Thing is, everything around us has origin of some sort. So, a thing (an object or an idea) came from something. And that something came from another thing, so on and so forth tracing its origins back to quite a point in the earliest time.
The same goes with pantun.
In our previous entry we talked briefly on the types of pantun based on the number of lines it has. We also briefly state the main characteristics of a pantun; how the stanza must be made up of even numbered line, which part is the pembayang and which part is the maksud and the pairing of them.
Hit it up here to know more on this.
We did mention that a pantun can be as simple as pantun 2 kerat (lines), which is the simplest one to a more complicated and rare and why-bother-to-make-one pantun 20 kerat. Hypothetically, you can construct a pantun of any number of lines you want as long as you abide to the pairing rules of the pembayang and maksud.
!!! But of course, we would want to warn you, that the more kerat you have, the less powerful the pantun will be.
So here, in this entry, we’re going to briefly touch on how does a pantun get from 2 kerat to more?
The proposed model states that the simplest form i.e. pantun 2 kerat started with a very simple construction that plays with rhymes, alliteration usually found in nursery rhymes. And of course, this is backed up by the numbers of well-known and established pantun 2 kerat that serve as lullaby or as lessons for children.
Pat-pat leh, Siapa cepat dia boleh. Pat-pat siku lipat, Siapa cepat dia dapat.
From this construction and usage, the pemantun later developed pantun 2 kerat that is more balanced, and perfected. The theme used also extended beyond lessons to children.
Ada ubi ada batas, Ada budi ada balas. (gratitude) Mengata dulang paku serpih, Mengata orang dia yang lebih. (sacrcasm) Dahulu parang sekarang besi, Dahulu sayang sekarang benci. (relationship)
At this stage we could see how each lines becomes longer. The needs to put more words in order to effectively deliver the overall desired meaning causes the pantun 2 kerat to be longer per line. And this brought us to the earliest form of pantun 4 kerat.
!!! Be reminded that pantun in earlier stage has always been an oral tradition. So they didn’t really see the pantun they constructed to be made of lines the way we put here. But they will know the breaks in lines or between lines based on the intonation and the pause (jeda).
For a line to be a line, they will deliver the line without an obvious break. So the line ‘Dahulu parang sekarang besi’ above is delivered without any pause, and then they pause for a while, taking in some air before continuing the second line.
The break signifies the separation between lines. So when longer lines used for pantun construction, it will be harder to deliver it the way you do with shorter one. So they devised a break in or near the middle of the line. So the same pantun can be done in the following manner:
Dahulu parang / sekarang besi, / Dahulu sayang / sekarang benci.
The slash / denotes pause. Pause between words in the middle of a line is a common thing in poetry, termed as caesura. But this caesura was later be taken as a pause between lines. So given the above example, a pantun listener may perceived it as a caesura, others may take it as a break between lines:
Dahulu parang / sekarang besi, / Dahulu sayang / sekarang benci.
And because the pre-caesural syllables (highlighted above) rhymes, it then accepted that this form make sense for a pantun construction. This is an alternative to pantun 2 kerat which has its own limitation in term of the number of words that one can use.
So from here, we have short pantun 4 kerat. Which later become a bit longer (but still categorised as “pendek-pendek” at least by Za’ba
Timang tinggi-tinggi, Sampai cucur atap; Belum tumbuh gigi, Pandai baca kitab.
It’s still considered pendek (short) because each line is made up of 6 syllables only. Compared to the ‘Dahulu parang’ pantun when arranged as a pantun 4 kerat, the number of syllables per line differs only by one. So technically, the ‘Timang tinggi-tinggi’ pantun could work as a pantun 2 kerat too,
Timang tinggi-tinggi sampai cucur atap, Belum tumbuh gigi pandai baca kitab.
It looks somewhat longer as a pantun 2 kerat, but orally, without the pause between ‘tinggi-tinggi’ and ‘sampai’ and between ‘gigi’ and ‘pandai’, it works as well. Though you may sound too rushy when delivering it.
This later found its way to a longer pantun 4 kerat as we know today where each line is ideally made up of 8-12 syllables. 8 to 12. Now that’s panjang (long).
But not panjang enough. You still have to squeeze whatever the message you want to give in 2 lines of 8 – 12 syllables. What if you have to say more?
Well this is pantun, not a karangan. But they found a way to do this. This happened back then when berbalas pantun was a common thing in ceremonies.
It will be logical if we say that from 4 kerat, they just build up to 6 kerat, later 8, 10, 12 and so forth.
BUT NOPE!
I make sense to say so, but the model proposed states that from pantun 4 kerat, they devise pantun berkait. This pantun berkait later reduced to be pantun of more than 4 kerat (6, 8, 10 … .)
We will stop here. We will continue our discussion on how it went from pantun 4 kerat to more after we discuss on what in the world is pantun berkait.
So stay tuned. And thanks for reading. Do follow our Facebook and Instagram account and share this to you friends.
Till then.