Discover the voices of Indonesian writers through curated stories and insights that bring their works to the world.

Taufiq Ismail as a cross-cultural poet and translator

Besides being a prominent literary figure in 1966 movement – with Tirani and Benteng, two seminal works – as the cultural icons of the time, Taufiq Ismail has also served as a writer who champions cross-cultural understanding between Indonesia and the English-speaking world in particular, as evidenced by his translations.

This is a lesser-known aspect of Taufiq Ismail, compared to his well-celebrated figure as a proponent of the “66” figure. In 1956- 1957, when he was still in secondary school, Taufiq Ismail was selected as a member of the first batch of AFSIS (American Field Service International Scholarship Exchange Students).