Trisno Sumardjo

Trisno Sumardjo (Enhanced Spelling: Trisno Sumarjo, 6 December 1916 – 21 April 1969) was an Indonesian writer, translator, and painter. Born to a schoolteacher in Surabaya, he took up art and literature in the 1940s while with the Young Artists of Indonesia. After moving to Jakarta in 1950, he edited several publications, translated multiple works by William Shakespeare, and continued to paint. His main source of income was his literary output, which beginning with Katahati dan Perbuatan ('Conscience and Deeds') in 1952 also included several books of prose and poetry. In the late 1960s, he helped establish the Ismail Marzuki Park, which he led until his death. Sumardjo was generally marginalized within his lifetime by both the literata and painters of Indonesia, with the Dutch scholar of Indonesian literature A. Teeuw writing in 1967 that he had had "no great impact". At the same time, he was recognized by his contemporaries for his devotion to intellectual honesty, cultural plurality, and artistic freedom. Critics have identified an undercurrent of pessimism in his literary works and noted a preference for dark colours in his paintings. Sumardjo's translations of Shakespeare have been praised.