_10th June, 1901._[1]
We know what Borel has written on the gamelan (he calls it soul music).
Do you know other things by him as well? "Het Jongetje" is charming.
Many think Borel morbid and unwholesome, but we enjoy him. "De laatste
incarnatie" is very fine, and his "Droom uit Tosari" is still finer, in
that he writes of the wonderful natural beauty of Java's blue mountains.
How much we enjoyed it! One must be an artist, or at least, have been
subjected to a lively dose of artistic feeling to see and take pleasure
in the beauties of Mother Nature, and to be able to express it in fine,
clear style; such an one must be a dear privileged human child, upon
whose forehead the muses have pressed a kiss.
I hope some day to have an opportunity to study your beautiful, musical
language; I shall not let the chance go by without making use of it, you
may be assured. To be able to read and write it would make me happy
above everything. And if I should ever be so fortunate as to master the
German language then I shall go and look for you. Will it not be a good
idea? In the meantime flying machines will have come into use, and on
some golden day you will see one of them flutter over Jena's blue
horizon bringing a guest from afar!
I should indeed have been born a boy; then, perhaps, I should be able to
carry out some of my high-flying plans. Now, as a girl, in our present
native civilization, it is almost impossible to take a little walk down
a turnpike. How can anything else be expected, when in Europe, the
centre of civilization, and of enlightenment, the strife should have
been so long and so bitter for the good right of the woman? Could one in
earnest expect that India, uncivilized, unenlightened, slumbering India,
should take it well that her daughters, women who through centuries had
been looked upon as beings of a lower order--yes, why should I not say
it--as soulless creatures, should suddenly be regarded as human beings,
who have a right to independent ideas, to freedom of thought, of feeling
and of conduct?
Alas! nothing will come of that splendid plan of the Government, from
which we expected so much; nothing will come of it because the majority
of native chiefs opposed it. Adieu illusions! Ah! I have often thought
and repeated aloud, that dreams and ideals were useless ballast in our
Native civilization, a superfluous and dangerous luxury! But that says
the mouth alone, at the instigation of the cold understanding. It makes
no impression upon that stupid crazy thing, the heart. For dreams of
freedom have taken such deep root in our hearts, that they are never
more to be uprooted without making desolate the soil from which they
have sprung.
I think it is very good of you to give yourself such concern in regard
to my future. I am deeply grateful. But oh, do you know nothing but
sadness concerning me? We know what awaits us. We three are going hand
in hand through life that for us will be full of struggle and
disappointment! The way that we have chosen is certainly not strewn with
roses; it is filled with thorns, but we have chosen it out of love, and
with love and a joyous mind we shall follow it.
It leads to the raising of thousands and thousands of poor oppressed and
down-trodden souls, our sisters; it leads toward freedom and happiness
for millions. For our fellow countrymen too will inevitably be brought
to a higher moral condition, and then they will work with us on that
eternal work of striving for perfection. That giant's work at which
through the centuries the noblest and best have toiled, trying to lead
mankind upward toward the light, and in short, to bring our beautiful
earth nearer to Heaven. Is not that worth striving for all one's life?
It is the dream of "Tiga Soedara," the three Javanese sisters in the
distant sunny land. Oh, could we but go to the land of changing seasons,
the land of warmth and cold, the fatherland of learning, to prepare
ourselves there for the good fight that we wish to make for the future
happiness and well-being of our people. Above all the mind should be
cultivated, before one can do good. Although people assert that to do
good and to be intellectual are two different things; but I think that
it takes the greatest wisdom to overcome the opposing forces that we
human beings all feel in us, to temper them, and to regulate them so
that they may work harmoniously together. I have seen so often that to
try to do good ignorantly, does more harm than good.
Europe! Must you then remain always unattainable for us? We, who long
for you with heart and soul.
But I do not believe in repining. Life is too beautiful--too
splendid--to be wasted in complaints about things which can never be
changed. Let us be thankful for the many blessings that the good God has
bestowed upon us. Are we not fortunate above thousands and thousands of
others, in the possession of our dear parents, good health, and in a
number of little blessings, which make up the sum of our daily lives?
When we have enjoyed the music of singing birds then we are thankful
that God has not created us deaf! When we are at Klein Scheveningen,
that idyllic spot by the sea, where everything breathes quiet and peace,
and watch the sun go down, then we know that we cannot be grateful
enough that we have good eyes to enjoy the beautiful light which plays
upon the golden water, and in the Heaven above it! and a still prayer of
thanksgiving toward the invisible Great Spirit who created everything
and governs everything--a joyful thanksgiving rises from my heart,
thanksgiving that I may, and am able to see so much. For there are many
who cannot. Not only the poor people to whom the days and nights are as
one, an impenetrable blackness, but there are many who are in full
possession of their faculties, yet never see.
And we realize how privileged we are above so many of our fellow men,
and gratitude for all the blessings of the good God fills our souls. But
is it not a sad thought that we must be reminded of the lack in others,
in order to appreciate our own advantages?
There are many educated native women; many, many cleverer and more
talented than we, who have been hampered not at all in the cultivation
of their minds, who could have become anything that they would, and yet
they have done nothing, have attempted nothing that could lead to the
uplifting of their sex, and of their race. They have either fallen back
wholly into the old civilization, or gone over to that of the Europeans;
in both cases being lost to their people to whom they could have been a
blessing, if they had but willed it. Is it not the duty of all those who
are educated and on a higher plane to stand by with their greater
knowledge and seek to lighten the way for those who are less fortunate?
No law commands this, but it is a moral duty.
Forgive me if I have tired you by writing at too great length. How did I
come to take up so much of your valuable time with the babble? Forgive
me, but you yourself are not without blame; your two letters which are
lying before me are so sympathetic; when I read their cordial words, it
is as though I had you before me, and that is what I have imagined all
the time that I have been writing.
That one of Java's volcanoes on the Eastern cape has broken out
frightfully, and cost many lives, you will certainly have learned from
others, so I shall not write of that. According to the papers, two other
volcanoes are now active. Oh, inscrutable, beautiful blue mountains!
The eclipse of the sun on the 18th of May, for the observation of which
scientists from all over the world came to Java, we could scarcely see
here at all, owing to the unfortunate weather. The day was cloudy and
there was, and is still rain. But what was vexation to us, was a
blessing to the farmers! Father was made very happy by the good rain
which refreshed the thirsty fields, and so much depends upon that. So
much can depend upon a single shower of rain, woe or weal to hundreds,
yes to thousands.
[1] To Professor and Mrs. G.K. Anton of Jena.