 Paglikdo ko ha kanto tikang ha iyo balay, Lumos ako han alimwag han ilang-ilang-- An alimyon han im' buhok Pinapas-an ha ak' sugbong. That's the translation of my poem "Burden" that Voltaire did, sending me a copy through SMS. I couldn't have done a better job at it. Add Comment  Duha ka tambuburay Nagkakabaay Binaba han hangin Ha ak' kasingkasing Harapas han Ira mga pako  I thought it would be no hassle at all, when Joey and Voltaire called several months back to ask if I could judge in this poetry contest. And indeed it wasn't, if all we're talking about is the culling of entries to choose the best. And so when I got the thick envelope of thirty-six entries, each entry made up of five poems, I decided to make a shortlist from which to choose my top three entries. I ranked my ten shortlisted entries according to the number of noteworthy poems per entry. Surprisingly, three entries stood out for their five out of five outstanding pieces. The other seven shortlisted entries each had two out of five poems that were just as remarkable. I chose my top three for the writers' mastery of the craft, and their experimentation with the siday form. Picking the winner wasn't a difficult task, too, as the contestant's pieces displayed a vision and a voice that went beyond technical abilities. (I think my top three winners were also the other judges' choice, in that same order too.) This October 13, the Sinirangan Culture and Arts Development Center of the Leyte Normal University will award the winners of the first Pasidungog Eduardo Makabenta Sr. poetry competition. The top three are:
   Book cover of An Maupay ha Mga Waray An Maupay ha mga Waray ug iba pa nga mga Siday Voltaire Q. Oyzon NCCA and UPV Tacloban Creative Writing Program Manila, 2008 The good thing about the Waray is that they do not give up. Or, as Voltaire puts it: "Kun hinuhobsan inin akon dughan / sugad hiton medyahan / dayon ko ini inaalgan / didto kanda Mana Semang / (Mana Semang, ilista la anay)" [When the heart dries up / like this half-gallon jug / quickly I rush to Mana Semang's / to fill it up / (just put it in my bill, Mana Semang)]. This wry sensibility characterizes how the Waray copes with the tough life dealt to most. As long as there is tuba to go with life's vicissitudes the heart will still beat and "mangayat hin away" [spoil for a fight]. Perhaps that is why so many siday or poem in Waray deal with social issues. Tongues loosened by the tart taste of tuba, poets can spew the bitter in dribbles of sweetened lines some may consider as harmless nonsense. In the poem "Lagung" [Fly], for instance, Voltaire draws a picture of a fly that can only look on and drool at the food it cannot taste because the glass walls of fastfood joints, while providing an enticing gastronomic view, prohibit its entrance to "undesirable creatures." Like the fly and, by extension, street urchins who peer through the glass and "tutok / simhot / ... ha Jollibee, Dunkin' / di ngani Cindy's [popular fastfood joints in Tacloban] / ... hamot / laway" [stare / sniff / ... at Jollibee, Dunkin' / or Cindy's / ... smell / drool] at scrumptious meals patrons eat but which they can only look at or beg for until the service crew shoos them away. It is Voltaire's deft use of such images and situations that such harmless nonsense can contain scathing truths. In his "Kan Toytoy Pag-asoy han Agsob nga Karantahay ha Ira Balay" [Toytoy Tells About the Singing at Home], Voltaire shows how aesthetics and social commentary can go together in a poem about domestic violence. The poem describes how when the drunken father arrives home "naglulubay-lubay, / nagkikinanta han Inday, Inday [a popular Waray folk song] / diretso ini hiya ha kusina / manngungukab, / babagtingan an kardero, / mapakarakatak han mga plato" [swaying / singing Inday, Inday / heads straight for the kitchen / rummaging, / clanking pots, / jangling plates]. The wife's pacifying and soft alto, "baga'n kanan aghoy taghoy" [like a forest spirit's whistle], soon sings second voice to the husband's gruff complaints. Then, "... may malagubo, / bati han bug-os nga baryo, / hi nanay - napalsito" [a thud, / and the whole barrio hears / my mother singing in falsetto]. But it is not only Voltaire's skillful presentation technique that shines through in the poem. The aural play of onomatopoeic Waray words, the use of rhyme, and the counterpointing of the husband's bass and the wife's alto/falsetto complement the poem's descriptive narration and the delayed ironic twist in the ending. Merlie Alunan, who writes the book's "Introduction," is right indeed about Voltaire being at home in the Waray language: "He [understands] its nuances. Its tones and accents [echo] in his inner ear. He [is] at home with its rhythms. He can deal with its intricacies with the delicacy and finesse required by the poetic process" (9). And several poems in the collection reflects Voltaire's love for the Waray tongue. Rather than take a more strident but definitely less effective tone, Voltaire displays the same subtlety and humor in the use of language and images when he tackles the language theme. In "Nagbalyo-balyo Ako hin Nanay" [Changing Mothers], Voltaire effectively uses snippets of a Waray popular song to counterpoint the cultural effects of a colonial and/or linguistic hegemony. And parodying the Tagalog patriot, Marcelo H. del Pilar, who parodied "The Hail Mary" in "Ang Aba Guinoong Baria" [The Hail Money] to protest the greed of Spanish friars, Voltaire throws a gibe at the imperialism of the so-called national language in "Paghimaya" [Glory Be]. But even as Voltaire pays tribute to a heritage that is seemingly on the verge of extinction, his use of Waray is a testimony that the local tongue continues to flourish even as it confronts the onslaught of technological progress and the consequent homogenization of culture. In "Para han mga Pulong ha Waray nga Pinamatay" [For the Murdered Words in Waray], he turns quasi-scientific as he likens seemingly lost words in Waray to the dew that covers the earth every morning. But he also turns wistful and hopeful as he writes: "Ano an angay ta basolan? / Ano an angay ikabido? / Ha kalibotan, waray butang, / waray butang nga naaanaw" [What's there to regret then? / What's to feel bad about? / In this world, nothing, / nothing's gone forever]. Voltaire's collection - with poems tackling themes from the domestic and particular to the more universal in their very particularity - is, to use a perhaps rather outdated New Critical term, well-wrought indeed. In his use of linguistic and literary elements - folkloric allusions or appropriations of earlier literary forms and/or themes - coupled with a truly homegrown humor, Voltaire Q. Oyzon is an original talent worthy to be the heir to the Leyte-Samar literary tradition. Usa pa ka tagay [One more round]. (Note: Voltaire sent me a copy of his then newly-minted book and asked if I could do a review which he could send off to newspapers and magazines. It wasn't a chore doing the review since I had already written a short evaluation of the manuscript for the NCCA.) | ArchivesMay 2011 CategoriesAll LinksLogsFlickrTwitter projectChild's PlayAlerts  Intertextures - Poetry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Philippines License. |
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