Haribol Suralista: April 22, 2007

Villanelle I

Posted by Jai Jesus Uy Borlagdan Friday, April 27, 2007 comments (0)

Sain hali an diklom kan kahewasan?
Sa kawaran ki liwanag buda lawas
An buta kong kalag nakamaan duman.

Liwanag sa diklom, ihurma an bulan
Malipot na rarom an púro iluwas
Digdi hali an diklom kan kahewasan?

Sa isla kan itom mong alinawnawan
Mamundo sa tahaw kan dagat na gatas
An paha kong kalag minahigop duman.

Sa dungo mong duwang kuwebang istaran
Kan ermitanyong parong, hangos na halas
Minakamang an diklom kan kahewasan.

An ngirit kan yukyok mo an inarugan
Kan palatawan kaining planetang layas
An gadan kong kalag minaladop duman.

Digdi sa hapot ika an kasimbagan
Sa simbag iyo man an walat na ngalas
Simo hali an diklom kan kahewasan
Ilabto ko an bilog kong kalag duman.

Abril 2, 2007. Karanggahan.

Translation:
Where is the source of the darkness of space?
In the abscence of light and form
my blind soul is looking there.

Light in the dark, molds the moon
warmthless depth producing the pure
is this the source of the darkness of space?

In the black isle of your pupil
sorrowful in the midst of a sea of milk
my thirsty soul drinks from there.

From your nose which are pair of caves home
to an hermit scent, snake of breathing
crawls the darkness of space.

The smile of your armpits are imitated
by the water where these wild planets float
my dead soul dives there.

To this question you are the answer
in the answer you are the awe which is left
The darkness of space comes from you
I dip my entire soul there.

Radhana II

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Pag-ipurupot niya an halipot niyang kugos sakuya
mga enot niyang pagpahiling ki pagkamoot o pag-uli
ki pagkamoot, irasay an sadiri sa pagtubod na padaba ko siya
sasalohon ko siya, dai ko siya papaduoton sa daga,

garo may sarong bayong
na sa kadlagan haluyon na buhi
an bigla na sanang tuminugdon
sa sakuyang kamot, dawa daing taon
muyang magpalaom.

Abril 11, 2007. Karangahan

Translation:
When she curls her short embrace around me,
her first revelations of love or a way of returning
love, sliding herself with a belief that I love her
I will catch her, I will not let her touch the earth,

there seems to be a bird
which in the forest has been free for a long time
which suddenly perched
on my hand, even without bait,
wanting to be caged.

An litrato mo kan aki ka pa

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Garo lingaw na an agang ini
kan sa may gate nilitrato kamo,
ika, pinsan mo, tugang, subrino,
arakion pa, dai pang luha.
Dumingo ini, sa reparo ko.
Ta nakasanli kamong pansimba.
Tibaad magayunon na aga.
Sa saindong tuhod nagkakamang
an nag-aarikarik na sildang.
Nakaulok an duwa mong pinsan

sa wala. Si Maine buda Angela
na garo toodon sa kamera.
Sa tahaw si Bibol buda Potsi
magkakaputan, garo mahibi
sa paghalat sa linti kan lente.
Ika buda si Ramil an balanse
sa too. Nakahiling sa gilid,
dai tood, ining subrino mo
pahungukon. An akbay mo pugol

ngani matapos na ining kua.
Garo napipiritan ka sana.
Apuwera sa duwang nasa wala,
mga kalibangbang kamong layas
na nilaog sa kwadrong salming.
Bako kamo tood na mapundo
an hiro nindong daing hingalo.
Tibaad ginabot sana kamo
mantang nasa kawat ki bukudan.
Muya na nindong dumalagan.

Sa litratong ini nahiling ko
an kapunan kan saimong gayon.
Panuon ki diklom, an mata mo
may apod na garo nambubutong.
An hiling mo magabat sa dakol
na tago buda muyang itaram.
Kun nakapaghalat sana kuta
su sibot na pitik kan kamera,
nadakop kaini su paabot
mong ulok na haluyon mailuwas.
April 14, 2007. Karanggahan.

Radhana I

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Kun ipalibutan ninda
garo na siya an tahaw
kun sain nakatindi an lubid kan gabos
na naglalataw sa kahewasan.
Garo dai sindang buhay
kaipuhan nindang humagad saiya.
Kaipuhan nindang mahiling
kun ano an masunod niyang gigibuhon.
Garo gabos na gigibuhon niya
enot na mangyayari.
Pagminakanta siya, an nakadangog saiya
duman pa sana nakadangog ki kanta.

Ano siya pintuan
kun sain an milagro
kan satong pigpangiturugan
minaluwas?

Arog baga kan saiyang mata
na dai pa tatao magtipwas,
garo bako kami an naggibo saiya.
Sain siya hali?
Ta nahigop niya an kolor
hali sa oras na mauli na an aldaw.

Nahihiling ko an kaogmahan
na naglalangoy sa sadit niyang lawas
riraw garo mga salog ki liwanag
nagbubulos pasiring sa dagat
na uulian kan rogado tang kalag.

Pawa. 2006.

Translation:
The way they crowd around her
is like she has become the center
where the strings of everything floating
in the vastness is pegged.
As if they don't have life
they need to beg from her.
They need to see
what she's going to do next.
As if everything she'll ever do
will happen for the first time.
When she sings, those who have listened to her
have just heard a song for the first time.

Is she a door
from which the miracle
of things dreamed
steps out?

For example her eyes
which does not know yet how to avoid.
As if we are not the ones who made her.
Where did she came from?
For she has absorbed the color
of the hours when the sun is going home.

I can see bliss
swimming in her small body
clear like a river of light
flowing to the sea
where our tired souls will return.

An Kasal

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Tigsik ko an pagkamoot na daing sukol
kan baybayon buda kan hukol
na dulot kan pandakupan
kan kinaban buda bulan

Kaya kita digdi daing pagbasol
sa inako tang daing kasagkudan
hanggan sa nagbabalik an hukol
hanggan sa nagbibilog an bulan

2007. Pawa.

Translation:
The wedding

I toast a love without measure
between the waves and the shore
which is caused by the pursuit
of the earth and moon

That's why we are here without regret
about the never ending which we had accepted
as long as the waves return
as long as the moon becomes full.

On Borlagdan's Poetry

A Rush of Metaphors, Tremor of Cadences, and Sad Subversions
By Tito Genova Valiente
titovaliente@yahoo.com

The first time I read the poems of Jesus Jaime Borlagdan, Jimple to those who know him, I felt immediately the seething movement of the words. There was a rush of metaphors in his works. I immediately liked the feeling that the rhythm caused in one’s reading for poetry, in my book, should always be read aloud. I was hearing the voice. It was a voice that happened to sound from afar and it was struggling to link up with a present that would not easily appear.

It was heartbreaking to feel the form. I felt the lines constricting. I saw the phrases dangling to tease, breaking the code of straight talk and inverting them to seduce the mind to think beyond the words. Somewhere, the poems were reverting back to direct sentences, weakening the art of poetry with its universe of ellipses and nuances, but then as suddenly as the words lightened up, the poems then dipped back into a silent retreat, into a cave, to lick its own wounds from the confrontation that it dared to initiate.

For this column, I decide to share parts of the longer paper I am writing about this poet.

In Karangahan, the poet begins with: Bulebard, ikang muymuyon na salog/ki gatas buda patenteng nakahungko,/ako ngonian kahurona. Borlagdan translates this into:Boulevard, you forlorn river/ of milk and downcast lights/ speak to me now. Savor the translation, for in Bikol that which is a dialog has become an entreaty.)

The poet is always talking to someone but in An istorya ninda, an osipon ta, he talks about a the fruits of some narrative: Ta sa dara nindang korona kita an hadi/ sa krus, kita su may nakatadok na espada./Naitaram na ninda an saindang istorya./Punan ta na man su satong osipon./This I translate as: For in the crown they bear we are the King/ on the cross, with the embedded sword./ Marvel at this construction, as the poet cuts at the word “hadi” and begins the next line with “krus” and the “espada.” Marvel, too, at how he looks at conversion and faith, a process that made us special but also wounded us with ourselves stuck with the sword.

Finally, the poet says those lines of the true believer: They have already spoken their story, now let us begin with our tale. The poet does not have a translation but will the istorya in this line be “history” and osipon be “myth.” Shall these last four lines in the first stanza be both a subversion of our faith embedded in a foreign culture or a celebration of what we are not, and what we have not become?
Puni na an paghidaw. Puni na an pagluwas/hali sa kwartong pano ki luha, puni na/an paghiling sa luwas kan bintana./Puni na an paghidaw para sa binayaan./Puni na an pagsulit sa daluging tinimakan./Puni na an paghidaw sa mga sinugbang utoban. Terrifying lines as the poet calls us to begin the remembering and also begin the moving out from the room full of tears. In the poet’s mind, the lacrimarum vale or valley of tears had become an intimate area for instigating his own release.

The rhythm is there as in a prayer. But it is no prayer. There is the repetition but it is not a plea. There is the self but it is one that has turned away from itself into something else. That self is one that shall face the recollection of the faith that has been burned.

And yet the poet, resolute when he wants to, loves to sing and hint of fear and anxiety. Even when he is merely observing children playing in the rains, he summons images of terrible beauty. The skies become diklom na pinandon na “may luho” (with hole). From this hole, comes the sarong pisi ki sildang/ tisuhon na buminulos. The poet stays with this metaphor with such intensity that the silken thread coming from the hole justifiably becomes luhang garo hipidon na busay/paluwas sa mata/kan dagom. Dark wit and a penchant for the horrifying are tandem graces in these lines.

This is the poet who can, without self-consciousness, tell us of the …haya/kan mga ayam na namimibi/nakakapabuskad ki barahibo/nakakaulakit ki lungsi. He whispers of “halas na rimuranon, malamti/sa hapiyap kan mga bituon.”
This is a startling universe, where dogs pray (and bay), and where fears bloom and paleness afflicts and infects, and serpents are caressed by the stars.