On 'hanging meaning' and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh

Archipel Études interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien 107 | 2024 Varia Varia On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh Sur le « sens suspendu » et sa transmission. Sur les traces d’un poème didactique d’Aceh A I p. 119-135 https://doi.org/10.4000/12fvl Résumés English Français Drawing on a case study of an Arabic poem and two versions of its interlinear Malay translation, the paper speculates on the involvement of oral practices in the transmission of interlinear texts. The translations are found in two manuscripts from Aceh (EAP329/1/11, Endangered Archives, 18th c., and ML 341, Jakarta, late 19th c.), between the lines of a didactic verse dealing with the duties of a good Muslim student. While the Arabic text of the poem seems to have been reproduced through copying from a written source, the transmission history of its Malay translations appears to be more complicated. Juxtaposing the two versions of interlinear translation reveals that they are too similar to be unrelated and, at the same time, too different for the differences to result from corruption in the process of recopying. The paper argues that the interlinear text in the manuscripts under discussion has gone through both written and oral transmission—likely in the classroom settings, with a teacher dictating the translation looking into a written copy, but feeling free to slightly modify or complement it during the dictation. En s’appuyant sur une étude de cas d’un poème arabe et de deux versions de sa traduction interlinéaire en malais, l’article s’interroge sur l’implication des pratiques orales dans la transmission de textes interlinéaires. Les traductions proviennent de deux manuscrits d’Aceh (EAP329/1/11, Endangered Archives, XVIIIe siècle, et ML 341, Jakarta, fin XIXe siècle), entre les lignes d’un vers didactique traitant des devoirs d’un bon étudiant musulman. Alors que le texte arabe du poème semble avoir été reproduit par copie d’une source écrite, l’histoire de la transmission de ses traductions en malais paraît plus compliquée. La juxtaposition des deux versions de traduction interlinéaire révèle qu’elles sont trop similaires pour être sans rapport et, en même temps, trop différentes pour que les différences résultent d’une corruption dans le processus de recopie. L’article suggère que le texte interlinéaire des manuscrits étudiés a connu une transmission à la fois écrite et orale, probablement dans le cadre d’une classe, avec un SEARCH Tout OpenEdition 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 1/19 enseignant dictant la traduction en examinant une copie écrite, mais se sentant libre de la modifier ou de la compléter légèrement pendant la dictée. Texte intégral Introduction In manuscripts from the Indonesian-Malay world, translations are sometimes found on the same page with the source text, accommodated between the lines of the latter and often arranged in inclined fragments. Among the terms used to describe such a layout are makna gandhul (‘hanging meaning’) and terjemahan gandhul (‘hanging translation’): indeed, hooked to the corresponding parts of the original text, these translations hang in the interlinear space as if threaded on the string of the source text line. However, a closer look at such translations reveals that they tend to be hanging, or rather pending, in terms of not only shape, but also content. Unlike the more static source texts (matn), which are attempted to be reproduced intact—to the best of a scribe’s abilities, interlinear translations seem to manifest themselves as dynamic and open to modification—‘open’ indeed being a key word here, as has been pointed out by Johns (2009: 54–55). 1 In this article, I attempt to demonstrate the fluidity of interlinear translation, as practiced in the Malay-speaking and writing world, through a case study of two copies of an anonymous didactic Arabic poem from Aceh, Sumatra. The copies, both provided with translations to Malay between the lines, are found in two manuscripts: ML 341 stored at the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta, and EAP329/1/11 (cf. Figs 1-5) from a private collection in Pidie Regency, Aceh, that has been digitised under the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme. The former manuscript, along with its direct copy from Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s collection preserved in Leiden (Or. 7075), has been discussed in my article published in the previous issue of Archipel (see Iankovskaia 2023). Addressing the poem and its interlinear translation as presented in the manuscripts Or. 7075 and ML 341 (hereafter referred to as the Leiden and Jakarta copies respectively), this earlier article had been written without regard to some other copies of the text that I came across later. Being one of these recently identified copies, the Endangered Archives manuscript EAP329/1/11 (hereafter the Pidie copy) is the focal point of the present follow-up article, as it appears to provide interesting material for comparison with the Jakarta/Leiden version. 2 An urjūzah in form (type of Arabic verse written in rajaz metre), the poem in question deals with the ethics of learning and offers guidelines for a good Muslim student.1 The text appears to have been circulating in the wider Islamic world for at least two or three centuries, but its origins and authorship remain uncertain. In the Indonesian-Malay world, the poem seems to have gained a limited popularity, as it occurs in a few manuscripts and printed kitab kuning2 (e.g. Naẓm al-maṭlab 1998). One of the handwritten copies is found in the Leiden University Libraries in the collection of Snouck Hurgronje3 (Or. 7075, pp. 1–7) and is superscribed in Dutch as the ‘Poem of the student’,4 while another one is stored in the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta (ML 341, pp. 208–211).5 These two manuscripts, both of them coming from Aceh, date back to the turn of the 20th century and are directly related to each other—the former being a copy of the latter (for more detail see Iankovskaia 2023: 92–95). This article brings to scholarly attention one more, apparently earlier, copy of the same text that might shed some light if not on the age or origins of the poem, then at least on the history of its transmission in the region. Same as the above-mentioned two copies, the manuscript under discussion originates from Aceh. Digitised under the Endangered Archives Programme and dated to the 18th century, it can be found on the British Library website with the number EAP329/1/11 (for the poem see pp. 7–11 of the digital copy).6 3 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 2/19 Besides these three Acehnese copies of the poem, I have been recently able to identify five more manuscripts containing the text—four of them coming from Aceh and one from West Sumatra (for a full list of the known copies and more detail see the Appendix). The Acehnese manuscripts are housed in Banda Aceh in the Aceh State Museum (07_515, which contains two copies of the poem, and 07_784) and Pedir Museum (Ms.PM.034).7 These four copies are undated, either significantly damaged or fragmented, and require further research. Remarkably, 07_515 comes from Pidie—same as EAP329/1/11 (Katalog Naskah Museum Aceh 2013: 15). One more copy of the poem originates not from Aceh (the only such exemplar that I have come across so far) but from Surau Simaung, Sijunjung, in West Sumatra.9 It is found on ff. 4v–7r of the manuscript DS 0043 00014 digitised by the DREAMSEA project, which is dated to 1790–1850.10 Along with the Pidie copy, this manuscript seems to prove that the poem was known before the second half of the 19th century or even earlier. 4 If the dating of the Pidie manuscript is correct,11 it appears to confirm that the poem cannot be attributed to any late 19th-century authors.12 Furthermore, it demonstrates that the text might have been known, read, and reproduced in Aceh since at least the 18th century. Most likely, the poem circulated in Islamic educational contexts, since it is still found in such contexts nowadays (i.e. in reprinted kitab kuning editions published by or for Islamic schools) and its very content targets students of Islamic sciences. Editors of later reprints of the poem seem to have had little to zero knowledge of its origins, as they do not indicate their sources and attribute the authorship to a certain sheikh Muntakhab ibn al-Muwaffaq—a name derived from the text of the poem, where it is mentioned in an unclearly phrased line that can be interpreted as referring to the poet (see Iankovskaia 2023: 97). In all the known full copies, the poem is untitled and anonymous, while colophons in some manuscripts (Surau Simaung copy, Ms.PM.034) refer to it as Adab al-muta‘allim (‘Ethics of the learner’). The Pidie copy does not add any clarity, as in it the first page is missing. As for the remaining Arabic text, it is almost identical with that in the Leiden and Jakarta copies—except for some spelling variations. To a much lesser extent is this true of the interlinear translations to Malay, which appear in all the three manuscripts: the translation in EAP329/1/11 differs from its later counterparts both in terms of line arrangement and content. 5 Juxtaposing interlinear translations in the three manuscripts—possibly divided by more than a century—reveals an interesting correlation between the two versions of the Malay text (Jakarta/Leiden and Pidie): they are too different and too similar at the same time. This ambiguity brings up questions around the practices of transmitting interlinear translations, which appear to have differed from those of reproducing the matn. Comparing interlinear translations in the above-mentioned manuscripts, I argue that their transmission is likely to have included oral elements. This speculation appears to be in line with the prominent role of orality in Malay manuscript culture,13 where texts were thought of as being instantiated by performance (Proudfoot 2002: 123). Except the Leiden copy that was made for Snouck Hurgronje, a foreign collector, and thus removed from its cultural homeland and performative contexts, the other two manuscripts were apparently created in Islamic educational milieu. In this latter, studying texts in Arabic with a teacher involved reading them aloud, usually in unison, listening to the mentor’s oral translations and remarks, and scribbling those between the lines and on the margins of one’s copy—such practices still persist in modern pesantren, Indonesia’s Islamic boarding schools, and are reported to have existed in the 20th and 19th centuries (van Bruinessen 1990: 235; Snouck Hurgronje 1906: 29–30). As I attempt to demonstrate in what follows, such entanglements between oral and written transmission might have shaped the texts under discussion. 6 This article is a contribution to the existing scholarship dealing with interlinear translation in the Indonesian-Malay world (see van Ronkel 1899; Azra 2009; Ricci 2010, 2016, 2020, 2023ab; Maftuhin 2024) and explores one of the aspects of this practice, i.e. the ways and methods of transmitting such texts. Drawing on the example of the Pidie manuscript, it attempts to participate in the discussion on the interplay between oral and written elements in the Malay manuscript culture, and in the practice 7 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 3/19 Hanging the lines, negotiating the interlinear space of interlinear translation in particular. The overlaps and discrepancies between the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden translations of the poem appear to epitomise this interplay, while the version found in the West Sumatran manuscript DS 0043 00014 (hereafter referred to as the Surau copy) speaks for the relationship between the two. Not only does this latter come from a different region, but the interlinear translation in it appears to be unrelated to those in the Acehnese copies. This dissimilarity highlights the similarities between the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden versions, therefore I will occasionally address this manuscript for comparison. Below, I discuss some questions that arise around the interlinear translation found in the Pidie manuscript EAP329/1/11: in the first section, I address the translation’s visual aspects and spatial arrangement, while the second section deals with its content. 8 The Pidie manuscript contains two different texts, the ‘Poem of the student’ being the second in order and occupying five pages of the manuscript. The text of the poem starts abruptly with what is line 8 or 7 in the later copies:14 ‘Abide by the right of parents...,’ and continues with other instructions in proper behavior and principles of learning, each line beginning with an imperative verb. The text is written in black ink on European paper; wide spaces are obviously left between the lines for interlinear notes, making the matn ‘a skeleton to be fleshed out with glosses and exegesis’ (Proudfoot 2002: 120)—or translation. The Arabic text of the poem is almost identical with that in the Leiden and Jakarta copies, except for a few rather insignificant discrepancies. However, the concluding blessings after line 30/3715 (‘This is my message for every student…’) differ completely from those in the later manuscripts, which, in their turn, are different from the final lines in the Surau copy, 1998 printed edition (Naẓm almaṭlab 1998: 10), and other copies. Apparently, these closing blessings were considered paratext, not part of the poem, and thus open to modification. 9 The Arabic text in the Pidie copy is vocalised, and the diacritics make much more sense than in the Leiden and Jakarta manuscripts, where they appear to have been added rather randomly. The Pidie manuscript also seems to contain fewer misspellings, shedding light on some words that look unclear in the later copies: for example, line 16 in it confirms that داﻮﺴﻟا (al-sawād, ‘blackness, crowd’) is misspelled as دﻮﺴﻟا in the Jakarta and Leiden copies (line 23); similarly, ءاﺮﻤﻟا (al-mirā’, ‘doubt, disputing’) is misspelled as ءﺮﻤﻟا (line 27/34). Such omissions of alif by the later copyists might have been due to either slips of pen or inability of non-native Arabic speakers to distinguish between long and short vowels by ear—the latter being a recurring mistake in Malay manuscripts (Gallop 2015: 29). The Pidie copy, however, contains its own misspellings, which seem to be mostly of graphical nature, such as confusing the number and location of dots. This, along with the scribe’s exercise in fine handwriting, seems to indicate that the Arabic text was likely copied from a written source. The interlinear Malay translation, on the other hand, does not seem to have been copied at an easy pace at the same time with the source text: not only is the handwriting less neat, but also the arrangement of the lines appears messy and inconsistent. 10 Interlinear translations found in Islamic manuscripts from the Indonesian-Malay world vary in layout. One of the most common patterns of their spatial arrangement can be described as follows: translation appears under the line of the source, broken into units placed at an angle of up to 45º towards the corresponding parts of the Arabic text. Both the Leiden and Jakarta copies of the poem (as well as the Surau one and other four copies from Aceh) follow this pattern, phrase-by-phrase Malay translations being arranged in diagonal lines under the source. Their fragmentation, however, does not seem to have been perceived as fixed, since in the Leiden manuscript Snouck Hurgronje’s copyist feels free to redivide the text and rearrange it in the interlinear 11 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 4/19 Copying or writing from dictation? space. This fragmentation also does not deconstruct the text into an incoherent wording: if put together in one line, the translation reads independently of the Arabic original. The spatial flexibility of this interlinear translation is proved by the Pidie copy, where it is arranged in parallel horizontal lines between the source text lines—two lines of Malay text for one line of the Arabic poem. The scribe of the Pidie manuscript demonstrates casual inconsistency in accommodating interlinear translation on the page: while most of the Malay text floats horizontally between the Arabic lines, translations for lines 5, 6, 29 and 30 are for some reason arranged according to the diagonal pattern. Was this exercise in deconstructing the translation into fragments and suspending those from the respective parts of the source text an attempt to note a proper reading order? In modern pesantrens, such bilingual texts are read in class phrase by phrase, the Arabic text alternating with its translation (Maftuhin 2024: 297). If so, the scribe does not appear to have succeeded: in lines 29 and 30, the hanging translation units are not properly aligned with the source text, while in lines 5 and 6 they even find themselves above the line—as a result of inattention on the part of the scribe, who missed the translation for line 11 and had to insert it in the margin as a footnote. If not an attempt to facilitate reading, were these inconsistent switches to a different pattern of line arrangement16 an esthetic choice, a tribute to the tradition, or an exercise in making a better use of the interlinear space? Or were they just part of the scribe’s general sloppiness and freedom in engaging with interlinear and marginal spaces? This is hard to tell, as well as who the scribe might have been. 12 The person who scribbled this interlinear text must have not been a hired copyist, of whom a little more thoroughness would be expected. The messiness of the paratext rather points to a learner making notes for their personal use. It could have been an autodidact, who copied the translation right after the source text from a similar bilingual manuscript—as the practice of copying manuscripts in which the major text alternates with interlinear translations and glosses replicated the experience of studying the text under a teacher (Proudfoot 2002: 120). Another possibility is that the translation was written down in the class by a student, whose inability to keep up with the teacher’s oral explanations or dictation might explain the sloppiness and omissions. As Ian Proudfoot puts it, ‘as texts were continually negotiated through the processes of copying, reading, and listening, there is often an appearance of nonchalance or carelessness to modern eyes’ (2002: 129). Appearing as an imperfection to a modern reader, this sloppiness of the interlinear translation embodies its dynamic and inconclusive nature, manifesting the interlinear space as that of a certain freedom of learning, practising, and revisiting. 13 Same as in the Leiden and Jakarta manuscripts, the interlinear Malay text in the Pidie copy is neither a literal, word-by-word translation nor a loose rendering. At first sight, this ‘translation’ follows the source text rather closely, reproducing its word order and struggling to convey Arabic grammatical categories (such as tenses, plurals, or definite articles) in Malay. At the same time, here and there it allows itself explications and departures from the original, pushing the borders between translation and commentary. Combining literality with elements of exegetic nature, such interlinear translations epitomise ‘a wish to impart to readers the salient features of the sacred language of revelation as well as the theological content of the original text’ (Riddell 2002: 23) and appear to demonstrate their dual didactic function of teaching both the Arabic language, on the one hand, and Islamic faith and ethics, on the other (see also Iankovskaia 2024). 14 Juxtaposing interlinear translation in the Pidie manuscript with that in the Jakarta (and hence Leiden) copies of the poem reveals that the two are very similar, but not identical. Here are some examples from the first page of the manuscript (lines 1–3 in 15 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 5/19 Pidie and 8–10 in Jakarta/Leiden)—the fragments diverging between the two translations are underlined. I also include corresponding lines from the Surau copy, which offers a contrast to these two, apparently related, versions: Arabic wa-ir‘a ḥatman ḥaqq wālidayn wa-kull ḥaqq huwa mithla dayn and abide ultimately by the right of parents; and every right is similar to debt EAP329/1/11 (Pidie) dan peliharakan olehmu akan sebagai pelihara yang wajib akan hak dua ibu-bapakmu dan tiap-tiap hak itu yaitu seupama utang atasmu and take all the necessary care of the right of your two parents; and every right is like a debt that is on you ML 341 / Or. 7075 (Jakarta/Leiden) dan peliharakan olehmu akan sebagai pelihara yang wajib akan hak ibu-bapak bermula tiap-tiap hak itu wajib utang maka utang itu wajib dibayar akan dia and take all the necessary care of the right of parents; every right is an obligatory debt, and every debt is obligatory to be paid DS 0043 00014 (Surau) dan peliharakan olehmu sempurna hak dua ibu-bapakmu padahal segala hak ini upama utang and take care perfectly of the right of your two parents; whereas all these rights are similar to debt Arabic wa-waqqir al-‘ilm wa-‘aẓẓim sha’nahu wa-ijtanib al-fisq fa-dhāka shānahu and respect knowledge and glorify its cause; and avoid transgression, as this defiles it EAP329/1/11 (Pidie) dan besarkan olehmu alilmu dan besarkan kehendaknya dan jauh olehmu akan fasik maka yang demikian itulah kehendaknya and increase knowledge and magnify its will; and avoid transgression, so this is its will ML 341 / Or. 7075 (Jakarta/Leiden) dan besarkan olehmu akan ilmu dan besarkan olehmu akan kehendaknya dan jauhkan olehmu akan fasik maka yang demikianlah itulah kehendaknya and increase knowledge and magnify its will; and avoid transgression, so this is its will DS 0043 00014 (Surau) dan muliakan akan ilmu dan besarkan olehmu akan pekerjaannya dan jauh olehmu pekerjaan maksiat maka demikian itu hamba kejahatan glorify knowledge and magnify its work; and avoid immoral work, as this is the way of a servant of evil Arabic wa-iṣrif lahu darāhim wa-dhahab fa-mā siwāhu kull shay’ dhahaba and pay for it money and gold; as everything besides it is transient EAP329/1/11 (Pidie) dan belanjakan olehmu baginya akan segala dirham dan emas maka barang yang lain daripadanya setiap-tiap suatu hilang ia and spend on it dirhams and gold; as anything else besides it, everything, disappears ML 341 / Or. 7075 (Jakarta/Leiden) dan belanjakan olehmu baginya akan beberapa dirham (dan emas)17 karena 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 6/19 menuntut ilmu (itu) maka tiap-tiap yang dibelanjakan lain daripadanya hilang ia and spend on it dirhams and gold, on pursuing knowledge; as everything else that you pay for, besides it, disappears DS 0043 00014 (Surau) dan beri akan olehmu karena menuntut ilmu akan segala dirham dan emas maka barang yang daripada ilmu tiap-tiap sesuatu lagi akan hilang and pay for pursuing knowledge dirhams and gold; as things besides knowledge, everything else, will disappear Substantial overlaps between the two Acehnese versions of interlinear text (Jakarta/Leiden and Pidie) appear to indicate that they are unlikely to be unrelated and apparently originate from the same unknown written source. At the same time, divergences between them are too significant to result from corruption in the process of recopying. These divergences can be classified into three categories: (1) employing different function words and grammatical markers, such as conveying a plural through either segala or beberapa, using or omitting the preposition akan or suffix -kan; (2) rephrasing, as it happens in line 3/10 (barang yang lain daripadanya setiap-tiap suatu / tiap-tiap yang dibelanjakan lain daripadanya); and (3) explications, which appear mostly in the later version: maka utang itu wajib dibayar akan dia (line 8), karena menuntut ilmu (line 10). A general observation can be also made that the earlier translation (Pidie version) is a little shorter, while the later one has more additional function words and explications added. 16 Other known Acehnese copies of the poem also seem to demonstrate significant overlaps with the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden manuscripts in their interlinear translations. In what is line 9 in Jakarta/Leiden, for example, they all opt for the word kehendak (‘will’) as an erroneous translation of the homographic sha’n (‘matter’, ‘cause’) and shāna (‘to dishonour’). This line is almost identical in the three copies from the Aceh State Museum (in Ms.PM.034 from the Pedir Museum line 9 is missing) and largely overlaps with the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden versions.18 This is likely due to all these manuscripts from Aceh belonging to a same regional tradition of translating and teaching; however, such a speculation would require further research. At the same time, even though sharing many translation choices with the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden copies, the other Acehnese manuscripts do not always reproduce these choices literally —as we will see later below. 17 In line 13/20, the Jakarta/Leiden version of translation first follows the Pidie one word for word, but then opts for translating the word al-faqīr (‘poor man’, ‘beggar’, also Sufi ascetic) as orang yang meminta (‘a person who begs’) instead of retaining it as a loanword. Also, as both the source and the translation are Arabographic, it is often not possible indeed to distinguish whether an Arabic word is simply reproduced in the original form or used as an established loanword. In my transliteration, I put the word fakir in its modern Indonesian spelling; meanwhile in the manuscript it is spelled same as in Arabic, i.e. faqīr: 18 Arabic wa-waddi‘ al-awṭān wa-al-aḥbāb wa-dar kamā al-faqīr bāban bāban and abandon homelands and loved ones; and wander as a beggar from door to door EAP329/1/11 (Pidie) dan tinggal olehmu akan kampung lamanmu dan segala kekasihmu dan edarkan seperti fakir and abandon your home village and all the loved ones; and make yourself wandering like a fakir. 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 7/19 ML 341 / Or. 7075 (Jakarta/Leiden) dan tinggalkan olehmu akan kampung lamanmu dan segala kekasihmu dan peredarkan olehmu akan dirimu seperti orang yang meminta ia akan satu pintu kepada suatu pintu and abandon your home village and all the loved ones; and make yourself wandering like a person who begs from one door to another. Some of the other translation lines diverge between the two versions quite significantly in terms of rephrasing and usage of not only function words but also lexical ones—to the extent that one might consider the similarities between the two translations a mere coincidence. However, the apparent interrelation between them manifests itself also in another aspect, that is in similar liberal interpretations of a number of Arabic words or passages. For example: 19 – In line 15/22, the Arabic word al-maṣāliḥ (‘material interests’) is interpreted as berbaik pakaian (‘refining clothes’—in Pidie) and berbaik-baik pakaian dan tubuh (‘refining clothes and body’—in Jakarta/Leiden). In contrast, the Surau manuscript has maslahat dunia (‘earthly interest’). 20 – In line 17/24, ṣādiran wāridan (‘question and answer’, or ‘outgoing and incoming’) is interpreted as masalah yang terbit daripada paham atau yang datang daripada orang (‘question that arises from understanding or one that comes from people’—in Pidie) and masalah yang terbit daripada bicara akal atau masalah yang datang daripada orang (‘question that arises from the inner conversation or question that comes from people’—in Jakarta/Leiden). The Surau copy, unlike the Acehnese ones, provides a shorter translation: yang terbit daripadamu (‘what arises from you’). 21 Of the other four copies of the poem, only three contain lines 22–24, i.e. Ms.PM.034 from the Pedir Museum, and 07_515 (2) and 07_784 from the Aceh State Museum (the latter lacking fragments of text). The word al-maṣāliḥ in line 22 is translated as berbaik diri itu berbaik tubuh (‘refining yourself, refining body’) in Ms.PM.034 and as berbaikbaik akan pakaian (‘refining clothes’) in 07_784, but simply as segala yang baik (‘everything good’) in 07_515 (2). As for the interpretative translation of line 24 found in the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden manuscripts, it does not appear in any other copies.19 Even though stemming out of the same educational tradition and milieu as the other Acehnese interlinear translations of the ‘Poem of the student’, translations in the Pidie and Jakarta/Leiden copies seem to be more related to each other than to any other versions. Their similarity is distinctive, but they are far from being identical. 22 How can two texts be this much different but still related? There seems to be no answer within the framework of written reproduction (recopying). A possible explanation is that the interlinear text might have gone through different stages of both written and oral transmission, which could involve a teacher dictating the translation looking into a copy made from a written source, but feeling free to slightly modify or complement it during the dictation—possibly adjusting to the students’ level and anticipated need for additional elucidation. This freedom of modification, however, must have had certain constraints, since we do not observe much departure from preexisting interpretations of dubious passages. Frozen on the page of a manuscript, the interlinear text might be capturing the translation as it was performed in the classroom, where the latent written notes were activated by being said aloud, converging with a similarly latent knowledge of the text in the teacher’s memory—as ‘the sense of the Arabic texts was largely carried in vernacular languages by the oral tradition’ (Johns 1996: 44). From this perspective, the interlinear translation can be indeed described as a crystallization of the relationship between teacher and student, while the classroom represents a performative context, where ‘the text did not speak directly to the reader, but was conveyed through a teacher to his pupils’ (Proudfoot 2002: 120, 130). 23 What might have also contributed to the fluidity and flexibility of interlinear translation is an unarticulated idea of ultimate untranslatability of any Arabic text. Dismissing the very feasibility of a perfect, faithful translation could predispose translators to leave their endeavour open to correction and reinterpretation, allowing the reader to capture the meaning that might have been missed (Basalamah 1994: 65). 24 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 8/19 Conclusion The sacred status and magical powers attributed to the Arabic language in the Indonesian-Malay region20 (and non-Arabic-speaking Islamic world in general) apparently facilitated this approach, along with the practical struggles of transferring the meaning between two very different languages. If the translation is never perfect, it is also never complete, therefore being open to change and improvement. In the interlinear space, the audiences, be it readers or students in the class, seem to have been not only allowed but also encouraged to participate in this never concluding process. Separated by approximately a century, the two versions of interlinear Malay translation of the same Arabic text, i.e. Jakarta/Leiden and Pidie, demonstrate one of the many ways in which orality and literacy were entangled within Malay manuscript culture. Juxtaposing these two interlinear texts against the background of other existing versions reveals both significant differences and similarities, which raises the question of the modes of their reproduction. The circumstance that the divergences between two certainly related texts cannot be attributed to corruption in the course of direct recopying points to apparent involvement of oral practices in the translation’s transmission. In the educational milieu which the manuscripts under discussion belonged to, such practices likely occurred in the classroom where both the Arabic source text and its Malay translation were read aloud in a certain and ritualised way— performed by the teacher in front of the class, the matn was repeated by the students orally in unison, while the translation was written down between the lines of their copies. 25 Just like in other performative contexts found in the Indonesian-Malay world, this ritual of knowledge transmission apparently engendered solidarity ‘among the gathered audience of listeners, arising from their sense of shared common experience,’ while the ‘dynamic mutual responses of reciter and audience as the reciter adapts his presentation to audience reactions’ (Proudfoot 2002: 132)—or rather to the students’ perceived needs, in this case—shaped the interlinear text as it was scribbled on paper. Consumed and reproduced by the audience within the same act of learning, translation from the teacher’s copy settled in the students’ manuscripts in slightly modified and thus unique versions—the modifications resulting both from the teacher’s interventions and the students’ measure of understanding and thoroughness in writing from dictation. From this perspective, interlinear translations found in the extant didactic manuscripts from the Indonesian-Malay world capture unique moments of transaction between the teacher and the student. 26 In Malay culture with its strong oral orientation, involvement of oral practices in teaching, learning, and text transmission appears by no means unusual. However, in case of interlinear translation the very modes of interplay between literacy and orality in a text’s presentation, consumption, and reproduction, all the three processes occurring at the same time, seem to be rather peculiar. As Amin Sweeney suggests distinguishing not only between oral and written composition, but also between aural and visual consumption (1987: 8), a traditional class engaging with an interlinear text represents an interesting pattern of mixed written and oral transmission: while the source text is consumed visually and instantiated through recitation, in an attempt to be transferred from the page to the students’ memory, the translation, on the opposite, transits from the teacher’s oral presentation to the audience’s written notes. The students thus consume the translation aurally, with all the implications of such consumption, and put it back into writing to the best of their skills. Moving from script to sound and back, such a text is reshaped and negotiated in the process of its reception and reproduction, which results in its fluidity as compared to the matn. Unlike the latter, which tends to be corrupted only unintentionally, due to a scribe’s mistake or misunderstanding, interlinear translation appears to be open to voluntary and creative modification. The manuscripts discussed in this case study capture results of such modification, 27 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 9/19 Notes 1 The message of the poem could become a topic for a separate discussion. On the surface, the learning principles described in it appear to correspond to the mainstream set of pedagogical ideas dating back to the thirteenth-century scholar al-Zarnūjī (see az-Zarnūjī 2001). At the same time, the text possibly contains hints at a Sufi influence: for example, the somewhat confusing line 30 (‘Ask [your mentor’s] advice, even if he is a grocer’) might relate to a postclassical ideal of Basalamah, Aly Abubakar. 1994. “Memahami kitab kuning melalui terjemahan tradisional (suatu pendekatan tradisional terjemahan pondok pesantren)”. Jurnal Al-Jamiah 55, pp. 61–69. Bruinessen, Martin van. 1989. Lijst van kitab kuning: religieuze literatuur in het Arabisch, Maleis of een spreektaal, in Arabisch schrift, [her]uitgegeven in Indonesia, Malaysia of Singapore: verzameld in 1987. Leiden: KITLV. Bruinessen, Martin van. 1990. “Kitab kuning: books in Arabic script used in the pesantren milieu: comments on a new collection in the KITLV library”. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde 146:2/3, pp. 226–269. Cummings, William. 2001. “Scripting Islamization: Arabic texts in early modern Makassar”. Ethnohistory 48:4, pp. 559–586. Eickelman, Dale F. 1978. “The art of memory: Islamic education and its social reproduction”. Comparative Studies in Society and History 20:4, pp. 485–516. Gallop, Annabel Teh. 2015. “A Jawi sourcebook for the study of Malay palaeography and orthography”. Indonesia and the Malay World 43:125, pp. 13–171. Iankovskaia, Aglaia. 2023. “Between translation and commentary: an interlinear text from the collection of Snouck Hurgronje”. Archipel 106, pp. 89–124. Iankovskaia, Aglaia. 2024. “Reading Arabic in Sumatra. Interlinear translation in didactic contexts”. Indonesia and the Malay World 52:153, pp. 1–22. Johns, Anthony H. 1996. “In the language of the divine: the contribution of Arabic”. In: A. Kumar, J.H. McGlynn (eds), Illuminations: writing traditions of Indonesia. Jakarta: Lontar, pp. 33–48. Johns, Anthony H. 2009. “‘Penerjemahan’ bahasa Arab ke dalam bahasa Melayu: sebuah renungan”. In: H. Chambert-Loir (ed.), Sadur: sejarah terjemahan di Indonesia dan Malaysia. Jakarta: Gramedia, pp. 49–58. Katalog Naskah Museum Aceh. 2013. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Banda Aceh: Museum Aceh. Maftuhin, Arif. 2024. “Translating the untranslatable. The Jalālayn learning as a translation practice.” Indonesia and the Malay World 51:151, pp. 279–303. Naẓm al-maṭlab fī ādāb ta‘allum ‘ilm al-dīn. 1998. Kediri: Lirboyo Kediri. Proudfoot, Ian. 2002. “From recital to sight-reading: the silencing of texts in Malaysia”. Indonesia and the Malay World 30:87, pp. 117–144. Ricci, Ronit. 2010. “On the untranslatability of “translation”: considerations from Java, Indonesia”. Translation Studies 3:3, pp. 287–301. Ricci, Ronit. 2016. “Reading between the lines: a world of interlinear translation”. Journal of World Literature 1, pp. 68–80. Ricci, Ronit. 2020. “Sound across languages”. Philological Encounters 5, pp. 97–111. Ricci, Ronit. 2023a. “Added in translation: keywords for the study of Javanese Islamic texts”. Philological Encounters 8, pp. 1–24. Ricci, Ronit. 2023b. “Mediating the Maulid. Interlinear translations of the Maulid syaraf alanām across the Indonesian-Malay world”. Indonesia and the Malay World 51:150, pp. 143–164. Riddell, Peter G. 2002. “Literal translation, sacred scripture and Kitab Malay”. Studia Islamica 9:1, pp. 1–26. Ronkel, Philippus Samuel van. 1899. “Over de invloed der Arabische syntaxis op de Maleische”. Tijdschrift voor Indische TaalLanden Volkenkunde 41, pp. 498–528. Shamsy, Ahmed El. 2020. Rediscovering the Islamic classics: how editors and print culture transformed an intellectual tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Snouck Hurgronje, Christiaan. 1906. The Acehnese. Transl. A.W.S. O’Sullivan. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill. Sweeney, Amin. 1987. A full hearing: orality and literacy in the Malay world. Berkeley: University of California Press. az-Zarnūjī. 2001. Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning. Transl. G.E. von Grunebaum, T.M. Abel. Starlatch Press. 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 16/19 illiterate Sufi master whose knowledge comes not from bookish learning but from divine revelation (Shamsy 2020: 47). 2 Kitab kuning (‘yellow books’) are texts on the principles of Islamic faith, jurisprudence, and ethics traditionally used for teaching in Indonesia’s Islamic schools. The poem under discussion does not appear to be among the most popular texts of this category (for example, it is not represented in the collection of some 900 kitab kuning by Martin van Bruinessen (1989)); however, today it is still found in the curriculums of some Islamic schools of Java and Sumatra where it appears with the title Nazm al-matlab or Nazmul matlab (see Amrizal 2016: 78, 84; Anshori, Wardana 2022: 297). 3 At the turn of the 20th century, the renowned Dutch Orientalist Snouck Hurgronje (1857–1936) was advisor to the Governor of Aceh. 4 See a digital copy at: http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:3128072 (accessed on 17.09.2024). 5 I thank the staff of the National Library of Indonesia for granting me access to a digital copy of the manuscript. 6 See https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP329-1-11 (accessed on 17.09.2024). The manuscript is part of a collection owned by Teungku Mukhlis of Calue, Pidie Regency. 7 I thank the staff of the Aceh State Museum and Masykur Syafruddin from the Pedir Museum for their kind help and granting me access to catalogues and manuscript collections. 8 I was able to identify and access these four manuscripts at the last stages of working on this article. My recent knowledge of the manuscripts, as well as their fragmented state, are the reason why I address them here mostly for the purpose of comparison. Looking for copies of such a text is a never ending process: scattered in manuscripts and printed editions from the IndonesianMalay world and beyond, the ‘Poem of the student’ occurs under different titles or with no title at all, and is often hidden between other unrelated texts compiled in a manuscript. Some copies are catalogued as Adab al-muta‘allim; in printed editions the poem is found under such titles as Naẓm al-maṭlab and Fatḥ al-qayyūm fī ādāb ṭālib al-‘ulūm (the latter occurring outside of the Indonesian-Malay world). Varying between different copies, such ‘titles’, along with opening and concluding blessings and colophons—and interlinear translations—seem to manifest themselves as paratexts, which are not constant but rather open to change. Only the core text remains mostly unaltered, being identifiable by accident and through juxtaposing with the known versions. 9 I thank Fadhli Lukman for bringing this manuscript to my attention. 10 The digital copy is accessible on the DREAMSEA website at: https://www.hmmlcloud.org/dreamsea/detail.php?msid=1403 (accessed on 17.09.2024). 11 The manuscript is undated. Its attribution to the 18th century appearing in the catalogue seems to be a codicological speculation. 12 On such speculations, or more specifically an unsubstantiated attribution of the poem to a certain al-Mukhtār al-Sālim ibn ‘Abbās al-‘Alawī (1857–1943), an Islamic scholar and teacher from Chinguetti, Mauritania, see: Iankovskaia 2023: 100–101. 13 On the oral orientation of Malay culture, see: Sweeney 1987. Orality was also an important element of Islamic written culture (see Shamsy 2020: 42) and Islamic education—not only in the Indonesian-Malay world, but also in the wider world of Islam where ‘key treatises existed in written form but were conveyed orally, to be written down and memorized by students’ (Eickelman 1978: 487). 14 What is line 7 (‘Respect the right of the sheikh and teacher; If you do not do it, you will regret’) in Leiden and Jakarta manuscripts appears only in these two copies, while in the Surau copy, manuscripts from the Aceh State Museum, and Kediri edition (Naẓm al-maṭlab 1998: 3)—as well as in other non-Indonesian versions of the poem—this line is missing. 15 Hereafter the lines of the poem are numerated starting from the first extant page of a manuscript and according to the following pattern: line number as in the Pidie copy / line number as in Jakarta/Leiden. For line numeration and transliteration of the text from Leiden Or. 7075 see: Iankovskaia 2023: 113–124 (Appendix). 16 A question also might arise whether the scribes differentiated the two patterns. Some of the early manuscripts from the region demonstrate an ability of interlinear translation to reconfigure from one pattern to another and back: within one handwritten text, the angle between the matn and translation can fluctuate from quite a considerable one up to horizontal fragments linking up and forming a parallel line—like a louvre shutter being closed (see, for instance, al-Attas 1988: 99–148). 17 The words in parentheses appear in the Jakarta manuscript but are omitted in the Leiden copy. 18 Cf. the following three translations of line 9: 07_515 (1): dan besarkan olehmu akan ilmu dan besarkan olehmu akan kehendaknya dan jauh olehmu akan pekerjaan fasik maka yang demikian itulah kehendaknya; 07_515 (2): dan besarkan olehmu akan ilmu dan besarkan olehmu akan kehendaknya dan jauh olehmu akan pekerjaan yang fasik maka itulah kehendaknya; 07_784: dan besarkan olehmu akan ilmu dan besarkan olehmu [fragment 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 17/19 missing] dan jauhkan [fragment missing] akan pekerjaan yang fasik maka yaitulah kehendaknya. 19 Ms.PM.034 translates ṣādiran wāridan as yang terbit daripada paham, while 07_515 (2) puts it simply as ilmu. In 07_784 this part of the line is missing. 20 These ideas being deeply rooted in pre-Islamic beliefs of Southeast Asians (see Cummings 2001). 21 Throughout the table, line numbers are indicated according to the Leiden copy (see Appendix in Iankovskaia 2023). Table des illustrations Titre Fig. 1 – EAP329/1/11, p. 7. Source: Mau’izah and Adab al-Muta’allim [18th century], British Library, EAP329/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/ archive-file/ EAP3291-11. URL http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/4020/img-1.jpg Fichier image/jpeg, 215k Titre Fig. 2 – EAP329/1/11, p. 8. Source: Mau’izah and Adab al-Muta’allim [18th century], British Library, EAP329/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/ archive-file/ EAP3291-11. URL http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/4020/img-2.jpg Fichier image/jpeg, 75k Titre Fig. 3 – EAP329/1/11, p. 9. Source: Mau’izah and Adab al-Muta’allim [18th century], British Library, EAP329/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/ archive-file/ EAP3291-11. URL http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/4020/img-3.jpg Fichier image/jpeg, 82k Titre Fig. 4 – EAP329/1/11, p. 10. Source: Mau’izah and Adab al-Muta’allim [18th century], British Library, EAP329/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/ archive-file/ EAP3291-11. URL http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/4020/img-4.jpg Fichier image/jpeg, 80k Titre Fig. 5 – EAP329/1/11, p. 11. Source: Mau’izah and Adab al-Muta’allim [18th century], British Library, EAP329/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/ archive-file/ EAP3291-11. URL http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/docannexe/image/4020/img-5.jpg Fichier image/jpeg, 90k Pour citer cet article Référence papier Aglaia Iankovskaia , « On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh », Archipel, 107 | 2024, 119-135. Référence électronique Aglaia Iankovskaia , « On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh », Archipel [En ligne], 107 | 2024, mis en ligne le 10 octobre 2024, consulté le 13 octobre 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12fvl Auteur Aglaia Iankovskaia Postdoctoral Fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Droits d’auteur 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 18/19 Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire. 10/14/24, 10:55 AM On ‘hanging meaning’ and its transmission. Tracing a didactic poem from Aceh https://journals.openedition.org/archipel/4020 19/19