Prince Tri Sri Buana (Sang Nila Utama) - a draft
Let me tell you the true story
Of *Prince Tri Sri Buana
Prince of the underseas,
He who journeyed up to land
Upon the back of the great *white bull
His adventuror blood
flowed strong, inherited perhaps
From his grandfather, the Roman
Alexander the Great
He sets off with his fleet
From Sumatra in search of new kingdoms
But evil misfortune shadowed his ship
From behind the curtain of clouds,
In came the ill-tempered Storm who like a spoilt child
Tiring of an old toy and denied a new one,
Tried it's hardest to tear apart the ship and flush it
Into the deep recesses of the sea
The waves turned into mountains of water
Filling the ship steadily to it's brim
The courageous Prince,
Desperate to halt the sinking
Threw every object o'erboard ‘til nought was left, save his most prized crown
Yet still the mast creak
And the ship, it did dreadfully groan
And the storm, how it howled on and rage
And the ocean gaped and did roar
The Prince, reigned at this point by heavy despair
Hopes of all escape dashed as he surveyed his ship
And its content of rising water
But then, a needle of hope pricked at his heart
Telling him to throw his crown to appease storm and sea
So the Prince flung
his weighty jewelled crown, remorse
Prompting his heart to ask, of what use is the most kingly crown
To a prince, when he cannot use it to buy his life?
Perhaps there was hidden magic in the crown’s ‘smithing
For at the moment the crown touched the sea
The storm died
To nary a hush or whisper
The victorious prince overcame
Sea and sky
To meet in his path
The undiscovered City of Lions,
Singa Pura.
No omen from the sea nor sky would tell him
That the white men from a different sea
Would rob claim
To his founding one day,
Forever erasing his memory
And relegating his existence
Into mere myth and legend.
Notes:
*Also known by his other name of Sang Nila Utama. Sang Nila Utama was the first founder of Singapore and ruled the island between 1299 to 1347.
The earliest historical records, The Malay Annals. written around the 1600s, some 3 centuries after the event, listed Sang Nila Utama's ancestry to Alexander the Great.
Whether by allusion or to exaggerate his greatness, records claimed his origins were from an undersea kingdom where he was said to have come up to land upon the back of a ‘white bull’, perhaps an archaic malay reference to a dolphin or creature that had no proper name accredited to it at such an infant point in our history and vocabulary.
Other early malay records listed encounters between humans and turtles, the famous story of Kusu island being one, whereupon the story went that a turtle saved 2 men from drowning by turning itself into an island.
Of *Prince Tri Sri Buana
Prince of the underseas,
He who journeyed up to land
Upon the back of the great *white bull
His adventuror blood
flowed strong, inherited perhaps
From his grandfather, the Roman
Alexander the Great
He sets off with his fleet
From Sumatra in search of new kingdoms
But evil misfortune shadowed his ship
From behind the curtain of clouds,
In came the ill-tempered Storm who like a spoilt child
Tiring of an old toy and denied a new one,
Tried it's hardest to tear apart the ship and flush it
Into the deep recesses of the sea
The waves turned into mountains of water
Filling the ship steadily to it's brim
The courageous Prince,
Desperate to halt the sinking
Threw every object o'erboard ‘til nought was left, save his most prized crown
Yet still the mast creak
And the ship, it did dreadfully groan
And the storm, how it howled on and rage
And the ocean gaped and did roar
The Prince, reigned at this point by heavy despair
Hopes of all escape dashed as he surveyed his ship
And its content of rising water
But then, a needle of hope pricked at his heart
Telling him to throw his crown to appease storm and sea
So the Prince flung
his weighty jewelled crown, remorse
Prompting his heart to ask, of what use is the most kingly crown
To a prince, when he cannot use it to buy his life?
Perhaps there was hidden magic in the crown’s ‘smithing
For at the moment the crown touched the sea
The storm died
To nary a hush or whisper
The victorious prince overcame
Sea and sky
To meet in his path
The undiscovered City of Lions,
Singa Pura.
No omen from the sea nor sky would tell him
That the white men from a different sea
Would rob claim
To his founding one day,
Forever erasing his memory
And relegating his existence
Into mere myth and legend.
Notes:
*Also known by his other name of Sang Nila Utama. Sang Nila Utama was the first founder of Singapore and ruled the island between 1299 to 1347.
The earliest historical records, The Malay Annals. written around the 1600s, some 3 centuries after the event, listed Sang Nila Utama's ancestry to Alexander the Great.
Whether by allusion or to exaggerate his greatness, records claimed his origins were from an undersea kingdom where he was said to have come up to land upon the back of a ‘white bull’, perhaps an archaic malay reference to a dolphin or creature that had no proper name accredited to it at such an infant point in our history and vocabulary.
Other early malay records listed encounters between humans and turtles, the famous story of Kusu island being one, whereupon the story went that a turtle saved 2 men from drowning by turning itself into an island.
posted by Medusa aka expiringpoet at 5:28 PM
4 Comments:
Might want to try to turn this into a ballad. :) I like this sort of poems -- poems that tell a story, something mythical.
- Liz
Hey, me too! Have always been fascinated by myths and old legends. Toying with writing a series of poetry touching on legends that happened in and around pre-colonial singapore. Some of the stories are pretty mystifying e.g the legend of Kusu Island. Some might brush it off as a myth or a grandmother's story, but there is some proof evident to back it's claim. Anyhow, that one will hopefully be my next poem! :)
Liz's right. Turn this into a ballad, ballads great for telling stories, esp. myths and legends.
Hey, you know what, you are giving me ideas to do poems on our local legends eg Radin Mas, Bukit Merah, T. Pagar.
and i think Alexander the Great is Greek. :D
Hey, cool! Show me when you're done! The Radin Mas and Bukit Merah stories should be quite challenging to write. I'm still thinking how to approach writing those. I've realize it's pretty difficult to fit poetry around a legend cos you have to keep close to the facts and storyline.
Alexander...yeah, I had a feeling lah, but too lazy to check and confirm...heeeheeee...tks for pointing out! :)
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