WEARY, WEAK AND SICK IN AMERICA

     This physical sickness worries me. It's the flu caused by the Singapore virus brought in by son Rene who arrived in US with a cough and I caught it. I have been sick since arriving from that long trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona several days ago. For the first time in years, I can feel the weakening of my body. I can walk and go to the yard but this odd feeling always come back again and again.
    An old man getting sick and feeling useless in America. What is there to look for in the so-called land of milk and honey? The best is yet to come is just a figment of the imagination. Count the minutes and look outside the screened window for the low brown mountains of Menifee.And then remembering the translation days in Baguio--the Bible project, getting the Scriptures into the language of Amianan.
    A flicker of hope of recovery is probably better than a ton of worries.

Callaguip Girl

Amarillo, Texas

Snow on her hair:
A memory sans end.

AGDANIW NI PABLO NERUDA ITI ILOKANO

( An Ilokano translation of the Nobel Prize recipient's "The Saddest Poem")

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw.

Kas pagarigan, isuratko, "Nakarangranga ti rabii,

Ket agarigengen dagiti asul a bitbituen iti adayo."

Agkanta ti agrikusrikos nga angin-rabii iti law-ang.

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw,

Nagayatak kenkuana, no dadduma idi, inayatnak met.

Idi, tunggal rabii a kas iti daytoy, agpatpatnag
                                                     nga ar-arakupek,
Ag-agkak iti awan patinggana a langit.

Kasano nga awan agayat kadagiti naulimek
                                  ken mangnibinibi a matmatana?

Narnuoyan iti bituen ti rabii, awan ti imnas iti sidongko.
Pampanunotek nga awan iti dennak ket aglimduak
                                                    ta napukawko.

Denggek ti mangliwengliweng a rabii nga ad-adda
                 nga awan patinggana gapu iti kaawanna.
Matnag ti daniw iti kararua, kas iti pannakatnag ti linnaaw
                                                           iti daga.

Diakon ay-ayaten ti imnas idinto a dinungdungngok.
Biroken ti timekko ti pul-oy a manglalailo
                                                 kadagiti lapayagna.
Addanto sabali a mangtagikua kenkuana. Ay, addanto
    a kas iti panangtagikuak kadagiti agekna, ti timekna,
ti nalap-it a pammagina, dagiti saan a malansad a matmatana.

Dagita amin. Iti adayo, adda agkanta. Iti adayo'
Agtawataw ti kararuak ta awan ti imnas iti sibay.
Biroken dagiti matak, kasla iyasidegda kaniak.

Sapulen ti pusok ngem awan ti imnas.

Isu met la a rabii puoranna dagiti puon ti kayo.

Dakami, wen, dakami, Saankamin a kas idi.

Gapu kadagidi rabii, kas itoy, inikutak kadagiti takkiagko.

Uray no daytoyen ti maudi a saem nga impalayna kaniak
Ket daytoy metten ti maudi a daniwko para kenkuana.

Grandchild Marga Denise de los Santos Julian

DEFILED MIND, DEFILED LIFE AND CORRUPT BODY

    To following quotation is from a red notebook that the blogger--a former government information officer and correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer-- used to write and jot down gists of interviews of people including politicians:

     "Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is a found of action, life and manifestation; make the fountain pure and all will be pure."

Grandchild Margarita Denise in Panagbenga attire in Baguio City

 

Grandchildren Christian and John Philip

Gilbert bridge over the Padsan River in Laoag City, Philippines