21 Panitikan by Doreen Fernandez.pdf

8/18/2019 21 Panitikan by Doreen Fernandez.pdf

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PANITIKAN: AN ESSAY ON PHILIPPINE LITERATURE BY DOREEN G. FERNANDEZ

Literature in the Philippines evolved with and through the country’s history—from riddles around atribal fire and chanting during a village celebration in earlier times, to the singing of the pasyon in barriochapels during Holy Week in Spanish colonial days, to the novels and poems that fanned the flames ofrevolution against Spain in the late 19th century, to the voices of the present-day Filipino in grief or inexaltation—in the native languages and in English, in verse and in prose, recited or sung.

Written and oral, in the two colonial and the many native languages in forms indigenous andadapted, in various settings and for different purposes, Philippine literature today is living and present—

not only in books and classrooms, for reflection and study, but in communities and on the nationalscene, for pleasure and in confirmation of shared ethos and national identity.

THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD

Indigenous Philippine literature was born in the ethnic community, growing out of a people’s needsand customs. In the lineal villages along river banks and sea coasts, in farms and forests, riddles(bugtong) were used to entertain. Around a fire, after a meal, parents and children would exchangeriddles as an affectionate game as well as a learning process. At the heart of a riddle is a metaphor, ortalinghaga, linking two unrelated images both found in the riddlers’ immediate setting.

Bumbong kung liwanag Bamboo tube at daytimekung gabi ay dagat. At night, a sea.

(Banig) (Sleeping mat)

Maputing dalaga Fair-complexioned beautynagtatalik sa lila. dancing on clay.(Ampaw) (Puffed rice)

Translation by B. Lumbera(Lumbera and Lumbera: 1982)

The riddle not only sharpened children’s observation of their environment, but also taught themabout the surrounding world and its imaginative relationships, thus giving them a vision, a way ofseeing.

The proverb (salawikain) went further by offering a nugget of wisdom enveloped in short, apt,

Panitikan

Doreen G. Fernandez

Writer-teacher and food lover DOREEN GAMBOA FERNANDEZ obtained her degree in English and History in1954 from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Literature from the Ateneo deManila University. Her fields of interest were Philippine literature and literary history, drama, cultural history, popu-lar culture, journalism and culinary history—a treasure trove she generously shared with her students in her morethan 29 years teaching in Ateneo de Manila, and readers of her columns in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A prolificwriter, she authored the Iloilo Zarzuela: 1903-1930 (1976); In Performance (1981); Tikim: Essays on Philippine

Food and Culture (1994); Face to Face: The Craft of Interviewing (1995); Palabas: Essays on Philippine History (1996); Fruits of the Philippines (1997). With E. Alegre, she co-authored: Writers and Their Milieu I and II ” (1984, 1987); Sarap (1988); Lasa (1989); Lasa: Dining in the Provinces ” (1990); Kinilaw: A Philippine Cuisine of Freshness (1991); Lasa: A Guide to 100 Metro Manila Restaurants (1992). She had a mind and passion for excellence and the higher arts, but at heart she was always in touchwith people, our ways of cooking and eating and coming together.

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AN ESSAY ON PHILIPPINE LITERATURE


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AMBAHAN. Unlike otherethnic communities whomerely chant their songsor epic narratives frommemory, the Mangyans in-scribe their songs on bam-boo tubes.

rhyming verse:

Ang maralang bayani The man who goes about with more fish basketsnagaasawa ng huli. is the one who brings home a lot of Fish.

Ang kata-katayak Tiny drops of water continuously draining,sukat makapagkati ng dagat. Enough to dry up the sea.


Other forms brought the folk verse of riddle and proverb to the level of poetry, being writtenaround an idea or insight—to teach a lesson, to express a value or a view of the world—in the imagingand speech of the people. The Tagalog tanaga, for example, often in monorhyming heptasyllabic lines,speaks of values, of strength in pain:

Ang tubig ma’y malalim No matter how deep the stream,malirip kung libdin its depth can be fathomed;itong budhing magaling the really difficult taskm.aliwanag paghanapin. is to find a good heart.

Ang sugat ay kung tinanggap When one submits himself to wounding,di daramdamin ang antak the intensest pain is bearable;ang aayaw at di mayag when one is unwilling,galos lamang magnanaknak. even the merest scratch can fester.


The ambahan, still written and chanted by the Mangyans, are songs about nature, childhood,human relationships, hospitality:

199. Kalyaw dap sa abyagen Stop a while here from your trip!Linong dap sa baaynan Stay here with us in the house.Atay sudong di way man It is getting late and dark.Duman dap sa salsagan Rest a moment on the floor.Hignop dap sa bariwan Stretch yourself out on the matHamoy ha balantian shaded by the balanti,Bigsi ha banaynayan the bigsi or banay tree.Hulag ha no sangbayan When you feel rested and fine,Bag-o tam magtaladan let us talk together thenSis hulinan hulinan for a long, long time to go.

Translation by A. Postma(Postma: 1972)


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Songs were active literature, giving rhythm to the activities of daily life, such as fishing or work-ing in the field, buying and selling food, putting children to sleep, joking and drinking, celebratingmarriage and victory in battle and mourning the dead.

Ili, ili, tulog anay Sleep now, my childWala diri imo nanay Your mother is not here,

Kadto tienda bakal papay, She went to the store to buy bread,Ili, ili, tulog anay. Sleep now, sleep.

(Hiligaynon lullaby)

ANOP HUNTING

Sadaa salag kan bulan Shine, shine mister moonPan achan cod kaptaagan [To light] my way to the lowlands.Bolo, moly y pachenan; Bamboo, bamboo is what I hold;Bato, batog kati-inan. Stone, stone is where I step.Bangon, babgon ka ina, Wake, wake my mother,Ka pan duto ni aba You go cook my gabiSidofen kod daptaagan, For lunch in the lowlands.Isirac ni cubilaan. I will eat it with deer-meat.

(Nabaloy hunting song)

DUNG-AW [Ilocano mourning song]

Ay ama nga nag-ebebba Oh fatherDinak man kasasian aya You have no pity on me,A panawan a sisina You are leaving me alone

Tay uneg balay a kasa. in this house.

(Eugenio: 1982)

Verbal jousts/games like the duplo were played at funeral wakes:

Mga binibini at mga ginooMatatanda’t batang ngayo’y naririto,Malugod na bati ang tanging handog kosa pagsisimula nitong larong duplo.

Ang duplo ay laro ng magkakapatid,

patama ng dila’y huwag ikagalit;ang lakas at diin ng taglay na tinigay simbuyo lamang sa pagmamatuwid.

From A. Fernandez,“Busog ni Kupido”, 1910(Gener: 1949)

Ladies and gentlemen,Old people and young,


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I offer you my most heartfelt helloHere at the start of this game, duplo.

Duplo is a game for brothers and sisters,So don’t take offense at our spoken blowsThe stress and tone of our urgent voicesSpring from the fervor of reasoning minds.

Translation by Ramon Sunico

The bayok spoke of love; the balagtasan on stage and later, on radio and television, debated inverse and in prose, seriously or in jest, various facets of Philippine life.

Myths about gods, creation and heroes explored man’s origins and the tribe’s racial history.Legends about islands, mountains, animals and fruits explained the wonders of nature. Epics likeTuwaang, 1958, Lam-ang, Hinilawod and Bantugan, 1930, linked tribal man and his gods, his physicalexploits and his spiritual strength, his real and supernatural worlds.

Nad’ikahi’ ras Tuwaang,“Ta ura’kanna kad dayandayan,Su antap ta ginawa’kuNa nasamaddan kud ini,Sa po:ndag na buwawanMidtawwan dut ginawa’ru.Na iyan dinit kaddayNad’llawan ku vo kekow—Nadtampiluk kad kaddiay;Subpadtaaw kut lawa’ruNabpanadsangon kud sekkow;Su dakkok daoagdaong ku,Ka duwod dunggut ingod ku.”

Iddinog komak kanakan,Na iyan din doddawetan,“Ahad don meen mandonSodgeddaat Banuwa rut Gimukud,Buyuan duman mandonKad tampilukat iling kuNaddelotat pa:d ta unawa ku,Na iyan dinit kaddiayNa possaa ruk po:ndagNidtawwan kut ginawa’ku.”

Geddarn idlampos ni TuwaangKas po:ndag na buwawan;

Na indo poman kadsuman

Kibbidbid manuk limukonIkat tangannat lama’,Nibpa:yungan sikandanSa aruwanminuvunan,Sod’antayap ta banuwanNapahuwa’.


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Then Tuwaang spoke. “Ura’, do not brag now,For I believeI am holding it here,In this flute of goldThe keeper of your breath.Now I would like

To ask you this—If you would bow to me;For if you are willing to serveI can make you my henchman;For I have great trust in you,Should invaders come to my country.”

The Young Man [of Sakadna] heard thatAnd this was what he said,“Even if againI should tread the Land of Souls,Even if you ask me once moreto bow to my peerAnd lick my equal’s palm,I would rather preferYou break the fluteWhich keeps my life.”

At once Tuwaang smashed it,The flute of gold;And in the end he [The Young Man of Sakadna] seemedA limukon* bird strangledIn the middle of the yard.Aad then up there they stoodThe two men [Tuwaang and the Young Man of Mo:nawon],

Viewing the devastated land.

From Tuwaang Attends a Wedding(Manuel: 1975)

The oral forms of Philippine literature are the spontaneous expression of a people, encasingtheir feelings and vision in words crafted by the poets and storytellers of the community. Transmittedand preserved orally, these early forms of literature are not “primitive” in the sense of being rough andinchoate, but in the sense of being the product of tradition and folk practice rather than of education andartistic training, works of the bard rather than of the artist. Yet they are genuine artistic expressionsproper to the context and the time, and represent the ethos of the people before it was tampered with bycolonization or transformed by other external influences.

His pre-colonial literature shows the Filipino as being rooted in the Southeast Asian cultural

tradition. This Asian dimension later served as a filter for the Western culture brought by colonization.

THE SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD (1565-1897)

The establishment of the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines in the 16th century brought tobear upon literature the influences of Spanish/European culture and the Roman Catholic religion.

Because of the monopoly of printing presses by religious orders prior to the 19th century, earlywritten literature was predominantly religious in content and/or in purpose; novenas, books of prayers,

(*The Manuvu describe this bird as twisting its neck when dying: and it is in this manner that the Young Man of Sakadna dies.)


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books of conduct, grammars and dictionaries for the use of friars teaching religion to the natives. TheDoctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine), 1593, the first book published in the Philippines, was printedby the Dominican press.

“May Bagyo Ma’t May Rilim” (Though It Is Stormy and Dark), which literary historianBienvenido Lumbera identifies as the first printed literary work in Tagalog, appeared in the book Memo-rial de la vida cristiana en la lengua tagala (Guidelines of Christian Life in the Tagalog Language), 1605, bythe Dominican friar Francisco Blancas de San Jose.

May bagyo ma’t may rilim,ang ola’y titigisin,ako’y magpipilit din:aking paglalakbayin,tuluyin kong hanapinDiyos na ama namin.

Kung di man magupilingtuksong mabaw-mabawin,ako’y mangangahas din:itong libro’y basahinat dito ko hahanguinaking sasandatahin.

Kung dati mang nabulag,ako’y pasasalamatna ito ang liwanag:Diyos ang nagpahayagsa Padreng nagsiwalatnitong mabuting sulat.

Nagiwa ma’t nabagbagdaluyong matataas,ako’y magsusumikad,

babaguhin ang lakas:dito rin hahagilaptimbulang ikaligtas.

Kung lumpo ma’t kung pilay,anong di ikahakbang;na ito ang aakay,magtuturo ng daan;tungkod ay inilaangsukat pagkatibayan.

Though it is stormy and dark,

I’ll strain my tearful plaintsand struggle on—I’ll set out on a voyageand persist in my searchfor God our father.

Though it doesn’t sleep a wink,this temptation bearing down on mestill will I dareto read this book,and from it, draw


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the weapon I’ll wield.

Having lost my sight in the past,I’m giving thanksfor this lightWhich God let shineupon the priest who has made knowthis noble book.

Though tossed and dashedby huge waves,I’ll thrash my legsand renew my strength—in this [book] will graspthe buoy that saves.

Though disabled and limping,nothing can hold back my steps,for this [book] will take me by the [hand]and show me the way—the staff was preparedto give me strength.

Translation by B. Lumbera(Lumbera: 1986)

The monorhyming heptasyllabic line and the homespun talinghaga, or a controlling boat-metaphor, link the poem to oral pre-colonial poetry, but the Christian content sets it in the colonialcontext.

The Memorial de la vida cristiana also contains poems by San Jose and by the bilingual (ladino)poet Fernando Bagongbanta. The ladino poems interwove lines in Spanish and the vernacular showingthe confluence of the native and colonizing cultures. Further, because the Tagalog lines were simply a

translation of the controlling Spanish, they also showed the ascendancy of the colonial language overthe native.

Salamat nang ualang hangagracias se den sempiternas,sa nagpasilang ng talaal que hizo salir la estrella:macapagpanao nang dilimque destierre las tinieblassa lahat na bayan natinde toda esta nuestra tierra

From Fernando Bagongbanta,“Salamat nang ualang hanga”

Undying gratitude is dueto the one who caused the star to riseand dissipate the darknesseverywhere in this, our land.



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Tomas Pinpin, printer for the Dominican press from 1610 to 1630, used the same technique inthe six auit inserted in his book Librong Pagaaralan nang manða Tagalog nang Uicang Castila (The Bookfrom which the Tagalogs May Study the Spanish language), 1610, as exercises to be chanted by students.

Anong dico toua. Como no he de holgarme. Con hapot, omega, la mañana ytarde, dili napahamac, que no salio en balde; itong gaua co, aqueste mi lance;

madla ang naalaman, y a mil cossas saben; nitong aquing alagad, los misescolares; sucat magcatoua, justo es alegsrarse; ang manða ama nila, sus pa-dres y madres; at ang di camuc-ha, pues no son de otro talle; na di ñgani balio,no brutos salvages.

(From the first auit )

How happy I am, morning and afternoon, when this my work is not done invain, and my pupils learn a thousand things; and their fathers and mothersought to rejoice, for they are not like them, not savage brutes.


The first long work of “conscious design and careful composition” was the pasyon, or narrativeof Christ’s life and sufferings, entitled Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong P. Natin na Tola (The SacredPassion of Jesus Christ Our Lord in Verse), 1704, by Caspar Aquino de Belen, which eventually wasfollowed by other pasyon in Tagalog and the major languages. The most popular of the Tagalog pasyon isthe Casaysayan nang Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin na Sucat lpag-alab nang Puso nang Sino-mang Babasa (An Account of the Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ Our Lord which Should Inflame theHeart of Anyone Who Reads It), 1814, popularly called the Pasyong Pilapil (The Passion by Pilapil), afterthe ecclesiastical censor (long thought to be the author), and also called Pasyong Henesis (Genesis Pas-sion), because it starts from the Creation of Adam and Eve. The pasyon has been called a Christian folk

epic because, although its narrative comes from the Bible and Christian tradition, the folk interpretationhas imbued it with Filipino sentiments and values. The following extract from the Pasyong Pilapil showsMary and Jesus meeting before the Passion—the feelings of Filipino mother and son dominating thoseof Virgin Mother Elect and Redeemer:

949. Pinahid na ni Maria, Mary wipedluha sa caniyang mata, the tears from her eyes.pumasoc capagcaraca, Then she enteredsa silid ng Anac niya, her son’s room.Lumbay ay ualang capara. Her sadness was without compare.

950. Ito ang ipinangusap, This is what she said:

o Panginoong co at Anac, “O my Lord and Sonminamahal co sa lahat, whom I love above all,puso co, i, naghihirap my heart suffersnitong aquing namamalas! with all I see!

952. Ang sino mang tauo riyan “Even if he comes from afarcahit malayo mang bayan anyone there—cun ganitong pascuang arao, on a Paschal season [such] as this—agad ooui sa bayan returns to his hometowndadalauin ang magulang. and visits his parents.


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THE DOCTRINA CRISTIANA.


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marks of classical learning and gems of native wisdom still much quoted as aphorisms. It hasbeen read by subsequent critics as bearing seeds of protest against colonization and oppression, andthus as the root of a tradition of Filipino nationalist literature.

42. Sa loob at labas nang bayan cong sauiCaliluha, i, siyang nagyayaring hari,Capalinga,t bait ay nalulugami

Ininia sa hucay nang dusa,t pighati.

There, hapless state, and even ‘yondTreason has flung his tyrant-bondVirtue the while lies moribundStifled in sloughs of deep despond.

Translation by Tarrosa Subido(ASEAN Anthology: 1985)

Prose works in narrative mode first appeared in print in the 19th century, most of them directlydedicated to colonizing strategies and colonial ideals. Fr. Miguel Lucio y Bustamante’s narrative SiTandang Basio Macunat (Old Basio Macunat), 1885, warns of the dire effects of studying Spanish or otherthings “unfit for natives and their condition.” Fr. Modesto de Castro’s Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibinina si Urbana at Fetiza (Correspondence Between Two Young Women Urbana and Feliza), 1864, a proto-novel in the form of a series of letters between sisters, set out colonial mores for feminine behaviorwhich still affect social attitudes and behavior today and also sketched stereotypes of popular charac-ters found in later Tagalog dramas and novels.

Cun icao, i may anac na babaye ay turoan mong matacot sa Dios, houagpagpapaquitaan nang nðipin, paca-inðatan ang canilang pagca virgin ... turoangmagmahal sa asal at magpaca hinhin, nang di lapastanðanin nang binata.

Houag tutulotan, na sa canilang pagtinðin, ay mabasa ang cagaslauan

at pagca rnairoguin ...Pacaalagaan nang ina ang caniyang anac, tingnan ang canilang manðaquilos, nang maquilala ang lico at buctot, at cun sumasama ...

From “Aral sa man sa ina na may manða anac na dalaga”(de Castro: 1855)

If you have daughters, teach them to fear God, be stern with them, and safe-guard their virginity ... teach them to love good ways and modesty, so theymay not be treated discourteously by young men....

Do not permit them to show vulgarity or amorousness in their glances....A mother should take great care of her daughters, looking after their

manners and movements, so as to recognize any impropriety, wickedness, ortendency towards evil.

(“Counsel for mothers who have young daughters”)Translation by D. G. Fernandez

Fr. Antonio Ubeda’s La Teresa (The Teresa), 1852, is a Cebuano narrative in dialogue form “thatpresents a story that is mainly a framework for a discourse on dogma and sound Christian living”. Alsoconcerned with duty and behavior, especially for women, it includes criticism of superstition and ad-vice on an economic practice ( prenda or mortgage), and concludes with the maxim: Ang matood nga pag-


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higugma anaa sa pagpadayag sa buhat — True love is revealed in works (Mojares: 1983).In spite of the literature of colonization, which imposed Spanish culture, mores and forms, a

national and nationalist consciousness grew. This came through such pathways as education (on one’sown or abroad in freer climes), the actual experience of forced labor, eviction from land and other formsof injustice and oppression, and such catalyzing events as the Cavite Mutiny and the execution ofFathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora in 1872.

A royal decree of 1863 provided for a complete educational system at elementary, secondaryand tertiary levels. This eventually produced writers who could and did use Spanish for literary pur-

poses rather than for religious purposes or under the direction of the religious as the ladino poets haddone. Pedro Paterno’s collection of poems, Sampaguitas, 1880, and his novel Ninay, 1885, were insis-tently “Filipino”, the latter taking detours through native customs and traditions, not only for local colorbut for cultural assertion. Ninay, antedating Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by two years, is thefirst Filipino novel ever written.

From these circumstances was born the literature of reform, prelude to that of revolution. Theliterary realism of the novels of Jose Rizal, Noli Me Tangere, 1887, and El Filibusterismo (Subversion),1891, did not only have impact on the consciousness of Filipinos beginning to reject Spanish rule, butalso on the works of succeeding writers. Many later works of fiction, drama, dance and other arts havedrawn from or referred to his characters, plots and literary style.

Tandang Selo vive todavia y aunque sus cabellos se han vuelto todos canos,conserva no obatante su buena salud. Ya no va a cazar ni a cortar arboles; comoha mejorado de fortuna solo se dedica a hacer escobas.

Su hijo Tales (abreviacion de Telesforo) primero habia trabajado comoaparcero en los terrenos de un capitaliata, pero, mas tarde, dueño ya de doskarabaos y de algunos centenares de pesos, quiso trabajar por su cuenta ayudadode su padre, su mujer sus tres hijos.

From El Filibusterismo , 1981

The woodcutter who had sheltered Basilio in the mountains as a boy was stillalive and healthy, although his hair had turned completely white. He no longer

went hunting or wood-gathering; his fortunes had improved and now he madebrooms as a pastime.His son Telesforo, Tales for short, had first worked as a share-tenant;

later, having acquired two carabaos and saved some hundreds of pesos, he hadstruck out on his own with the help of his father, wife and three children.

Translation by Leon Ma. Guerrero(Guerrero: 1965)

They had cleared a thickly forested tract on the edge of the town which theythought belonged to no one. The entire family, one after the other, had gonedown with fever when they were breaking up and draining the ground; the

wife of Tales and his elder daughter, Lucia, in the prime of youth, wasted awayand died. It was only to be expected from the nature of their task but the familyblamed it on the vengeful guardian spirit of the forest, resigned themselves,and went on with their work confident that the spirit had been appeased. Then,on the eve of their first harvest, a religious Order which owned lands in theneighboring town had claimed ownership of the newly cleared fields, allegingthat they were within the limits of its property, and to establish its claim imme-diately attempted to put up boundary markers.

(Guerrero: 1965)


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PRAY CLEMENTE: Senyor, sinasaka ninyo ang lupa namin! ... Tumahimik kayo!

TALES: Bakit? Ano’ng masama sa sinabi ko? Anong trabaho’ng nagagawaniyang uldog na ‘yan at ng kanyang alila sa bukirin? Ni hindi nya nakikita angbukirin. Marunong lang siyang sumingil ng upa at magtaas nang magtaas nitohanggang hindi na tayo makabayad. Sa palagay ko, hindi naman nila pag-aariang lupang ‘yon. Nabalitaan lang ni Pray Clemete ang kasaganaan ng ating

unang ani. Kaya lang, takot tayong umangal noong araw. Baka tayo palayasin.Pero ngayon handa akong lumaban. Ginagawa nila ito ngayon para lubusangmaangkin nila ang ating lupa.

TANDANG SELO: Tales, tandaan mo ang palayok na putik.

TALES: Puno na ako, Tatang, punung-puno na. ltong palayok na putik aysusugod sa kawaling bakal at mangyari na’ng mangyayari. Tutal, alabok dinang ating kahihinatnan.

From Paul Dumol, Kabesang Tales, 1974

FRAY CLEMENTE: Sir, you are farming our land! ... Be quiet!

TALES: Why should I be quiet? What is wrong with what I said? What workhave that rascal and his servant done on this farm? He has never seen it. Heonly knows how to collect rent and raise it again and again till we can no longerpay. I believe the land is not their property. Fray Clemente just heard about thebounty of our first harvest. It’s just that we were afraid to protest then, becausewe might be sent away. But now I am ready to fight. They are doing this now inorder to push their claim to our land.

TANDANG SELO: Tales, remember what I said about the clay pot.

TALES: I am fed up, Tatang, really fed up. This clay pot is ready to lunge againstthe iron vessel—and let whatever may happen. Anyway, we can only end upin dust.

Translation by D.G. Fernandez

Rizal’s poetry as well left lasting imprints on the emerging national consciousness and on suc-ceeding writers. The achievement of his best poems (“A Las Flores de Heidelberg” [To the Flowers ofHeidelberg], “Ultimo Adios” [Last Farewell], “Mi Retiro” [My Retreat]) lies in the quality of the writing,in the graceful and sonorous use of the Spanish language and especially in the shaping of both by themotive emotion of love of country. In them we have “a poet’s personal sacrifice for the country dovetail-ing with his art” (Lumbera and Lumbera: 1982).

Marcelo H. del Pilar’s essays in Spanish (e.g. “La Soberania Monacal en Filipinas” [MonasticSupremacy in the Philippines] and articles in La Solidaridad) and poetry in Tagalog (e.g. “Sagot ngEspaña sa Hibik ng Pilipinas” [Spain’s Reply to the Complaints of the Filipinos], a complementary pieceto Hermenegildo Flores’ “Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espanya” [Complaints of the Filipinos to MotherSpain]) were significant contributions to the literature of reform. It was his parodies of “sacred” formslike the catechism and popular forms like the pasyon and the duplo that most effectively brought home tothe people his protests against colonial and friar rule. His writing and his editorship of La Solidaridad(Feb. 15, 1889) made “Plaridel” a major force in the Propaganda Movement.


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Sa iyong kandungan tinubuang lupa,pawing nalilimbag ang lalong dakila,sa mga utos dapat tupdin nawana ika-aamis ng puso’t gunita.

Ang kamusmusan ko’y kung alalahanin,ayinaruga mo, bayang ginigiliw,halaman at bundok, yaman at bukirin,ay pawang naghandog ng galak sa akin.

Ipinaglihim mo nang ako’y bata pa,

ang pagdaralitang iyong binabata,luha’y ikinubli’t nang di mabalisa,ang inandukha mong musmos kong ligaya.

Ngayong lumaki nang loobin ng Langit,Maanyong bahala na yaring pag-iisip,magagandang nasa’y tinipon sa dibdib,pagtulong sa iyo bayang iniibig.

From Marcelo H. del Pilar,“Duplohan,” ca. 1887

MOST CELEBRATED NOVELS. National hero Dr. Jose P.Rizal wrote the country’s most celebrated novels, Noli MeTangere and El Filibusterismo whose themes, characters,and subplots have inspired the creation of other literaryand artistic works of succeeding generations. More thanexecellent fiction, Rizal’s novels are veritable social andpolitical documents of the Spanish colonial era.


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On your lap beloved homelandare inscribedall that is grand,all laws that should be observeddespite grudging memory and heart.

You nurtured me in my youth beloved coun-

try,so I remember when I choose to remember,greenery and mountain, riches and fieldshave all been your gifts of joy to roe.

You kept from me, when I was young,the misery that you still now endure,You hid all tears to ensure my peace,to nurture my still child-like bliss.

Now all grown, filled with the ideals ofHeaven,with the vivid responsibilities of a full-formed mind,all lovely wishes I have gathered to my breast,are wishes to serve you land that I love.


ANG ABA GUINOONG BARIA

Aba guinoong baria nakapupuno ka nang alcancia, ang Fraile’y sumasainyo,bukod ka niyang pinagpala’t pinahiguit sa lahat, pinagpala naman ang kabanmong mapasok. Santa Baria Ina nang Deretsos, ipanalangin mo kaming huaganitan ngayon at kami ipapatay. Siya naua.

From Marcelo H. del Pilar,“Dasalan at Tocsohan”, ca. 1888

THE HAIL MONEY

Hail Money, filler of banks, the friars are with you, blessed are you and betterthan all and blessed is the treasure box that you choose to fill. Holy Money,Mother of Rights, pray for us against those who would shave us and keep usfrom getting killed. Amen.


As the 19th century drew to a close, it became clear that the Propaganda Movement was notbringing about changes in colonial policy. Reformism was abandoned; the Revolution began.

The use of Tagalog by the members of the Katipunan linked the language with nationalism, andthe literature written in it in the succeeding years became a major factor in the formation of a revolution-ary consciousness and in the Revolution. This literature of Revolution includes such works as AndresBonifacio’s “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” (Love for the Native Land) and the Katipunan manifesto“Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog” (What the Tagalog Should Know), Apolinario Mabini’s LaRevolucion Filipina (The Philippine Revolution), 1902, as well as Emilio Jacinto’s short essays knowncollectively as Liwanag at Dilim (Light and Darkness).


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Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kayasa pagkadalisay at pagkadakilagaya ng pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa?Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala.

Ulitulitin mang basahin ng isipat isa-isahing lalastasing pilitang salita’t buhay ang limbag at titik

ng sang katauhan ito’y namamasid.

Banal na pag-ibig! pag ikaw ang nukalsa tapat na puso ng sino’t alin manimbi’t taong gubat maralita’t mangmangnagiging dakila at iginagalang.

Pagpupuring lubos ang palaging hangadsa bayan ng taong may dangal na ingatumawit tumula’l kumatha’t sumulatkalakhan din nia’y isinisiwalat.

Walang mahalagang hindi inihandogng may pusong mahal sa Bayang nagkupkopdugo yaman dunong katiisa’t pagodbuhay may abuting magkalagot lagot.

Bakit? Alin ito na sakdal ng lakina hinahandugan ng buong pagkasina sa lalung mahal ng kapangyayariat ginugulan ng buhay na iwi?

Ay! ito’y ang Ynang bayang tinubuansiya’y ina’t tangi na kinamulatanng kawiliwiling liwanag ng araw

na nagbigay init sa lulong katawan.

From Andres Bonifacio,“Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa,”1896

Which love can surpassIn purity and greatnessthe love for the land where one was horn?Which love? No love, no love at all.

However the mind reads and rereadsand one by one remorselessly explains

the spirit and letter of book and wordabout the human race, this much is clear.

Sacred love! When you are the coreof the loyal heart—even thelowly savage, miserable and crude—becomes ennobled, worthy of praise.

To praise you fully is the enduring wishof the one who values honorwho sings and creates, who writes and recites,


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who in honoring you reveals his honor in turn.

Nothing is precious that is not offered upby the heart which clings to the nation’s embrace—blood, riches, wisdom, endurance and effort—a life whose aspirations are suddenly cut short.

Why? What is this that is so great

to receive as offering one’s reason for being,that becomes more precious even as it is livedas it is invested with a well-nurtured life?

Ay! This is one’s Motherland.One’s mother with whom one wakesto the lovely radiance of the sun,she who gives warmth and tempers our flesh.


Ang kalayaan ng tao ay ang katuwirang tinataglay na talaga ng pagkatao, naumisip at gumawa ng anumang ibigin kung ito’y di nalalaban sa katuwuranng iba.

Ayon sa wastong bait, ang katuwirang ito ay siyang ikinaiba ng tao salahat ng nilalang. Ang hayop ay sinusupil at nilulubiran sapagkat di nakatatantong matuwid at di-rnatuwid, di nakaaabot ng dakila at magadang gawa. Libansa tao lamang ang makapagsasabi ng ibig ko’t di ko ibig kaya’t ayon sa bagayna kaniyang inibig o inilbig, siya’y magiging dapat sa tawag na mabuti omasama, sa parusa o sa palo.

From Emilio Jacinto,“Kalayaan,” Liwanag at Dilim , 1896

Human freedom is the innate right of all human beings, the freedom to thinkand act as one wishes without hurting the rights of others.

Upon one’s coming to maturity, it is this right that distinguishes thehuman being from all other creatures. An animal is tied up and domesticatedbecause it cannot tell right from wrong and does not aspire to greatness nor todo great deeds. Only a human being can say l love this or do not love that; andso judge, by the nature of what one loves or does not love, that it be good orbad, whatever be the punishment, whatever the pain.


The need to awaken awareness, nationalist fervor and action, and certainly the urgency of revo-lution brought to the fore the essay as literary form—in the pages of revolutionary papers like La Solidaridadand the Katipunan newspaper Kalayaan, 1899, and later nationalist publications like Lipang Kalabaw,1907-1909, and Muling Pagsilang, 1901.

Less visible than the above literature proceeding from and directed to leaders of the Revolutionwere the prayers, songs, awit and poems that circulated among the masses and, the Ileto study pointsout, prepared their spirit and consciousness for “revolt of the masses.” Scholars are finding out thatthere was a literature to support the “Little Tradition,” as well as the “Great Tradition” that jointlyresulted in the Philippine Revolution of 1896. An example is a kundiman expressing the revolution infolk images:


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Sa dalampasigan ng dagat Maynila,Luneta ang tawag ng mga kastilaay doon binaril ang kaawaawapobreng Pilipino, martir nitong Lupa.

Naramay sa dusa ang ating tanggulanpanganay na Burgos at bunsong si Rizal

sa inggit at takot ng prayleng sukabanpinatay at sukat, walang kasalanan.

Hindi na inisip ang kanilang buhaykung ito’y matapos tapos din ang layaw,paris na nga ngayon, ang kinasapitankaming Pilipino’y kusang humilaway.

Oh mga kalahi! Lakad, pagpilitangtunguhin ang bundok, kalawakang paranggamitin ang gulok at sibat sa kamay,ating ipagtanggol lupang tinubuan.

Huwag manganganib, Inang Pilipinassa kahit ano mang itakda ng palad,di kami tutugot hanggang di matupaditong kalayaang ating hinahanap.

On the shores of Manila baycalled by the Spaniards “Luneta”there was shot the pitifulhumble Filipino, martyr of this land.

Our defenders fell into griefthe eldest Burgos, the youngest Rizalsons without a stain of guiltwere treacherously killed by the envious, fearful friars

They did not think of their liveswhen life is ended, so is layaw, just as it is now, it all ended upin we Filipinos willingly separating.

Oh compatriots! Walk on, striveto reach the mountain and the forestuse the bolos and spears in your hand

let us defend the land of our birth.

Fear not, Mother Filipinaswhatever fate has in store for us,we will not cease to struggle untilthe kalayaan we search for is found.

(Ileto: 1979)


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By the end of the Spanish colonial period, Philippine literature had grown from its communitymatrix, through colonial influences, to the national and nationalist purposes. In its development is seenthe emergence of the Filipino people and of a truly Filipino literature.

THE AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD (1888-1945) TO THE PRESENT

The early years of the American colonial regime saw the continuance of the literature of protest, nowdirected at the new colonizers. In the drama, such writers as Tomas Remigio, Juan Matapang Cruz,

Juan Abad and Aurelio Tolentino were arrested on charges of sedition because of their anti-Americanplays— Malaya (Free), 1898, Hindi Aco Patay (I Am Not Dead), 1903, Tanikalang Guinto (Golden Chain),1902 and Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), 1903, respectively.

The first decade also saw the continuation and eventual decline of Philippine literature in Spanish.The poems of Fernando Ma. Guerrero (Crisalidas [Chrysales], 1914), Cecilio Apostol (Pentelicas [fromPentelicus, a mountain near Athens, Greece.), 1941), Jesus Balmori ( Mi Casa de Nipa [My Nipa Hut],1938), Manuel Bernabe (Cantos del Tropico [Songs of the Tropics], 1929; Perfil de Cresta [Profile of theCrest], 1957) and Claro M. Recto (Bajo los cocoteros [Under the Coconut Trees], 1911); the novels of Balmori(Se deshojo la flor , [literally, The Unleafing of the Flower], 1915; Bancarrota de almas [Bankruptcy of Souls],1911) and Antonio M. Abad (El Ultimo Romantico [The Last Romantic], 1927; El Campeon [The Cham-pion], 1939) melded Spanish literary tradition to commentary on Philippine society and, eventually, tothe patriotic sentiments of reform and revolution, often showing a poetic lineage traceable to Rizal andother writers of the Propaganda Movement and the 1896 Revolution.

Mi sangre tiene un alma que es alma de titanes.Sangre de Solimanescorre por sus arterias, que siempre latiran.Tiene el pecho templado al fragor de la guerra.Bajo sus pies de atleta se estremece la tietra.porque enciende sus nervios la flama de un volcan…

Hermanos en la idea: nuestra raza es divina¡Es grande y sacrosanta el alma filipina!Digamos, pues, un himno por su gloria immortal.

Y tu, loh Fama! recorre del mundo los confines,y al son de tus clarinesPregona las grandezas del pueblo de Rizal.

From Claro M. Recto,”El Alma de la Raza,”November 1909

My blood contains the soul of titansMy acid-blood rushes burningthrough arteries of perpetual pulseThe tempered breast houses the clamor of war.Beneath the athlete’s stride shudders the world

for my nerves ignite the volcanic fires....

Brothers in the idea; our race is divine.How sacrosanct and grand is the Filipino soul!And so let us sing a hymn to her immortal glory!And you, o Fame! span the edges of the worldsand to the sound of trumpetsProclaim the greatness of the people of Rizal.



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The establishment by the American insular government of the public educational system in1901 had profound effects on Philippine literature. English became the medium of instruction and thelanguage of schooled literature. American values and images filled textbooks and thus, the minds andaspirations of Filipino students. From the schools came the first Filipino writers in English who soughtto capture Philippine experience in the borrowed alien language.

The short story showcased the skill and art of such writers as Manuel Arguilla who capturedthe gentleness of rural life (“Morning in Nagrebcan”; “A Son is Born”); Bienvenido Santos, chronicler ofthe lives and pain of Filipinos exiled abroad or trapped at home (“Scent of Apples”; “End to Laughter”);

Arturo Rotor, whose stories about doctors and convicts explored the inner life of the city and institu-tions (“At Last This Fragrance”; “Deny the Mockery”); Carlos Bulosan who wrote and lived the injusticesuffered by migrant Filipino laborers (“As Long as the Grass Shall Grow”; “The Story of a Letter”); andN.V.M. Gonzales, whose settings for his Filipino stories range from Mindoro to the city and foreignlands (“Bread of Salt”; “A Warm Hand”).

The first decades saw the growth of poetry in English, with Jose Garcia Villa’s poetry publishedin the United States and considered alongside those of his American contemporaries.

First, a poem must be magical,Then musical as a sea-gull.It must be a brightness movingAnd hold secret a bird’s flowering.It must be slender as a bell,And it must hold fire as well.It must have the wisdom of bowsAnd it must kneel like a rose.It must be able to hearThe luminance of dove and deer.It must be able to hideWhat it seeks, like a bride.And over all I would like to hoverGod, smiling from the poem’s cover.

Jose Garcia Villa, 1962

The era also crystallized the confrontation between writing as a personal art and, in the work ofSalvador P. Lopez and others, as a reflection of society.

Go through the history of literature, and you will find that the greatest writersare ever those whose feet were planted solidly on the earth regardless of howhigh up in the clouds their heads might have been. This is not to say, however,that great writing must pertain to some department of propaganda. Propa-ganda is written with the definite object of influencing people to believe or todo something. While there are a few books which have survived the immediatemotive of propaganda that inspired them, yet one can say truly that the bulk ofliterary works of permanent value consists of those that are neither pure pro-paganda nor pure art but which are in some way deeply rooted in the earth ofhuman experience....

In the end, what really interests the writer, granting that he recognizesthe value of social content in literature, is some sort of assurance that his writ-ing will result in something that he can lay his hands on as good and useful. Forcertainly he has a right to expect that, having acceded to the demands of soci-ety upon his talent, certain measurable benefits will flow from his work whollydistinct, from the purely subjective satisfaction that is his birthright as an artistand which comes naturally with the act of creative expression.

From Salvador P. Lopez,“Literature and Society”, 1940


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In this period, the sarsuwela, regnant drama form of the 1920s and 1930s, came to be replaced onthe city stages by drama in English by foreign authors, and later by the works of such Filipino play-wrights as Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Severino Montano, Alberto Florentine and Nick Joaquin.

Although writing in English came out of the universities and was understandably quite Ameri-canized in style, form and content, at its best it captured the nuances and effects of American culture inconfrontation with Philippine reality. Its maturity is seen in contemporary poems (by Carlos Angeles,Ricaredo Demetillo, Emmanuel Torres, Rolando Tinio, Cirilo Bautista, Edith Tiempo, Alfrredo NavarroSalanga, Alfred Yuson, Marjorie Evasco, Ramon Sunico, Fatima Lim, Marne Kilates, Ophelia Dimalanta,

Gemino Abad, Ricardo de Ungria, etc.), stories (by Francisco Arcellana, Wilfrido Nolledo, Nick Joaquin,Edilberto Tiempo, Rowena Tiempo Torrevillas, Jose Dalisay, etc.), novels (by F. Sionil Jose, NinotchkaRosca, Linda Ty Casper, Bienvenido Santos) and essays that succeed in capturing Philippine life andreality in the English language and in grafting the language in Filipino ways, adequate for and atuned tothe native sensibility.

An experience markedly individual yet palpably Filipino is conveyed in Nick Joaquin’s “ByeBye Jazzbird”:

1A death in the family. Relativesyou haven’t seen since the lastdeath in the family reappearlike furniture from your pastreassembled from a movie about it;reassembling now only as props:footlights (as it were) and backdrops,to celebrate not a death but the familyhere having one of its final stops,here it continues where it stops.

2No one is here as a person,only as the correct representativeof his branch of the line. Only

the man that’s dead is here as himself,is discussed as such. “Rather lonely,his last days.” “Well, he was on the shelfall of these years.” “He was rentingthat crummy apartment?” “No, just a partof it, the upstairs.” “Collapsed, alonewith his cats—whom someone should be representing.They were so dear to him.” “From the startof the stroke, unconscious.” “Four o’clock dawn.”“Died like his father, cerebral hemorrhage.”The crowded wake was a lively tone.

From Nick Joaquin,

“Bye Bye Jazzbird”, 1979

Bienvenido Lumbera’s “A Eulogy of Roaches” is an urban meditation on human life andsociety:

A EULOGY OF ROACHES

Blessed are the cockroaches.In this country they are


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the citizens who last.They need no policeto promulgate their peacebecause they tolerateeach other’s smell or greed.

Friends to dark and filth,they do not choose their meat.

Although they neither sownor reap, a daily feastis laid for them in roomsand kitchens for their pick.

The roaches do not spinand neither do they weave.But note the russet coatthe sluggards wear: clothedat birth, roaches requireno roachy charity.

They settle where they wishand have no rent to pay.Eviction is a wordquite meaningless to themwho do not have to owntheir dingy crack of wall

Not knowing death or taxes,they increase and multiply.Survival is assuredeven the jobless roach:his opportunitiespile up where garbage grows.

Dying is brief and cheapand thus cannot affrightA whiff of toxic mist,an agile heel, a stick—the swift descent of painis also final death.

Bienvenido Lumbera, 1965

Marjorie Evasco [Pernia] is unmistakably woman and Filipina as she addresses a sampaguitavendor in the city, while remembering provincial gardens:

SAMPAGUTTA SONG(to a suki at Quirino Highway)

We see you every night interceptThe narrow chance at highwayLiving, the jammed traffic of your daysRun-down by those who do not seeYour flag of whiteSmall flowers.


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Your shanks gleam thin at the intersection,Beating the stop light to the edgeOf danger.

Sampaguita, Sir!Sampaguita. Ma’am!

Sariwa, mabangoPiso po ang tatlo.

You thrust brown hands at meFlower-laden, smelling like oldMemories, tender at the recallOf gardens in a provinceWe’ve leftand miss.

Back home the sampaguitasdry in an earthen dishleaving the scent of warmbrown palms that offeredan extra garland forBuena Mano.

Marjorie Evasco [Pemia]( Kamao: 1983)

Through all this evolution, the mainstream of Philippine literature continued to be in the nativelanguages, and then in Filipino, the evolving national language. A romantic strain continued in thework of poets and novelists who explored idyllic rural life and the sentiments informing familiar andpersonal relationships.

PANATA NO ISANG BALO

Itinutulak ng bibig,kinakabig ng dibdib.

May isang babaing kababalo lamang,na isa ang anak sa kinabaluhan,palibhaaa’y bata, maganda’t mayamankaya kay-rumami ng nag-aagawan.

Ngunit sa tuwinang may ligaw na akyat,di man sinaaadya, luha’y nalalaglag;

at kung inaaliw ng bawat kausap,lalong sumisidhi ang lungkot at iyak.

Anya: “Maginoo, ako’y patawarin,ang pag-aaaawa’y wala na sa akin,anak ko na lamang yaring mamahalin,kaya ma’nong ako’y inyo nang lisanan...”

Dapwa, pagkaalis ng panhik na ligaw,pasusuhing anak ang inuulayaw:“Ay!” anya, “anak ko, kawawa ka naman!


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Di ba ibig mo nang magkabagong tatay?...”

Malungkot ang balo pagkat napag-isa,katapat na lunas ang maging dalawa;kung bawat magsabing ayaw mag-asawa’ypaniniwalaan… ang lahi’y lagot na!

Lope K. Santos, n.d.

OATH OF A WIDOV

What the mouth givethe heart takes back

There once was a widow recently bereavedwho had only a child in her widowed grief.But since she was still young and lovely and wealthysmall wonder that many fought to woo her, you see.

But whenever whoever came over to woo,unwanted or not, her tears would come too.and whenever whoever tried to cheer her with talk.she would just grow sadder, cry harder and choke.

Said she: “Dear sir, forgive me, I plead,This wish to wed is no longer my need;my child is now the only love I know,so please, dear sir, please leave me, go...’

And yet, once whoever would wed her would leave,To her suckling child she would openly grieve:“Ay!” said she, “my child, poor child so sad!Don’t you want to have a brand new dad?”

The widow, poor widow, was so sad in a lonelinesswhose only true cure was conjugal togetherness,If we believed everyone who to marriage said no,what hope for our race —oh no, oh no!


While Santos wrote in monorhyming dodecasyllabic lines, Magdalena Jalandoni of lloilo wrotein sixteen-syllable lines, in the rima perfecta that llonggo poetry had adapted from Spanish verse.

ANG GUITARA

Ang nahut niyang magagmay nga daw bulawan kasiliMalulu kon mag-ambahan nga di sa punay magdulag...Sa takna sang kagab-ihon, ang tunog niyang hamiliDaw taghoy nga ginatuaw sang balatyagon nga pili,Daw hinay nga hibubun-ot sang nagtangis nga kalag...

Kay ayhan sa kasingkasing sang gakuskos nga tag-iyaMay unay nga kasulub-on nga dili didto makakas,Kay samtang nga naglanton ang tagsa ka nahut niya


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Wala sing dili mawili sa pagpamati sa iya,Wala sing dili bumatyag sing kasulub-on nga lakas.

Magdalena Jalandoni, n.d.

Its slender strings that are bright as goldSing tenderly as a wild dove.

In the night hours, its elect voice Js like the plaint of a precious feeling,Like the slow sigh of a soul in tears...

For perhaps in the heart of the strummerLies a deep sorrow that cannot be undone,And as each single string is singing,No one can help but listen, enchanted,No one can help but feel the strong grieving.

Translation by D.G. Fernandez(Fernandez: 1973)

Romantic love was a predominant subject in vernacular poetry explored by Amado Yuzon inPampango, lluminado Lucente in Waray, and Manuel Fuentebella in Bicolano.

Buri cu abalu mu ngeni’t qng capilan pa manqng ica palsintan daca sucad ning bie cung ingatan:icang musa ning pluma cung sasamba qng mal muag leguan,icang bie na ning pusu cung titibuc qng capalsintan;tegulaling cu ngan queca caladua cu at catawananting tapat mung carame qng ligaya’t casaquitanburi cu qng abalu mung macanian dacang palsintan

capitlas daca qng bie cu’t batuin qng paintungulan.

From Amado Yuzon, “Buri Ku King Abalu Mu,”[I want you to know]

(I want you to know now and foreverThat I love you as much as I do my own life;You are the muse of my pen which worships your beauty,You are the life of my heart which throbs with love:I have dedicated my whole self, body and soul,As your devoted companion in joy and in pain;I want you to know that I low you in this way,

As a part of my life, as the star of my future.)

Translation by E. Zapanta-Manlapaz(Manlapaz: 1981)

AN HIGUGMA

Matahom nga mulayan han atong kasingkasing,Kay amo an kalipayan nga at’guin bibinilingNga kulaus nahatag hin mga katam-isan,


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Balitaw ha adlaw-gab-i danay pag tinagisan.Han aton kinabuhi amo ini an tuyoKay kon waray higugma, waray man pagmayuyo;Ugaring an higugma kay diri maparalit....Linupad, linupad ngan diri na mabalik.

Iluminado Lucente, .n.d.

LOVE

Beautiful plaything of our heartIt is the happiness that we are ever seekingAnd though it seems to offer sweetnessYet there are days and nights when it makes us weep;Of our life love is the reasonFor if there is no love, neither is there joyBut since love is not to be bought....Away it flew, away it flew, and it will nevermore return.

Translation by V. Salazar (Luangco: 1982)

LUHANG MAPAIT

Luhang mapaitAn sakuyang kaulay-ulayKun dai ko ika nakikitaSa sakong kahampang,Maski natuturogSa ogma nangingitoroganPigtitios ko man girarayAn simpil kan tionay

nin lipongawMadya mahamis na dahilankan sakong kasakilanUya simo naghahalat an sakong

kamogtakan.Madyata sarong

pagkukundimananSa linabyog nin duyanAn lawgon mong langitnon

ay maykabinian.

Manuel T. Fuentebella, n.d.

BITTER TEARS

Bitter tearsAre with whom I converseWhen I do not see youBefore me. Jn my sleepAnd in joy I dream,Yet J sufferThe pang of the pains of


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loneliness.Come, sweet causeOf my suffering,Here awaiting youIs my heart;Come, for I shall singIn the rocking of my hammockOf your heavenly face

so gently sweet.

Translation by L. Realubit(Realubit: 1983)

The reatistic mode that had begun in Rizal’s novels continued in stories, novels and poems thatwere critical about society and analytical aboutFilipinocustoms and manners. In later years, this grewinto a social realism that confronted squarely the problems of society—and especially of the masses—infiction that refused to stop at mirroring and insisted on involvement. A landmark work was the shortstory anthology, Mga Agos sa Disyerto (Waves in the Desert), 1964, in which Efren R. Abueg, Edgardo M.Reyes, Eduardo Bautista Reyes, Rogelio L. Ordonez and Rogelio R. Sikat brought Philippine fiction intothe age of modernism.

Sila’y isang batalyon ng mga alipin, higante ang katawan ngunit ang ulo’ykatiting, kalarawan ng isang malapad na gusaling may sunong na bola. Katawanang puhunan nila sa pakikikalakal. Alipin sila ng pangangailangan kayatluluhod sila sa isa pang kaalipinan upang matugunan ang hinihingi ng unangkaalipinan. Iaalay nila ang kanilang buong puhunan kapalit ng karampot nalimos. Hindi alam ng nakararami sa kanila ang mga karapatan nila bilang mgamanggagawa, ang ilang nakakaalam ay wala ring tinig pagkat maging sa templong katarungan ay salapi ang pinakikinggan.

Sila ang mga anak-pawis.

(Introduction to Chapter 3, “Ang Mga Anak-Pawis”)

They are a batallion of slaves, with giant bodies and tiny heads, each lookinglike a wide building crowned by a wrecker’s ball. Their bodies are their capitalinvestment. Slaves to their need, they kneel at still another slavery in order tofeed the first bondage. They offer all they own, and receive miserly alms inreturn. Most of them do not know their rights as laborers; the few who knowhave no voice anyway because even in the temple of truth, only money is heard.

They are the children of toil.

(“Children of Toil”)Translation by D.G. Femandez

Sa bawat latay, kahit aso’y nag-iiba. Sa unang hagupit siya’y magtataka. Sa ikalawa,

siya’y mag-iisip. Sa ikatlo, siya’y magtatanda. At sa ikaapat, humanda ka!

(Introduction: Chapter 14, “Sa Bawat Latay”)From Edgardo M. Reyes, Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag , 1966

After each welt, even a dog changes. At the first lash, he is surprised. At thesecond, he begins to think. At the third, he marks the blow. After the fourth,beware!

(In the Claws of Light)Translation by D.G. Femandez


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Alejandro G. Abadilla, on the other hand, fought against social and artistic conventions, insist-ing on “sincerity” and “the real self. His experimentation with free verse (as against the traditionalrhyme and meter ofTagalog poetry) prepared the way for its acceptance and use by later poets.

akoang daigdig

akoang tula

akoang daigdigang tula

akoang daigdigng tulaang tulang daigdig

akoang walang maliw akoang walang kamatayang akoang tula ng daigdig.

From Alejandro G. Abadilla,“Ako ang Daigdig,” 1940

iworld

ipoem

iworldpoem

ipoem’sworldworld’spoem

iendless ideathless iworld-poem


The poets who followed them learned from both the romantic and social schools, as well asfrom T. S. Eliot, Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yennan Forum”, the imagists and symbolists, the LatinAmericans and other trends in literature of the East and the West. It is among those writing in Philippine


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languages that one hears especially strongly the strains of current reality, protests against poverty andinjustice, and a sensitive understanding of the waves of Philippinehistory and the strata of Philippinesociety. In their mother tongues we hear the voice of conscience, concern and commitment.

Jose F. Lacaba, bilingual poet, addresses political corruption with rural indirection and urbanirony:

HALAW KAY SU TUNG-P’O

Kung rnay ipapanganakang dasal ng pamilyakaraniwa’y ganito:“Maging matalino sana.”

Sapagka’t ang buhay ko’ywinasak ng talino,gusto kong ang anak ko’ylumaking tanga’t gago.

Sa gayon ay magigingtahimik ang buhay niya,at sa kanyang pagtanda’ymaging senador pa.

Jose F. Lacaba, 1971

FROM SU TUNG-P’O

When a boy is bornthe family’s prayerusually goes like this:“Let’s hope he’s smart.”

Since my own life’sbeen wasted by wisdom,I want my childto grow up stupid and dumb.

And so he’ll growto live a quiet lifeand when he’s olderbecome a senator, who knows.


Don Pagusara, Cebuano poet, singer and former political detainee recalls in poetry an experi-ence that was more than real to many writers of the 1970s:

PAGHIWAGAS SA BILANGGOAN

KasingkasingNga nahimong tangkalUg gilaminganSa mga pangandoy


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PagbatingKanunayng gilawganSa mga kahingawaUg mga kalaay

NahipugwatMitimbakuwasMiiktin sa tumang kalipay

Sa dihang milanog ang sangpitSa ginadamgong kagawasan

Kalit natuklasAng ganghaan ning dughanUg milugwa sa babaAng katawang nagkadagma-dagmaSa lumo sa dila

Don Pagusara

LEAVING PRISON

Heart.That grew into a cageThat kept inThe birds of desire

FeelingThat must always feedOn anxietiesAnd sameness

StartsGets up

Dances in utter joyWhen it hears echoing the callOf longed-for freedorn

The gate of this breastFlies openAnd from the mouth fallsLaughter, stumblingOn the tip of the tongue.

Translation by S. Dumdum( Ani: December 1987)

Peter La. Julian writes in llocano and English about the children of Negros, many of whomstarved or suffered severe malnutrition when the falling of world prices displaced sugar workers.

ETIOPIA IDlAY NEGROSNGEM SAAN A NEGROS ITI ETIOPLA

I.Natikag a daga ti EtiopiaUmay la ti tudo kalpasan ti siglo


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Sadiay saan ng agtubo dagiti mulaDagiti ubbing a masaksakit ken

kannayonA mabisinan napukawda ti timekdaAgpakpakaasi dagiti limnek.A matada.Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbingTi Etiopia.

II.Nalangto a daga ti NegrosGagangay ti panagbayakabaknaNatalubo sadiay dagiti mulaAdu ti makan ngem

masaksakitKen mabisbisinan dagiti ubbingTapno adda sangapinggan nga

innapuyA matgedanda.Limnek dagiti matada nga

agsarsaritaMaipapan kadagiti baknang iti

pagilianda.Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbingTi Negros.

ETHIOPIA IN NEGROS BUT NOT VICE VERSA

I.Ethiopia is barren countryRains fall once in a centuryThere food crops do not thrive

And the children, diseased andalwaysHungry, are stony silent.Their sunken eyes pleadFor mercy.Ethiopia is a joyless worldFor children.

II.Negros is green countryRains fall in torrents regularlyThere food crops thrive wellBut the children, diseased and always

Hungry, must work hardFor a plate of rice.Their sunken eyes speak eloquentlyOf the filthy rich in their

country.Negros is a joyless worldFor children.

Peter La. Julian( Ani: March 1987)


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Emmanuel Lacaba started as a talented university poet writing in English, bringing to a focus in“highly complex, allusive, hermetic, obscure” poems his courses and readings in British, American andEuropean poetry. In 1970, like many other young writers caught up in the nationalist movement, he notonly began to write increasingly in Filipino, but also took to the hills. When he was killed in Davao delNorte in 1976, he was 27.

PAGDIRIWANG

ISa Todos los Santos, Pasko’t Bagong Taon, ang mga magulang,

mga lola’t lolo,Mga tiya’t tiyo, mga hipag, bayaw, kapatid, pamangkin, at mga anak ko,Silang lahat, ay magkakalumpon sa harap ng puto, ginatan, at biko.Sandaling tahimik. At may magbibiro: “Saan kaya ngayon nagtatago

ang lolo?”

IISa pista ng bayan kulang ang pagkain sa sobrang pagmahal ng mga

bilihin,At sa kaarawan madaling maubos ang biniling pansit sa dahon ng saging.Bale-wala ito sa mga bisitang dating kasamahang pangiting hihiling:“Mas mahabang buhay sa kanilang lahat na nakikibaka sa bukirin!”

IIIDito sa bukirin: may kapistahan din sa piling ng masang naliligayahanSa ating pagdating, mga mandirigmang kasama sa gutom, ginaw,

karukhaan.Dito sa bukirin: dilim tinitiis kahit magdantaon upang bawat arawSa kinabukasan maging pagdiriwang, kulay at liwanag, awit ng tagumpay.

Emmanuel Lacaba, 1975

CELEBRATION

IOn All Saint’s Day, Christinas and New Yenr, my parents,

grandmothers and grandfathers,Aunts and uncles, in-laws, brothers, sisters, nieces,

nephews and my children,All of them huddle in front of puto, ginatan, and biko.A moment’s silence. Then someone quips: “I wonder where

grandpa is hiding now?”

II

During the town fiesta, the food runs short because ofrising prices,

And during birthdays, the pansit wrapped in bananaleaves quickly runs out.

This doesn’t matter to the guests, old friends who wishand smile:

“Long live those who struggle in the fields!”

IIIHere in the fields: there is celebration in the embrace

of the masses,


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happy for my arrival, warriors together in hunger, cold and poverty.Here in the fields: Even the darkness of a hundred

years is borneso the suns of the future become celebrations,color and light, the song of triumph.


Ramon C. Sunico has a background in philosophy, literature, art history and book publishing.He started to write poetry in English because that was how he had learned poetry, then in Filipinobecause that was what he spoke and how he felt, and now writes (sometimes the same poem) in both,representing the contemporary poet to whom both languages are natural, speaking equally of his selfand his surrounding reality.

ALIEN BILANG GUTOMHunger is a presence not an absence.

Araw-araw nararamdaman mong may namimisang itlogsa kalawakan ng iyong sikmura:

May sariling buhay. Kumakalam. Kumikibo. Gumigising.Dahan-dahang kumakapit sa napapaunat mong tadyang.

Sa tanghali, maririnig ang pagsipsip niya sa katas ng iyongsigla. Inuubos ka ng kanyang walang tigil na pagnguya.

Namimilipit ang gabi sa kapit ng kanyang sipit at sa talimng kanyang tuka,

Tataba siya habang numinipis ang iyong balat,

Alam mo naman ang mangyayari: kung hindi sumabogagad ang hapdi at dugo, pupungay ang mata mo. Mauubosang iyong hininga.

At kapag wala nang makain pa, maghahanap siya ng rnalili-patan at iiwanan kang patay.Alam mo naman ang mangyayariAt wala ka nang magagawa.

ALIEN AS A METAPHOR FOR HUNGERHunger is a presence not an absence.

Day by day you feel an egg hatch inthat void you call stomach:

Animate. Alive. Simmering. Waking to its own needs.Slowly it clings and makes your rib twitch.

At noon, you can hear it sipping your life away.Its ceaseless gnawing consumes you. The night writhesIn the clutch of talon and pointed beak.

It grows fat and your skin turns transparent.


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You know what will happen: if there is no sudden burstof blood and pain,your eyes grow soulful. Your breathgrows short.

And if it still lacks food, it will find another hostand leave you empty.

You know it will happen and there is nothingyou can do.

Ramon C. Sunico, 1988

Tomas F. Agulto is both a fisherman from Hagonoy, Bulacan and a published and prizewinningpoet. In this poem to his wife, the traditional expression and sentiment vibrate with current reality.

LIHAM SA KAARAWAN NI PINANG

Pinang,ito’y isinlat ko isang gabingako’y kinukubabaw ng masidhing pangungulila.Ngunit hindi mananaig ang panlalamigpagkat sa katauhan ko’y nagliliyabna araw ang pananalig.Magiting na pagbati sa iyang kaarawan, mahal.Ang pagpupugay ko’y apoy na igatongsa inyong pagdiriwang.Marahil sa loob ng dambuhalang pabrikasa piling ng ating mabubunying kasama,maalab ang hapag ng samutsaring talakayan.may tamis at anghang sa dulang ng katotohananna sa kaarawan mo ay pagpipigingan.

Ngayong ako’y kinukurot ng kalungkutan,naguguniguni ko ang mga balikatmong kaakbay ng sikap at pawis,kinasasabikan ko ang maaliwalasmong mukhang punong-puno ng pag-asa.

Kailan ko kaya muling mahahagodang mga buhok mong ipinusod ng pakikihamok?Kailan ko kaya muling masisilayanang mga binti mong pinatatag ng alikabok?At kailan ko kaya muling makakaakbayang mabubulas nating kapanalig?

Nakararating dito ang magagaindang balita:nabalik na pala aa puwesto si Ka Amado,nasunod na pala ang walong oras na pagtatrabaho,nagtaas na rin pala ng suweldo.

Mahal, tulad ng ating inaasahan,Sumuko na sila sa ating mga karaingan.Ngayon tayo’y pinagbuklod ng unawa’t pagmamahal,wala nang puwang ang pag-aalinlangan,wala nang puwang ang kataksilan.Nasa matatapat nating puso ang kinabukasan,


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nasa mulat nating kaisipan ang tagumpay.nasa mga manggagawang tulad moang karapatan ng layang mabuhay.Itinatangi kita, Pinang.Tanggapin mo ang nag-aalimpuyong pagpupugaymula rito sa inaanay na bimbinan.

Tomas Agulto ( Kamao: 1987)

LETTER ON PINANG’S BIRTHDAY

Pinang,I write this on a nightweighed down by loneliness.But the cold cannot conquerbecause in me burnsthe sun of hope.I wish you courage on your birthday, my love.Let my greeting be as kindlingfor the fires of celebration.Perhaps inside that monstrous factory

among our exalted comradesthe plant floor crackles with the wealth of ideas.One tastes both sweetness and spice at the table of truthbefore which we celebrate your day of birth.

Now, pinched by sadness,I can imagine how sweat and toilhang heavy on your shoulders,I miss the hope that fillsyour unmarred face.

Who knows when I can once more strokeyour hair now knotted up for the struggle?Who knows when I can once more gazeat your legs now hardened by dust?And who knows when I can once more laymy arm on the shoulders of sturdy friends?Good tidings reach me here,Ka Arnado is once more in place,we now have an eight-hour day,And yes, there’s been a raise in pay.

My love, as we had hoped,They have given in to our demandsNow we are one in understanding and love,

there is no more room for hesitation,no more room for treachery.The future depends on our faithful hearts,And in the clarity of vision, our final triumph,the right to live freelydepends on workers like you.You are special, Pinang.Accept these whirlwind greetingssent from the holding house of dreams.



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Ruth Elynia S. Mabangio is concerned both with creative writing and the development of lan-guage. She writes in Filipino, in the voice of a woman/citizen.

KILALANIN ANG BAYAN KO

Kilalanin ang bayan ko.

Langhapin ang hanging nag-uugoysa mga dahon,lasapin ang timyaskung awit ng mga bagwisang inililipad.

Masdan ang kanyang rnga bundok, parang,ulap na kay lambot.Damhin ang tibok ng katiwasayangnakababad sa karimlanghaklis lamang ng tubig ang humahalihaw.

Lakarin ang kanyang mga tuwidat liku-likong landas.Pumupusag ang buhaysa nayon man at siyudad...

Tuklasin ang puno’t dulong kanyang sanga-sangang dila.lhambing ang wika sa mga salita:

Tagalog, Bisaya, Bikol,

Waray, Panggalato, Iranon, Iloggo, lvatan, Kapampangan, Isneg, Ilokano, lbanag, lgorot, Maranaw, Tausog, Magindanaw,Tiboli, Bagobo,

at marami pang iba.Marami pang iba.

Bago mo sabihin kung siya’y kilala...

Ruth Elynia S. Mabangio, 1986 ( Ani: I:3)

GET TO KNOW MY COUNTRY

Get to know my country.

Smell the air that rocksthe leaves


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Savor the sweet songsof wingsthat beat.

Watch her mountains, fields,her soft clouds.Feel the pulse of peacesteeped in a darkness

pierced only by the splash of water.

Walk her straight,her winding ways.Town and countryquiver with life...

Discover the steam and leafof her branching tonguesCompare languages to words:

Tagalog, Bisaya, Bikol, Waray, Panggalato, Iranon, Iloggo, lvatan, Kapampangan, Isneg, Ilokano, lbanag, lgorot, Maranaw, Tausog, Magindanaw,Tiboli, Bagobo,

and so many others.So many others

Before you say you know her…


Philippine literature today continues in English and even in Spanish, but especially in thecountry’s own languages. Oral forms of literature continue their social function in cultural communi-ties. Poetry and fiction are being written in Cebuano, Tagalog, llocano, llonggo, Pampango, Waray,Bicolano and the other vernaculars—very actively in some, in a waning mode in others where there areno publication venues. Writing is most lively in Tagalog, Cebuano and the evolving Filipino.

Philippine literature, in all its languages, is in constant and cogent contemporary use: in class-rooms; in handwritten, passed-on drafts and in print; on radio, television and film; in song, dance andtheater; in written and oral expression; in many forms and languages; in various settings and for a

myriad purposes—its past, present and future coexisting in the national context.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abueg, Efren R. et al. Mga Agos sa Disyerto [1964]. Manila: National Book Store, Inc., 1974.Abueg, Efren R., ed. Parnasong Tagatog ni A. G. Abadilla [1949]. Manila: M.C.S. Enterprises, 1973.Almario, Virgilio S., ed. Walong Dekada ng Makabagong Tulang Pilipino . Manila: Philippine Education Co., Inc., 1981.Ani, Literary Journal of the Cultural Center of the Philippines . Tomo I, Marso 1987; I, 3, September 1987; I, 4, December 1987.Baltazar, Francisco. Florante at Laura [Text of 1875 ], Anthology of Asean l.iteratures: Philippine Metrical Romances . Manila:

ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, 1985.De Castro, Modesto. Pag Susulatan nang Dalauang Binibini na si Urbana at ni Feliza na Nagtuturo ng Mabuting Kaugalian .

Manila: Imprenta y Libreria de J. Martinez, 1864.


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Dumol, Paul Arvisu. “Kabesang Tales”, Sagisag , I, 3, Hulyo 1975, 19-38.Eugenio, Damiana L. Awit and Corrido: Philippine Metrical Romances . Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1987. ____________. ed. Philippine Folk Literature, An Anthology . Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Folklore Studies

Program and The UP Folklorists, Inc., 1982.Fernandez, Doreen G. “Ten Hiligaynon Poems: Translations and an Introduction.” Philippine Studies 21 (1973) : 187-205.Gener, Teodoro. Duplo’t Balagtasan . Publications of the Institute of National Language, VI, 8, June 1948. Manila: Bureau of

Printing, 1949.Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña. Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910 . Quezon City: Ateneo de

Manila University Press, 1979.Javellana, Rene B., S.J. Casaysayan nang Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin na Sucat lpag-alab nang Puso nang

Sinomang Ba basa, with an Introduction, Annotations and Translation of the 1882 edition . Quezon City: Ateneo do ManilaUniversity Press, 1988.

Jesus, Jose Corazon de. Sa Dakong Silangan . Manila: P. Sayo Bookstore, 1947.Joaquin, Nick. Collected Verse . Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1987.Lacaba, Emmanuel. Salvaged Poems . Manila: Salinlahi Publishing House, 1986.Lopez, Salvador P. Literature and Society, Essays on Life and Letters [19401]. Manila: University Book Supply, 1961.Luangco, Gregorio C., ed. Waray Literature: An Anthology of Leyte-Samar Writings . Tacloban City: Divine Word University

Publications, 1982.Lucio y Bustamante, Miguel. Si Tandang Basio Macunat . Manila: Imp. de los Amigos del Pais, 1885.Lumbera, Bienvenido and Cynthia Nograles-Lumbera. Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology . Manila: National Book

Store, 1982.Lumbera, Bienvenido L. Tagalog Poetry 1570-1898 . Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1986.Manuel, E. Arsenio, recorder and translator. Tuwaang Attends a Wedding . Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press,

1975.Mojares, Resil B. Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Study of the Novel Until 1940 . Quezon City: University of the

Philippines Press, 1983.

[Pernia], Marjorie Evasco. Dreamweavers . Manila: Editorial and Media Resources Corporation, 1987.Postma, Antoon, S.V.D. Treasure of a Minority . Manila: Arnoldus Press, 1972.Realubit, Maria Lilia F. Bikols of the Philippines . City of Naga: A.M.S. Press, 1983.Reyes, Edgardo M. Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag [1968]. Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1986.Rizal, Jose. The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal . Translated by Nick Joaquin. Manila: Far Easten University, 1976. ____________. El Filibusterismo . Primera Reimpresion en Filipinas de la Edicion Principe Publicada en Gante, Belgica, 1891.

Quezon City. R. Martinez & Sons. 1958. ____________. El Filibusterismo . Translated by Leon Ma. Guerrero. London: Longman Group Ltd., 1965.Salanga, Alfrredo Navarro et al, ed. Kamao: Panitikan ng Protesta 1970-1986 . Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1987.Sunico, Ramon C. The Secret of Graphite: Poems in 2 Tongues . Augsburg: Maro Verlag und Druck, 1989.Torres, Emmanuel, ed. An Anthology of Poems 1965/1974 . Manila: Bureau of National and Foreign Information, Department of

Public Information, 1975.Villa, Jose Garcia. The Essential Villa . Manila: Alberto S. Florentino, 1965.Zapanta-Manlapaz, Edna. Kapampangan Literature: A Historical Survey and Anthology . Que

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