Krakatau: The Tale of Lampung Submerged

Krakatau, The Tale of Lampung Submerged is the first English-language translation of the only surviving account written by an indigenous witness of the August 1883 volcanic eruption that wrecked much of the island of Krakatau, situated between the islands of Java and Sumatra in modern-day Indonesia.

Thought to have been composed by Muhammad Saleh, who may have been a Muslim religious leader, the poem was first published in Singapore just a few months after the disaster. It was written in the syair verse form – a classical long narrative poem that was common in the region in the 19th century – using Jawi script, an Arabic alphabet for writing Malay. Essays on syair and Jawi are included in the book.