POEMS IN "UMAYKA MANEN, GANGGANNAET/COME AGAIN, STRANGER"*

Today Arrives The News About The Fall of Doloroso Dans

1.

it's a wet morning, but a promise
of sun lingers on the glass panes.
the room is too small for these
public men dissecting omissions
of the boss now gone to nowhere
to celebrate alone his fall. (was it
the absent magazine message
that triggered his disaster?) we are
like conspirators revising the plot
in some alleyways dark with hate
and violence: a, brutuses recreating
caesar's gory death. no matter. the
joy is ours now and we shall jot
in our diaries this day of victory.

2.

basil valdez on tape wails out a song
of love sans end, (requiem to a dead
rat?) the waxed floor is littered with
crumpled tissue papers and cigarette
butts. the rubbish can wait, sings
the janitor baring a set of tattered teeth
as he joins in the banter and the laughter
(ha-ha-ha, the fetters broken?)

3.

indeed, this people's domain needs
cleansing cream, new manners, new
minds that, in pursuit of the sun, shall burn
the night with liquid fire of gods and high
ambitions. no more ruins to tread
this mid-noon of our separate lives:
swan song has been sung and the recorder
is broken forever. (did he not know, did
not the cabal that fed him with parables of
lies hear the funeral songs of gentle souls?)

4.

the typewriters are silent, the whir
of electric fans lost in the cacophony
of sounds. like cattle loosed from a coral,
we excite the air and our voices reveal
kinship with roman assassins. no matter: this
joy is ours now. permit us these stupidities
for just this day for soon our ship shall move
again and blaring trumpets shall in distant
shores announce our arrival.

SIAK

Siak ti sagibsib:
     Ti nakabutbuteng a sampaga
     Ti umuna a Basol.

Siak ti nagulib:
     Ti nangdarugsoy
     Iti lubong
     Iti gura
     Iti lua,

Siak ti napaidam:
     Ti nangilemmeng
     Iti katawa
     Iti isem.

Siak ti Judas:
     Ti nangakas iti manto
     Ti Panagtalekna kaniak.

Siak pay ti Longhinos:
    Ti nangbriat
     Iti bakrangna.
Ket pimsuak ti Darana
Ket pinugsatko ti Angesna.
     Kasano nga ugasak
     Ti bagik, ti kararua
     Tapno isarangko ti rupak?

Lettatenyo ti paragpagko.
Derderenyo ti laslasagko
Ngem uray kasano.
     Uray patapokendak
     Agbitinto latta
     Ti lua.
     Ti dung-aw
     Ta inaramatyo
     Ti igam
     Ti sipnget.

     Ania ti pangdayas
     Iti basol ti lubong?
     Ania ti pangikkat
     Iti langeb
     Dagiti saibbek?

     Datayo met laeng
     Ti krus.
     Datayo met laeng
     Ti Suno
     Ti kalbario.

*Anthology of Ilokano and English poems with introduction written by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, director of the Ilokano program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

DUNG-AW 1*

ti sallapingaw agtayab

uray no matnag met

     ammo ti nakatugaw iti trono

     ammona amin

ngem apay a saan nga agkuti

     idinto a madayyegen

     daga dagiti agpalpalama

     daga dagiti tagabu

     daga dagiti mananggundaway

     daga dagiti aglablabonan

     daga dagiti mabisbisinan

     daga dagiti maidaddadanes

     daga dagiti balangkantis

     daga dagiti balimbing

     daga dagiti loyalista

     daga dagiti korista

     daga dagiti komunista

     daga dagiti demokratiko

     daga dagiti aktibista

     daga dagiti huramentado

     daga dagiti politiko

     daga dagiti mestiso

     daga dagiti bago

     daga dagiti nagabito

      (a masansan a bumaba

         iti pulpito)

     daga dagiti nasingpet

     

     daga dagiti nadulpet
     

     ay, ti telon ti anarkia
     ay, ti telon bumabbaba
     ay, ti telon lumabbaga
     (ama, kaasiannakami
      ama, talliawennakami)

     piman ti sallapingaw
     piman nga agkatangkatang
          iti tangatang
     ay, ti aligagaw
     ay, ti tabbaaw
     ay, ti sennaay
     ay, ti am-amangaw
     dinto agsardeng
     ay, dinto agsardeng
     agingga nga isu
     nga agpampanunot
     sipatenna't mugingna

     pagallabatenna't pispisna
    ket tumakder
     iti nagtugawanna

     ngem inton isuda a nagbandera
     aramidenda nga armas
           dagiti iggemda?

*Nairaman iti "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger", antolohia dagiti dandaniw nga Ilokano ken Ingles a putar ni Peter La. Julian, mannurat ken periodista. Adda introduksion nga insurat ni Apo Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, coordinator of the Ilokano program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

RESURRECCION

Ilokano fiction by PETER LA. JULIAN

You and your cousin were walking down  a narrow village path. You were in colored cotton dress, a woven basket full of green mangoes on your head.

It was late in the afternoon and the sun was behind the trees in the hill where you picked the tropical fruits.

"Darasem, darasem, amangan no masalamaannata ida, " your 10-year old voice cracked when Helen fell behind by several steps. She, too, was carrying a basket full of mangoes. You could hear her inhaling and exhaling as she struggled with her load

You were in a hurry and now and then you looked back. You were alert to the sounds from the clump of bamboos that line the narrow path.

Your breaths were heavy even as you egged on Helen to walk faster. The nipa hut you have evacuated two weeks ago was still half a kilometer away.

Japanese soldiers had arrived in town and made their headquarters at the Central Elementary School in the poblacion. The garrison has deployed patrols of two or three soldiers in khaki uniform in the major streets and in the countryside.

It is them that you and your cousin were avoiding to encounter. These soldiers with sabers carried guns were known to be brutal and you were not sure those sakang who raped women were kind to young girls like you.

Months earlier in Manila, a radio operator from Laoag who worked at Mackay Radio and Telegraph in Binondo received news for the wire services about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. Soon after, the Japanese Imperial forces were in Manila and the provinces.

Suddenly, in the distance at the bend of the road, you saw shadows of the dreaded kempeitai. They have seen you and they were running toward you, and you turned back and embraced your cousin and you both cried and screamed and screamed. (Adda tuloyna)

WANDERLUST*

1.

This looking for the pot of gold, this looking
For the rich gentleman, this looking for the young 
Years in Darayday, Santa Maria, Gabu, Daurao
This looking for another shore, another home
Is it looking for what is not there?

2.

In Honolulu, did the sun rise in the west?
Did you see the full moon at noon? Or did you look 
  for the bitchy word
Or was it Baguio's naked shadow in the garbage dump
  at a backstreet in Waimanalo?

Was the ghost at Helekulani on the beach in Waikiki
  a memory of the white sands in Saud in Pagudpud?

3.

What did you say to him-- the huge Polynesian in rumpled
  coat-- who begged for a dollar
As you stepped out of Dimsun after gorging on noodles
     in the late hour?
Or did you see the grease man stretching his arms for alms
On the pavement beside the church along Quezon Boulevard?

(Did you bar-hopped with your buddies from the old country?
Where were you? The Honda Civic waited for you near
 a lamppost until the moon closed its ancient eyes in Keolu.)

4.

And what did you say to her who greeted you, a smile breaking
Her Oriental face, as you jabbed at eggplants, okra and ampalaya
Among Asian greens at Dong Phoung's Texas grocery store?
Did she make-believe you were the cousin lost in the Tet offensive?

It was a day the word was made flesh and you laughed teary-eyed
As she babbled on, her strong verbs galloping like wild horses

     from the great plains of Amarillo to San Francisco by the bay.

5.
Jot down anything that comes to mind, says Rickly Lee, echoing
     Julia Campbell the American writer.
So what did you write in 15 minutes on the three-ruled pads?
Nothing. Silence has afflicted the brown brains--the poet is dead
In the vast wonderlands --and death is interred among the bones
     of dried words.

6.

The TV was on, and the hairy bad man was cursing, son of a bitch,
we are in terrible danger, damn it, damn it. And the wife was lying
Flat on her back on the bed, her eyes covered with round slices
 of cucumber fruit.
In the east room by the window, Juanjuan was by his lonesome Playing Cordillera lullaby on his green-painted bamboo flute.

7.

No more are the snows under the pinewoods, oakwoods
And so are the icy mornings and cold evenings at Medi-park
Where dwell a thousand white ducks and flying multi-colored geese
Now agitated as the black man throws bird food upon the water.

8.

Stop it! Stop it! Was the Caucasian lady in red jogging pants      screaming?
Was she terrified at the camera aimed at a grove of pine trees
               she was passing by?
Or did you hear a hound dog barking in nightmarish dreams?
Or are you again counting the stars in Sagada, multiplying your
    sorrows seeing the bathers in the polluted waters of Pasig?

9.

Whatever, my friend, arise from the bench, and walk again 
the narrow path home where waits the New York Times' best-seller.
It is a must read tonight while brown men toil, their hue turning Bloody red in the sun in the sad country of shattered windows
   and broken dreams.  

     
* Included in the expanded edition of the anthology of Ilokano and English poems, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger."

Last Mass Pinoy Migration and the last of the sakadas (inset) in Hawaii

IN THE TIME OF THE HOLOCAUST*

*This is the final version of the poem included  in the anthology of Ilokano and English poems, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," with introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

(after reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy)

go to another country

where the moon is a meandering river

the sun a flight of birds in a sky of utmost blue

it is a season when papayas are in bloom

but the tree is a barren woman in the spring

of her life--gone are the stars in her eyes

it is a season of harvest, but the farmer, crying

in the shed, is at rest--his work animal

has long been dead

an old man is walking on the beach

strewn with ashes and burnt fish

it is sunset, but the voices of urchins are muffled

the landscape is bereft of sound and life

it was a year without the typhoons and the rains

and death is alive in the silence 

where once stood the green forest

go to another country

where the sun rises in the west

and the moon weeps at sunrise.

and we? we shall search the ruined cathedrals

comb the mountain city that perished in flames

and finding none, we shall descend to the grand

canyons of memories.

DUNG-AW III/LAMENTATION III*

during the reign of the wife whose husband was gunned down at the tarmac

Lagipen ti koro iti kanta ti taga-Cabagan:

     Alejandro, Ferrer, Olalia,

     Lota, Aquino, Karingal.

      Iraman iti listaan daydi diputado

      a Puzon nga i-Cagayan.
     Awan pilien ti kumpay--
     Sinno pay ngata ti isarunoda?
     Agkaiwara't tanem ti pungtot.
     Natingra man ti nailimog a dara
     Dagiti karayan a nagpartianda.
     Ay, nuang ngata ketdi
                      dagiti ngurongorenda!
     Mano pay nga annak ken inna
                      dagiti ulilaenda?
     

Masarakan kadi krokis idiay Nicaragua?
     Chile? El Salvador? Argentina?
     Indonesia? Vietnam? China?
                      Wenno idiay Cambodia?

   Wenno ukagen ti daan a kasuratan:
   Agpagungganto dagiti danapeg,
   Garaigi dagiti kabalio ti hustisia
   Ta ikaro ti pagilian
   Ti adu a pannakikamalalana.

    Iti panawen ti adu a mangiturong,
    Di mabilang a rienda, sekseken ti sungbat
     Kadagiti sao nga ubbaw, tabbaaw
     Ken am-amangaw?

     Ikallatik ti samiweng a kinantada idi iti edsa:
     "Ilik a baludda, anian a pannakadusa
     Arapaapko a naan-anay a siwawayaka."

*Nairaman iti napabaro nga edision ti antolohia dagiti dandaniw nga Ilokano ken Ingles,"Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again Stranger." With introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, director of the Ilokano program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The author of  the collection, Peter La. Julian, and Dr. Agcaoili originally came from Laoag City in Northern Philippines 

DUNG-AW II*

Parparipirip kadagiti kurkuranges
Dagiti testamento iti tammidaw ti kararua
Iti panawen dagiti dakes nga angin
Kadagiti basingkawel a dominado ti bileg
Nga adda bagyo uray awan ti bagyo,

Dagidi imkis iti sipnget agipatakderda met
Piman kadagiti baton-lagip ti kinarukopda.

Pinuoranda pati dagiti templo a binangonda
Idinto nga isudan ti agbasakbasak iti daga.

Pinanawanda dagiti sirmata ken bang-i
Ken langto dagiti birhen nga agsapa,
Saandan nga ammo ti sang-aw ti temtem,
Nalipatandan ti makabiag a dayag ti malem.

Adda idadanon iti nagkurosan, agtuloyto
Pannakaikur-it dagiti napasamak ti kalsada
Uray mabalinto latta nga umel dagiti libro
Iti rikna ken panunotda idiay Sarrat, Batac,
Laoag ken uray idiay Pikit ken Victoria,

 Agsisimparat met ti historia:
Iti laksid ti amin, dagiti bannuar isuda dagiti
Nagbati a nanggamulo iti daga, dagiti bannuar
Kinnan dagiti igges dagiti mortal a sakada.

Isuda a nangiturong iti rienda, adda met napintas
A balikas a maagsaw kadagiti pinutarda.

Anansata, mabaliwanto a masisip met dagiti sirib
Iti agnanayon a kopa, uray apagbiit la a mapukaw
Ti waw ken pagungganda, ngem ti nasaksian
                                                           ti kararua
Maysa a daniw, nalagda dagiti nginabrasna,
Ta isu ti pagaw a pimmanaw idi simmiplag ti allawig,
Saan a mabilang nga am-amangaw.


*Included in the anthology of Ilokano and English poems, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," with introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, coordinator of the Ilokano program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"There is a great deal of un-mapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms."--George Elliot