4 - THE DEEP SEA: A BABA PANTUN SEQUENCE

Summary

The second Dondang Sayang performance, also comprising eight poems, is taken from Low's transcription of a Malacca Radio Malaysia broadcast made in 1974.

The text of this Baba Kim Teck-Cik Chik Mohammad Amin pantun sequence offers a poem cycle that gives fewer difficulties for the uninitiated or for listeners versed in written literature, yet much of the meaning conies from prior knowledge that a high-level subject has become fixed to the metaphor of the deep sea (lautan). Lautan may be used as a high-level subject, in which case the singers display their virtuosity and factual knowledge about nautical practices, fish habits, or the art of catching and cooking seafood. Some of this lore is displayed here, but the arguments are arranged to fill out the high-level tajuk: the challenge by one singer to the other of his or her right to sing among champions. These two subjects, the singer's competence and the sea, are so firmly related that with only one exception no collection of poems has ever been made directly about the theme of a singer's competence, while almost all collections of sea poems assume competence as their high-level subject. Challenge poems of this type are traditionally one of the most brutal of Dondang Sayang forms. The gentle joking at the metaphorical level should not hide the seriousness with which the singer must attack the opponent.

The low-level tajuk of these lautan pantun begins with Cik Chik's advice that the sea is too rough for small nautical and poetic craft (see Figure 3). This is directed both to Kim Teck and to herself, leaving open the question of which of them may not have enough pantun to engage in this voyage. Kim Teck acknowledges this advice, then avoids it by fetching an experienced pilot, and suggests that even large ships would sink.