When he is amazed to see Sukrosono's face, his younger brother's words are reverberating in his ear again, “My older brother, if you are ashamed of me, let me hide in the bushes, so that no one will know who I am. It's no problem for me to do that, as long as I can always be close to you. I will be happy, if at any time I can meet you, whenever you want, my older brother." Remembering those words, Sumantri thinks, what is wrong if he allows his younger brother to always be close to him. Until now no one knows, he has a demon-faced younger brother. Sukrosono knows how he has to hide himself, so that he will not embarrass his older brother. If so, why doesn’t he allow his younger brother to be close to him? Is it his chivalry that makes him think Sukrosono should be away from him? If that is true, now he has even become a grand warlord, and it turns out that Sukrosono can be close to him, even sleeping on his lap. Then why should he refuse? Sumantri in fact already knows the answer, but he does not want to question it any further.
Also read:
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (71)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (70)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (69)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (68)
The moon shines brighter, playing splashes of river water under the valley into the jumping pearls. And it also brings Sumantri to the memory he wants to forget the most. However, the melodious sound of splashing water is too strong to resist. The melodious sound easily leads Sumantri to remember the sound of the bamboo reed shower in Jatisrana. There he met his younger brother for the first time. This unexpected meeting was not a reunion. Since he was born, he had never met his younger brother, who was actually his twin. How is it possible for someone to separate if they have never met? So, the meeting in the bamboo reed shower became like the rebirth of him and his younger brother. They did not want to end the birth anymore, so they promised never to be separated again. And indeed after that their life was very beautiful and happy. What was the use of separating? But apparently all of it disappeared, when he decided to serve as a knight in Maespati. And it really happens, because now he has become a warlord in Maespati.
Meanwhile, even though it has not been long enough, he has experienced that in reality being a knight is not as happy as he thinks. His chivalry is even felt as a burden that not only burdens him, but also removes himself. He does not know who he is anymore, even when he has been accepted as a knight. “Is it because I lost my happiness?” This question increasingly makes him want to return to Jatisrana with his younger brother, who is now on his side. But that wish is unlikely to be fulfilled. Sumantri feels even losing more: What used to be his happiness in Jatisrana is now just a dream, even when his dream of becoming a knight has come true in his life.
It feels like he wants to sleep beside his younger brother. But from a distance he hears the sound of trumpets shouting. Dawn has already broken. And the night before he has ordered his troops to continue their journey to Magada, as soon as dawn comes. He orders his soldiers to sound the trumpets, signaling their departure. And now the trumpet is telling him to get up immediately, when he wants to sleep by his younger brother's side, to feel again the happiness he had once enjoyed in Jatisrana.
He leaves, once again distraught over how his chivalry only gives him a sense of uselessness.
Sumantri no longer has time to think about anything, except that he must immediately go to his troops. He slowly moves his younger brother’s head aside. He is afraid his younger brother will wake up, even though he knows he will not wake up if he is on his lap. He puts his younger brother's head on the ground. He hugs his younger brother. Without a second thought, he takes his favorite shawl, left by his mother, which he always carries with him everywhere. He does not regret or feel as though he has lost something if the scarf is left for his younger brother. So he wraps the scarf around his younger brother’s body. He then kisses his younger brother's cheek. He feels like kissing the moon which is beautifully shining when he longs for love. The sound of the trumpets is getting louder and louder. He later leaves his younger brother. It feels like he is leaving what he really wants to have. Meanwhile, he is not at all certain that his ideals will be able to give more than what he now has to give up. He leaves, once again distraught over how his chivalry only gives him a sense of uselessness.
Also read:
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (67)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (66)
While Sumantri is gone, Sukrosono is sleeping very soundly. When his older brother wraps the scarf around him, he feels the moon coming over him. His sleep becomes deeper and deeper in the moon's cradle. He doesn't wake up until dawn has passed. The jungle fowls crow, and the birds sing, welcoming the morning. The wet wind due to the morning dew brushes Sukrosono's face. Sukrosono wakes up. He rubs his eyes. He sees the leaves gleaming in the morning sun. He looks to the left and right, and his older brother, Sumantri, is already away. He is sad, but understands, all this has to happen. He feels a scarf is attached to his body. He knows about his older brother's favorite scarf. He kisses the scarf. He imagines how happy he would be if he had been carried with that scarf, as his brother had experienced when he was a baby. But that has never happened to him, because since he was a baby he has been thrown away from Jatisrana.
So his dream flies to the Jatirasa forest, where he used to live in solitude. In the quiet forest he met his mother, how happy he was, when he could be in her mother's sling and arms. He daydreams, possibly he is happier to live alone in the Jatirasa forest, than finally having to be separated from the love he finds in Jatisrana. But both Jatirasa and Jatisrana are no longer with him. Sukrosono does not know what else to do, except to continue on the path of his sincerity. He then leaves the Rarasati forest, accompanied by cries of jasmine and pandanwangi flowers in the morning.
(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).
