Haribol Suralista: January 29, 2012

Pirmi kang Yaon

Posted by Jai Jesus Uy Borlagdan Friday, February 03, 2012 comments (0)

Magtubod ka sako, dai ka man "nababayaan" tamili yaon ka sa bulod o sa kun sain na dai nai-mapang isla. Nasa lambang tawo an axis, an ekwador, an sentro kan saiyang kina'ban, magtubod ka sa kalag. Pirmi kang yaon.

Kalag X

Posted by Jai Jesus Uy Borlagdan Wednesday, February 01, 2012 comments (0)

Haloy ko nang mati na wara akong kalag. Napapalibutan ako kan mga diyos na dati kong pigturubudan. Luway-luway na sindang napapatos ki lapat, an puting telang isuklob sa mga gamit na dai na gagamiton o isasaray na haloy na panahon. Sa estado nindang ini ki pagkabura, mas nagiging riraw an saindang katotoohan para sakuya. Siring sako, mga bagay na binayaan ki kun anong kamugtakan. Inisip, hinurma, niluwa kan mga darakulang makina sa tsina; kinaag sa mall, kun sain prinesyuhan, umento ki diit mala ta luminos, sinamnohan ki mga pandagka; nabakal, binuwisan, rinesibuhan, duminelehensiya; dinara sa simbahan, pinabenditahan, pinabanal; ikinaag sa altar, pinatentihan, inutuban, inatangan, hinagadan, ipinantakot sa karaotan, naglaad sa kadikloman; inalpog, linapat, nilingawan, binayaan. Dai ko pigdududahan an kamarayan pag nagluluhod buda nag hahagad ki tawad sa mga kasalaan, ugaring kun may babalikan man ako sainda ngonian, aram kong mala ta dai na akong ibang aram na dumanan. Dai na akong ibang aram na tutubudan. An mahaldat na digwa nagbabalik sa sakong halunan. Pigpapaso an gabos na maagihan. Arog kan namit kan kalayong sa haloy na panahon iyo an naging rason ko ngani an sarong diyos maging sarong pangangaipo.

Pebrero 1, 2012. Karangahan.

IKANG DAI

Posted by Jai Jesus Uy Borlagdan Tuesday, January 31, 2012 comments (0)

Daing aldaw na dai

ikang dai, ta dai nang aldaw

kundi bilog na panahon nang

yaon ka sa mga hanapon

sa gabos na gibo an pirmi

dai nahahaman, paabot na

balak, dai nag-aabot, hidawon

sa barakalon an pirmi

dai narurumduman, kaipuhan

balikan, dawa an saudan tuyuhon

an dai natitimpla sa kusina, an pirmi

kulang ki namit, ugaring kaipuhan

baluon, tioson, halunon arog kan kadaklan

na adal, masakit man o masiram

sa dai malikayan tang kina’ban.

1/5/11. Tayhi. Papa.

POKUS

Posted by Jai Jesus Uy Borlagdan Sunday, January 29, 2012 comments (0)

Malisyahan mo sa mga parte kan pelikula kun sain igwang sarong dakulang bagay na mabuka, may matuga o kumprontasyon, pagluwas kan katotoohan, malisyahan mo an palibot na ipalabog kan kamera. Garo tuyo. Halos garo pagkaori sa buhay kan sarong muyang duplikaron an buhay. Irayo mo an maan sa muya saimo kan direktor na maanan mong maray. Dumuman ka sa diklom sa puro kan makahoy, o duman sa irarom kan patente sa ibong na harong. Sa mga nagkataon; sa mga dai tinuyo. Duman ka maghalat, duman ka magpahuraw, dai mo kaipuhan mahiling an sa hiling kan iba kaipuhan. Pirmi, an mga bagay na dai tinuyo an totoo.

Enero 28, 2012. Tayhi.

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.