HARIBOL SURALISTA

HARIBOL SURALISTA
Pag-omawon an Kagurangnan, an pursang minabusol kan sakong pluma. Haribol.

Dagat Ng Salamin



Taga-ganap lang ako ng mga anyo
na may katawan.
Kaya kong ibalik sa kalawakan
ang kanyang mukha,
dahil pag ako’y panatag, ako’y salamin.
Paano ako naging dakila?

Magsasalita na ako, makinig kayo.

Walang romansa sa aking dibdib,
wala akong laman kundi isda
at mga latong sumasayaw sa tipak ng bato.

Anong lalim ang ipinapahiwatig ng aking katahimikan?
Ang pusod kong asin at korales, daungan
ng mga kalansay ng nagaping mga barko.

Dala ang amoy ng mundo, humahantong
sa akin ang lahat ng tubig
upang umaklas sa mga baseyo
at humanap ng laya. Upang malambat
lang ng yakap ng dalampasigan.

Ngunit ano ba ang totoong nagmula sa akin,
ang totoong ibinigay ko,
ang aking awit, ang aking salita,
kundi ang kakayahang umako at mamutawi.

Sabihin niyo nang sa akin uuwi ang kulay ng langit
o magsusuklay ang buwan sa aking salamin,
subalit sabihin niyo ring ako’y isang pagluhang
nagbuo ng katawan
sapagkat ‘yan lang ang totoo,
iyon lang ang totoo.
*
*
*
*
Translation:
SEA OF MIRROR

I am the actor of forms
with bodies.
I can return the face of the universe
to itself,
for when I'm calm, I'm a mirror.
How did I become great?

I will speak, listen.

My breast is without romance,
I have nothing but fish
and sea weeds dancing on the shards of stones.
What depth is described by my silence?
My bottom of salt and corrals, terminals
of skeletons of defeated ships.

Carrying the scent of the earth, I am the end
of all waters
revolting from vessels
and seeking liberty. Only to be ensnared
by the embrace of the shores.

But what did really came from me,
what have I genuinely given,
my song, my words,
but the ability to accept and salivate.

You may proclaim that I am the shelter of the sky's color
or upon my mirror the moon combs
but you also have to say that I am the crying
which created a body
for only that is true,
only that is true.

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Karangahan Online

Karangahan Online
Karangahan: Pagranga sa Panurat Bikolnon. Kagibo: Jimple Borlagdan. Pinduton an ritrato para makaduman sa Karangahan

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.