Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 20, 2016
Malay family in the Sultanate of Langkat, Sumatra, he began writing poetry while still a teenager. Though his works are undated, the earliest are from around 1930, when he first travelled to Java for schooling. He continued writing while studying in Surakarta and Batavia. He helped establish the literary magazine Poedjangga Baroe in 1932, and published his two poetry collections in it, Nyanyi Sunyi (1937) and Buah Rindu (1941). Amir stopped writing in 1937, when he grudgingly returned to Sumatra to marry the sultan's daughter and take on responsibilities of the court. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, he served as the government's representative in Langkat; the following year he was killed in a socialist revolution and buried in a mass grave. His poetry deals with themes of love and religion, and often reflects a deep inner conflict. He has been called the "King of the Poedjangga Baroe-era Poets" and the only international-class Indonesian poet from before the Indonesian National Revolution. (Full article...
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