CECEP SYAMSUL HARI was born in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia in 1967. As a poet writing in Indonesian, he first came to national prominence with his 1996 collection Kenang-kenangan (Remembrance), followed in 2002 with Efrosina (Euphrosyne), reprinted in 2005. Translations of his poetry into English by Australian literary translator Professor Harry Aveling have appeared in Heat (1999), with inclusion of further translations of Cecep's poems in Aveling's pioneering 2001 Indonesian poetry anthology, Secrets Need Words, published by Ohio University Press. In 2006 a bilingual edition of twenty one poems by Cecep, translated by Aveling and Candraningrum, appeared in Indonesia, providing further access for English language readers to the work of this highly imaginative Indonesian poet. He is one of only six Indonesian poets whose poems have been included in recent (2008) Norton poetry anthology, Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond.
Cecep has been a prolific translator of literary works into Indonesian, with book publications of selected poems by Pablo Neruda (1996), and by D.J. Enright (also 1996), with translations of selected short stories by R.K. Narayan being published in 2002. In 2003 and 2004 he was co-editor of a four volume anthology (in Indonesian) of selections of Indonesian literary works (Horison Sastra Indonesia) and co-editor of a two volume collection of literary essays (Horison Esai Indonesia). He has been a prolific literary essayist and a contributing editor in the major Indonesian literary journal, Horison, over the last decade. Much of this work has also been directed to the fostering of appreciation of literature by younger Indonesians within the Indonesian school curriculum context. Apart from his poetry and literary essays, Cecep has published in Indonesian in the newer genre of ficto-criticism novel (2006), Soska. Indeed, all his literary activities reflect his extraordinarily broad knowledge of both eastern and western cultural and religious traditions, a characteristic highlighted by Aveling in his commentaries on Cecep's poetry in recent years.
In 2006 Cecep was Writer-in-Residence in South Korea for six months upon invitation from the Korea Literature Translation Institute in Seoul, culminating in the publication of a bilingual Indonesian-English poetry collection, Two Seasons, with English translations by the poet himself. In December 2007-January 2008 he undertook a two months residency at the Rimbun Dahan Arts Residency, Selangor, Malaysia. In April - May 2009, he undertook a two months residency at Magyar Forditohaz (Hungarian Translators House), Balatonfüred, Hungary, with the support of Hungarian Embassy in Jakarta. In September - October 2009, he undertook a 40 days residency in Australia, including artist residency at Bundanon Trust Artists Center, with the support of the Australia Indonesia Institute (AII).
By Ian Campbell, 2011.