H. B. Jassin, as quoted in The Development of Modern Indonesian Poetry (1967) by Burton Raffel, p. 81
“

[Anwar was] a thin, pale youngster, careless of his appearance. His eyes were red, and very wild, but they always appeared thoughtful; his movements were slow, as if utterly indifferent. ... In his ideals, in his movements, and in his actions themselves, he stabbed, cut and smashed old notions, leading some of his friends to think him ignorant, unaware of custom, a kind of bandit, characterizations he himself thought an honor and necessary in order to influence his slower friends into revolutionary ways.

— H. B. Jassin

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "[Anwar was] a thin, pale youngster, careless of his appearance. His eyes were red, and very wild, but they always appeared thoughtful; his movements were slow, as if utterly indifferent. ... In his ideals, in his movements, and in his actions themselves, he stabbed, cut and smashed old notions, leading some of his friends to think him ignorant, unaware of custom, a kind of bandit, characterizations he himself thought an honor and necessary in order to influence his slower friends into revolutionary ways." in the context of "H. B. Jassin, as quoted in The Development of Modern Indonesian Poetry (1967) by Burton Raffel, p. 81" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Chairil Anwar" (Quotations about Chairil Anwar) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Chairil Anwar

About Chairil Anwar

Chairil Anwar (26 July 1922 – 28 April 1949) was an Indonesian poet.