Having lived and been married to a Malaysian from the Malay Royal Household of Negri Sembilan for the last 32 years. I have observed that Malaysian Royalty carry the heavy responsibility of being the role models in Malaysian society in portraying the proper way to behave and present oneself in the best of Malaysian culture, tradition and mannerisms. In order to do this they must observe certain codes of conduct and respect for their traditions and customs above all else. One of the ways this is engrained into the Malay psyche is through pantuns.
In Malay culture they have unique verses called "pantuns" (originally passed orally from person to person appearing in Malay Literature in the 17th century) that concisely condense words into a unique poetic form that translates and speaks passionately of their rights, obligations, loyalties, virtues, morality, ideas and sentiments, and describe individual experiences and philosophy. These can be heard most often at pre-wedding and wedding receptions and gatherings when both sides of the bride and groom's family meet to negotiate the bride's dowry. The pantuns will come fast and furious from both sides agreeing or otherwise to a dowry being offerred by the groom's side and rejected or accepted by the bride's family. The following Malay pantun ( with english translation) is an extract from the work of Elizabeth Raleigh
In the Hikayat Indraputra, there is an episode in which Indraputra meets Princess Kemala Ratnasari and steals her flying garments while she and her nymph servants are bathing in a pool. He uses pantun to hint to the nymphs what he has done and each part of his actions is slowly revealed through the pantun. What follows are the original version, the English translation, and then my own interpretation of the meanings of these poems.
