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For the OP here I'm trying a new type of post - all in verse - mainly to improve my rhyming skills. I hope it's not too bad, though it might well be. So before I begin, I'll just quote a Malay poet from the seventeenth century (Sya'ir Perang Mengkasar, stanza 413):
Tidaklah panjang kissah memuji
Terlalu muskil pantun dan nyanyi
Jikalau salah sajak dan bunyi
Adalah satu nama yang keji.

I will not continue my eulogy
It is difficult to find a phrase that suits my poem;
If my rhymes are wrong or grate to the ear,
Harsh names I deserve to be called.
I have notes below the poem, if you're unsure about a reference.

---

A fine day, said the Dutchmen, such days are rare to dawn -
But to Makassar's children sunny day was night.
For Makassar's king to Heaven had withdrawn,
Whilst the port was blockaded by the Hollander blight.

It was on this day that the Prince heard the news,
And in the swamps of confusion was he mired;
"I am now King! Yet to be King I did not choose,
"I refuse these heavy duties which of me are required."

"Woe, woe is us! For Ternate is lost,
"No more are our stalls filled with cloves.
"Woe, woe is us! For we must meet war's cost,
"And I see depleted what were our treasure troves."

"How can I be king in a time such as this,
"How can I be king, a foolish man as I?"
Impaled in princely heart was Fate's biting
kris -
Lodged in his throat was resenting bitter sigh.


There passed by a fisherman who heard the Prince's cry,
He was from old Soppeng and a man of little note;
Yet the blood in his veins was as white as cloudy sky,
And like Aristotle to Iskandar he quoth:

Note, karaeng! [king!]
May I be greatly pardoned, my lord,
In front of your magnificence,
In the presence of your loftiness,
Beside your splendor.

My words are eternal, karaeng.
You are the wind, karaeng,
And we are the leaves.
You are the water, karaeng,
And we are the floating pieces.
You are the needle, karaeng,
And we are the sewed thread.
"I beg leave," said the Prince, "For I dare not yet be
"The winds and the waters, what you demand of me."
"A man of such feeble disposition like I
"Indeed is unworthy to a title so high."


The fisherman said, "Karaeng, this may not be."
"For Dewata Seuwae in his splendor does decree
"That you are king - for your father's in Paradise,

"And there is no one else who may suffice."

The Prince thought, then thought, and thought once more;
And finally he spoke, as Phalguna spoke to Krishna;
"A good king shall I be, whom all people shall adore,

"And my name shall be sung like the name of Arjuna."

"And my foes, oh you Hollanders, let you know fear,
"For Prince Muhtar hereafter is Makassar's spear.
"And this fisherman here, he shall be my adviser,
"Than many a king is this humble man wiser."

"I beg pardon, King, I am no fisher," quoth he,
"I am a noble disguised to see you on the throne,
"Gowa's golden settle reserved to you alone -
"Let us now depart, let us set Makassar free."


---

Notes:
  • This timeline is about the empire of Gowa-Talloq, generally (and erroneously) referred to as 'Makassar' by most foreign observers. Rising from one of many regional states to the greatest empire ever seen in eastern Indonesia in just two generations, it has been referred to as "arguably Indonesia's most imaginative early modern political experiment" and its rise to power as "one of the most rapid and spectacular success stories which Indonesian history affords."
  • Gowa-Talloq has been characterized an "omnivorous consumer of foreign technology and culture." Karaeng Pattingalloang, one of the chancellors of the empire, owned a vast library of European books and took care to procure telescopes and other scientific devices, while the production of detailed written chronicles, cannons and other firearms, brick fortifications, and coinage were all initiated or greatly expanded in this brief period.
  • This imperial phase of Gowa-Talloq lasted from approximately 1600 to 1669. It was ultimately brought down by an alliance between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and Bone, the most powerful of the vassals of Gowa-Talloq, in the Makassar War from 1666 to 1669. The VOC considered Gowa-Talloq its archenemy because its free trade policy made a total Dutch monopoly on the fine spices almost impossible; Bone was angered because Gowa-Talloq had destroyed the local aristocracy and essentially enforced military rule on the country.
  • The POD may be revealed in more depth later, but essentially it is that a planned marriage between Prince I Daeng Mattola, the crown prince of Gowa, and I Lapalang, a princess from Boné, successfully occurred. IOTL, Lapalang died in 1630. Ten years later Boné rebelled against Gowa-Talloq's hegemony, leading to the abolition of the Boné monarchy, the deportation of the nobility, and ultimately the catastrophic circumstances of OTL.
  • The year the poem is set is in 1653, when Sultan Malikussaid (I Daeng Mattola) died just as the Dutch resumed their perennial war against Gowa-Talloq and blockaded the mighty city of Makassar. Due to the blockade and because of the consolidation of Dutch power in Ternate, the main source of cloves (the most expensive of spices), Makassar was in an economic crisis which I refer to in stanza 3. The prince - I Daeng Muhtar, the son of Malikussaid and Prince I Lapalang - would be about 22 and is hesitant to take the throne.
  • The noble pretending to be a fisherman is Daeng Serang, OTL better known as Arung Palakka. Arung Palakka was a prince of legendary bravery from the kingdom of Soppeng, whose leadership was one of the most important factors in the destruction of Gowa-Talloq during the Makassar War. He later became ruler of Boné and dominated South Sulawesi for an entire generation. ITTL he'll serve the empire he dismantled with relish in real life...
  • Nobles in South Sulawesi were believed to have white blood.
  • "Note, karaeng [...] the sewed thread" is OTL's customary oath of loyalty sworn by Makassar nobility to the king.
  • This poem is by a Malay resident of Makassar, which is why he uses the word 'Makassar.' This also explains both the references to Arjuna and Krishna and to Iskandar (Alexander of Macedon) and Aristotle. Malays were well-aware of the Mahabharata epic and had many legends (largely ahistorical) about Alexander and Aristotle. Most of the native elite of Gowa-Talloq would have known very little about Hindu epics and only somewhat more about Alexander.
  • Miscellaneous: Here's the link to the WP article on Kris. Phalguna is another name for Arjuna, the hero of the Mahabharata epic. Dewata Seuwae is the supreme deity of the Bugis people of South Sulawesi (most kingdoms in S. Sulawesi were Bugis, except for Gowa-Talloq itself) but was eventually merged with the Islamic God.
  • Very very simple map of Gowa-Talloq at its height. I'll make a more detailed map later, promise.
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