ABSTRACT
The Wṛttasañcaya (A Collection of Meters), also known as the Cakrawākadūta (Shelduck Messengers), is an Old Javanese (OJ) didactic poem on kakawin prosody composed in the late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century by the poet mpu Tanakung. It provides a series of example verses, each illustrating the use of a specific meter while also revealing its respective name. However, Tanakung’s work on kakawin prosody is itself a kakawin. The example verses are woven together to narrate the sole existing full-length courier poem in OJ.
In this chapter, I offer a close reading into Tanakung’s Wṛttasañcaya and show that it not only utilizes the courier framework but provides it with a new and innovative interpretation. The Wṛttasañcaya narrates the story of a kakawin poet, eventually realized as Tanakung’s literary representation of himself, who sets into the wilderness in search of inspiration. There, he writes a poem about his wife, whom he has left behind. In the poem, his tormented wife composes a lament directed to him. She sends the poem to him with the help of two shelduck messengers. Tanakung’s courier poem offers a journey through the author’s conception of poetry, his creative imagination, and the emotional experiences that guided and accompanied his writing.
