Pessimism

1949: shortly after Indonesia arose with the euphoria of independence, Chairil Anwar wrote this line in one of his poems: "Life merely delays defeat."

A contrast. An anticlimax perhaps.

I am sure that this phrase was merely Chairil grumbling in a dark moment; he wrote the poem a few months before he died aged 27. But some people see it as part of the feeling and perspective of a generation in Indonesia-a feeling considered out of place in a nation em

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