SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
Easily 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 picturesqueness, together
with that straightforward simplicity so alluring 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 philosopher, 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 picturesque 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, engaging fascination—these may be found
alike by philosopher and winsome youth. The story is no more immoral than a
drop of dew or a lotus bloom; and, as to interest, in the land of the improviser