Zpěvy toužení a osamělosti – Hamzah Amir (2022)

The poetry collections Fruits of Desire and Songs of Solitude included in this book are groundbreaking works in the history of Malaysian and Indonesian literature. Their author, the Sumatran prince Amir Hamzah, earned a reputation as the last great literate concluding the tradition of classical Malay poetry and simultaneously the first great modern poet of the newly emerging Indonesia. While in Fruits of Desire, Amir Hamzah develops the motifs of old Malay love poetry in unique ways to speak about his unfortunate youthful loves and longing for his native Sumatra, in Songs of Solitude, he draws inspiration from the works of Islamic mystical poets. Instead of a terrestrial woman, God becomes the object of his desire. However, the mystical union that Amir Hamzah yearns for constantly slips through his fingers: the love relationship with God proves to be just as complicated, filled with doubts, jealousy, excitement, hope, misunderstanding, and unfulfilled desires as relationships with people. This collected edition of Amir Hamzah's poems is the very first book translation of his poetic work from Malay into a foreign language.