Biography Chairil Anwar

Chairil Anwar was a well known Indonesian poet. He was born on jully 26th, 1922 in
Medan, North Sumatera. He was the only child from his parents. His father name is Toeloes
and his mother name is Saleha. His father has served as of Inderagiri, Riau. While his
mother was from Situjug, Limapuluh Kota. His mother still has family ties with
SutanSyahrir, the first prime Minister of Indonesia.

Anwar attended Hollandsch-Inlandsche School (HIS), an elementary school for

native Indonesian in the Dutchcolonial period. Anwar then continued his school to Meer
Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs [MULO] until he was dropped out at age 18. He said that he
had been determined to be an artist since he was 15 yaersaold.

Eventhoughhe didn`t finish his school, he didn`t waste his time` he spend his time to
read by reading a lot of the works of International famous writers, such as Archibald
Macleish, Edgar du perron, HendrikMarsam, J.Slaurhoff, Rainer Maria Rike, W.H Auden. He
also master several foreign languages such as English, dutch and German.

After his parents divorced, Anwar and his mother moved to Batavia(now Jakarta).
Eventhough his parents already divorced, but his father continues financially support for
him and his mother. When he was a broadcaster of a Japanese Radio on Jakarta, he fell in
love with Sri Ayati. But, he didn`t have any courage to tell her. Instead, he decided to
married HapsahWiraredja on August 6th, 1946. They had a daughter named
EvawaniAlissa. Because of economics problem, the couple divorced in 1948.

Anwar gained recognition after his poem titled “Nisan” was published in 1942.
However, his poems at that time were too individualistic. His poems was published on
cheap paper during the Japanese occupation in Indonesia and it was not published until
1945.

Anwar died in a very young age, 26 years old. He died on April 28th, 1949. He wes
buried at karetBivak cemetery. His cause of death was uncertain, some suggesting
tuberculosis. Ducth scholar of Indonesia literature A. teeuw said that Anwar was aware
that he would die young, through his poem titled “Jang Terampasdan Jang Terputus”.
Anwar wrote his last poem titled “Cemaramenderaisampaijauh”.

During his lifetime Anwar have 96 works, including 70 individual poems. However,
Anwar considered only 13 to be truly good poems. The first published was
DeruTjampurDebu, followed by kerikilTadjam and Jang Terampasdan Jang Terputus. The
most popular work of his was “Aku”.