to convince her not to hurt the girl. The queen resorts to trickery: she declares that she wants to adopt Bidasari as her daughter (she is still almost a child), and has her brought to the palace. Bidasari's parents let her go reluctantly, full of love and worry.
The queen locks Bidasari away in a small cell. She cries alone, distressed, and the queen decides to cover the noise up by punishing her. She beats and abuses her with extreme cruelty. To her husband she says she is just disciplining a servant (to which the king replies with worry that she migh tire herself out too much...). Seven days pass, and Bidasari's parents worry about her. The queen doesn't pass on their gifts and messages. Finally, exhausted by the abuse, Bidasari reveals the secret of her soul-box to the queen, wishing her suffering to end. The queen orders a lady to steal the box for her, and hangs the fish around her own neck, thus stealing Bidasari's life force. The girl falls into a death-like sleep: she is still breathing, but otherwise she appears dead.
The court ladies take her body back home. Her parents are obviously distressed - especially when her father tries to revive her, and discovers that the box with the fish is gone. However, at night Bidasari wakes up. She tells her parents what happened, then falls into a faint again in the morning. Her father decides to build her a house in the woods to hide her from the queen and other prying eyes. From that day on, Bidasari lives in the house, awake at night and in death-like sleep during the day. Her only companion is a storytelling parrot (who doesn't get as much screen time in this story as it should).
Meanwhile, King Johan has a dream about the moon falling in his lap. It is interpreted as him getting a new wife, even though he resists the idea, claiming the queen is the only one for him. Then he goes on a hunt, and predictably comes across the house in the woods by accident. The parrot tries to ward him off, calling the place a house of spirits and devils, but he enters anyway, and finds Bidasari asleep. He is equal parts stunned by her beauty, and distressed that he can't wake her up. Eventually, he laves. Bidasari wakes up in the evening, and discovers signs of someone having visited her house (her betel had been chewed). She grows scared and worried. The king, on his part, can't help but visit again, and once again finds her asleep. He figures she must be a fairy, only awake at night, and decides to stay after dark.
The scene that follows is intended to be romantic, but for me it made a difficult read. Bidasari wakes up and is scared by the presence of a stranger, who pursues her reletlessly around the house, voicing his longing and lust for her. She curses him and he laughs, he pulls her onto his lap and she tries to break free. She tells him in no uncertain terms to leave, but he doesn't. She even spits in his face. He finally discloses he is the king, but she replies that she is only a daughter of merchants. She weeps, terrified what the queen would do to her if she returned to the palace. She tells him she fears the queen, but he immediately chides her, telling her the queen is above reproach. However, finally, she tells him the whole story of what happened, and he believes her. He is overcome by anger at his wife's wickedness. He returns home, and pretends to be kind to his wife to ascertain that she has the fish around her neck. The next morning he tears the necklace from her, and returns to the woods.
This time, the king intends to marry Bidasari. He meets with the merchant and his wife. In order to keep Bidasari from the queen, he has a fortress built for her in the woods. Eventually Bidasari convinces him to go home and visit his wife. They have an epic fight, and the king basically exiles the queen, telling her she will be provided for and taken care of, but she has to pay for what she had done. At the end of the poem, she is still living alone, "resenting herself above all." (There are other versions, however, where the two are reconciled).
Meanwhile, Bidasari's birth father regains his kingdom, and doesn't cease mourning his lost daughter. The couple has a son, Raja Putra, who grows up and finds out he used to have a sister. He immediately wants to find her. He talks to merchants from all parts of the world, until by chance he encounters a young man who used to be Bidasari's playmate. His name is Sinapati. He recognizes Bidasari's features in the prince. They figure out that Bidasari might be the lost princess, and set out together so that Raja Putra can meet her.
The travelers arrive to Bidasari's fortress where they are greeted with excitement. After some subterfuge, the siblings are reunited. It soon becomes clear that Bidasari is born royalty. Even the queen finds out, and she laments her mistakes (at one point Bidasari talks her husband into visiting the queen again to try to reconcile. "You did jerk her necklace - perhaps you injured her neck!" she claims as an extenuating circumstance). Sinapati is sent as an ambassador with a letter back to the sultan to invite him and his wife to meet their daughter and son-in-law. The whole family is reunited in celebration.
To continue the festivities, the sultan suggests they should all take a trip to the island of Nusa Antara. They set out in decorated yachts and make camp on the island. The men set out to hunt. Raja Putra pursues a deer and comes upon an enchanted pavilion. This is a whole side story where he fights evil demons and rescues a princess named Mandudari. In the end, everyone is married, and everyone lives happily.
The highlights
I was touched by the care the merchant and his wife showed Bidasari. When she is taken to the palace, they worry about her. When she is brought back home, they set servants to guard her so she's not taken again, and they sit beside her, warming her and stroking her and hoping she wakes up. They feel guilt that they trusted the court ladies. The epic was very realistic in that she was brought home with bruises and wounds, and her parents immediately knew she had been abused (although they asked "what did you to anger the queen?" first). When she is sent to the woods, her father says "I am not getting rid of you, my darling, I am protecting you from death." Her father regularly visits her in the little house. When the king proposes to Bidasari, they express their worries that the queen might hurt her again. When Bidasari finds out that she is a sultan's daughter, she "clicks her tongue in disapproval" and says "the merchant is my only father." The mother even worries when Bidasari tries to reconcile the king with the queen, saying she is too naive.
It was a touching moment that the king embraced the merchant when they first met, calling him brother. Later on he called him "father to madam Bida". However, the most beutiful moment is when the reunited family retires to sleep on their first day. The queen, Bidasari's birth mother, lies down in bed next to her and tells her the whole story of their exile and wandering. Later on, when they arrive to the island, mother and daughter "dangle their feet" in the water together.
There were a lot of great descriptions of beauty throughout the epic; one of my favorites was "her heels resemble chicken's eggs". At the king's wedding feast, drunken revelry is described as "floral hair pieces drooped over ears."
There was a strong scene where Bidasari woke up the first time, seeing the king's traces in her house. She noted "it was perhaps the work of evil spirits", because - she argued - if a human had been there, they would have raped her, and if her father had visited, he would have left supplies.
The fight scene between the king and the queen is pretty epic too, feature a lot of choice words and accusations. It is good to see a story like this with the villain being called out on her actions. I also liked it that the prince called his parents out on abandoning his sister for "no good reason". His father described how he was also born in the woods in exile, but nursed in turn and protected from mosquitoes by both his parents. After that, the prince insists they should have done the same for his sister. The king, on the other hand, explains to Bidasari that she can't judge her birth parents for abandoning her, because their life in exile was hard. Later on, when taking their leave, the birth parents tell the king to feel free to "correct" Bidasari if she doesn't behave; "even a beating will bring her no shame." However, the king takes offense and rejects the idea of hurting her.
The description of Bidasari's fortress is pretty epic. It has three levels, and the princess' bower is made of 24 carat gold. The first gate is made of steel, guarded by genies and "corps of cannibal ogres". The second is made of brass, guarded by a cannon and gun post, manned by "mischievous spirits". The third gate is made of silver. The entire fort is lit with shining bezoar stones.
THIS EPIC PRESENTS AN INTERNALTIONALLY FAMILIAR PLOT IN A WHOLE NEW FORM.
What changes do you think result from the details of telling it as an epic? What is it like to look at it from a contemporary perspective?