You can write something like this:

  /**
   * stage codes, upper case
   * U = untranslated
   * ? = unsure of translation
   * T = translated
   * P = proofread  (only proofreader/admin can set P or C status)
   * C = complete (proofread in context of the actual program making
sure it fits in the box, looks good etc.)
   */
  stage ENUM( 'U','?','T','P', 'C' )  NOT NULL,

The values you put and get will be ordinary strings.

There is an a abominably documented feature to use enums by index
rather than value.  It follows advice in my "how to write
unmaintainable code" essay. Perhaps this could be worked up into a
method.

I found this snippet of PHP code.  Perhaps you can decipher it and
produce a Java equivalent.

"I wrote this php function to return an array from enum values, using
the preg() solution posted by Willem-Jan van Dinter above, hope
someone finds it useful
Note: returns array(0 => 'None') if no results or no such table

function enum($object) {
list($table, $col) = explode(".", $object);
$row=@mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SHOW COLUMNS FROM ".$table." LIKE
'".$col."'"));
return ($row ?
explode("','",preg_replace("/(enum|set)\('(.+?)'\)/","\\2",$row['Type']))

}

$optarray = enum("table.column");"