MALAYSIAN POETRY AND FEMINISM

A MESSAGE FROM PRINCESS OF MOUNT LEDANG TO SULTAN MAHMUD

            Tun Mamat

            Convey this message to the Sultan

            Bring these as my dowry

            If he wishes to marry me.

            Build me a bridge of gold and another of silver

            Bring me germs and mosquitoes seven trays of their hearts

            Vessels full of tears and juice of young beetle nuts

            From the king and his prince a bowl each of their blood.

            Honestly

            I knew from the start

            That he is willing to construct the bridge of misery

            Let the people carry the trays of agony

            And bear the burden of heavy vessels of tears

           Rack their life with flame of his own desire

            Provided he could escape the fire.

            Tun Mamat,

            These conditions only show my rejection

            As his queen I refuse to be

            Seeing my life a murky reflection

            I am not Tun Fatimah

            With the skill to forgive cruelty

            I am not Tun Kudu

            Who could be forced to agree

            It’s enough with Hang Li Po

            Wrapped up as a gift, a commodity

            Or Tun Teja who tripped and fell

            The lover she followed was only a shadow.

            Let Mount Ledang stand tall, a reminder to all

            Of a flower that survived and remained free

            Untouched by the royal fancy

            Even a woman can choose to disagree

            Even a king has his turn

to admit being beaten. 

(Zurinah Hassan, A Journey Through Prose and Poetry, DBP,IIUM Press 2018)

Several scholars have analysed what they called the feminist voices in my poems. One such paper is written by Dr Suzana Muhammad (Universiti Sains Malaysia),  “The Development of Woman Identity: Feminist Approaches to Selected Poems of Zurinah Hassan.”. A poem often quoted  is  “Pesanan Puteri gunung Ledang Kepada Sultan Mahmud” (The Message From Princess of Mount Ledang To Sultan Mahmud)  The Princess of Mount Ledang was a mythical character, unearthly, magical, mysterious, and of course described as exceptionally beautiful. She dwelt at Mount Ledang in the southern area of Peninsular Malaysia visible from the palace of the Malacca Sultan. As the story goes, the sultan was looking for a queen after the demise of his consort. This time around, the sultan was determined to marry someone or something different from an ordinary human princess as he wanted to be different and far above anyone else. That was how he got the idea of asking for the hand of the Princess of Mount Ledang.

The princess may not have existed. But the writer of the Sejarah Melayu has constructed the episode as a medium to criticize the Sultan for his unjust rule of the country and his cruelty especially to women, treating them as if they have no heart and soul. The Princess of Mount Ledang proposed these conditions of the dowry as a way of refusing to marry him. As for the Sultan, this was the first time anyone said no to him. The princess was the first woman to succeed in showing the Sultan that he too must be able to accept rejection. The important point in “Message of the Princess of Mount Ledang to Sultan Mahmud” is the exertion of a woman’s right to decide and take control of herself and her life. That the princess was able to speak her mind showed that women have freedom of expression. As I put in my poem:

Let Mount Ledang stand tall, a reminder to all

Of a flower that survived and remained free

Untouched by the royal fancy

Even a woman can choose to disagree

Even a king has his turn

to admit being beaten.