馬來班頓的演變和目前所見集子

The Development and the Collection of Malay Pantuns

馬來班頓是馬來古典詩體之一，被公認為一種獨特的民間詩歌，絕非宮廷文學。本文主要探討「班頓」這字詞的來源以及演變的過程，並列出至今流傳的班頓集子。一般學者咸認為，古代一些常用馬來諺語、格言或謎語的兩個短句是馬來班頓發展的基礎。也有些學者認為，古時的一些兩句短語，稱為「卡米納」，有押韻或不押韻的，說時既有節奏或旋律，又非常生活化，且包含豐富的想像力與強烈的感情。「卡米納」可能是馬來四行班頓的雛形，故有「閃電班頓」之稱。有文字紀錄的馬來班頓大概始於十五世紀的《馬來紀年》。班頓由兩行到四行、六行、八行、十行等「多行班頓」以及稍後出現的「聯章班頓」，似乎都是為了發展之需，但最終還是以四行班頓最為流行。西方學者在研究班頓方面貢獻頗大，馬來和華裔學者對班頓感興趣的也為數不少。目前留存的重要的班頓集子約有10種。

Malay pantun is a type of the Malay classical poetry which is generally recognized as a unique folk poetry and absolutely not a palace literature. This article focused on the study of the process of the origin and development of the word ＂pantun＂. Besides that, the important collected works are listed accordingly. In general, scholars concerned considered that phrases used as proverb, maxim and riddle by the Malays in ancient time should be the basis for the development of the pantun. Some scholars thought that some of the phrases used by the people were named ＂carmina＂, either rhymed or not, with lively rhythm and melody, closely related to the people's daily life, full of imagination and consisting strong feelings. It is possible that ＂carmina＂ by the name of ＂lightning pantun＂ was the embryonic form of the four-line pantun. Malay pantuns which were recorded could be traced in ＂Sejarah Melayu＂ (＂The Malay Annals＂) approximately appeared in the 15^(th) century. Pantun developed from two lines, four lines to multilinear (six, eight and ten lines) and later multi-verses. The abovementioned process were seemingly done for the purpose of the necessity during the evolution, but finally the four-line pantuns became the most popular type among them. The Western scholars made a determined effort and a major contribution to the study of pantun, nevertheless, there were many Malay and Chinese scholars who were interested in it. To date, there are about ten titles of the collection of pantuns which are prevalent especially in Malaysia.