Inungeng mapekkeq-pekkeq ᨕᨗᨊᨘᨂᨛ ᨆᨄᨛᨀᨛᨄᨛᨀᨛ | 5’ | SATB, bass guitar, percussion

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The Bugis language, spoken in the southern part of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, has a rich poetic heritage of cipher and riddle. Among these poems is a style called élong maliung bettuana, or ‘poetry with a convoluted meaning.’ These word-game poems use an abugida script called Lontara and rely on the script’s syllabic ambiguity. Since syllables in abugidas are written as one linguistic unit, and syllable endings are omitted in the writing system, each syllable can be interpreted in up to three ways, creating complex hidden meanings within each poem. The job of the reader is to parse out the meaning from the ambiguous language, and from there interpret the true meaning of the poem. My piece Inungeng mapekkeq-pekkeq takes one of these poems and interpolates the text in subtle ways in order to expose its ambiguity.

Original Bugis text

ᨕᨗᨊᨘᨂᨛ ᨆᨄᨛᨀᨛᨄᨛᨀᨛ᨞ /ᨅᨒᨗᨊ ᨕᨔᨛᨀᨛᨉᨙ᨞ / ᨅᨒᨗ ᨕᨘᨒᨘ ᨅᨒᨙ

Transliteration

inungeng mapekkeq-pekkeq / balinna aseqédé / bali ulu balé

Translation:

A sour drink, / the opposite of above, / the opposite of fish’s head.

Potential secondary meaning: I don’t want you.