Sa pag-uyat kang bolpen,
Yu are hidden
Kay ginlumos mo ang kaugalingon
Sa imo gahikahos nga emosyon.
Hindi kita maintsindihan,
Because samtang ginapasulat
Ikaw timo sagi paiprat
Sa imong Accounting aklat
Kay sum-an daw ti alas-otso
May malaba nga theory exam kamo?
Feel mo, ikaw kasagad kaayo
Kay napalibug mo ang hinu-hino
kang wide readers mo.
But the truth is,
Sila lang gali ang gintando-tando mo.
Go home kag magpahuway
Ikaw nga sa printed paper gamhanan,
Kay ang matuod nga poetry
Hindi teri-testingan
Kang imong kaumangan.
Untati ang hinampang,
Sipal sa silid-aralan.
- Junnie Vee D. Hongco
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1 comment:
The strength of this poem lies in its innovative use of three languages, English, Filipino, and Hiligaynon. The line mmost illustrative of this would be "sa imong Accounting aklat"
which uses the three languages in a fresh way without sounding corny/ deranged. The whole poem somehow succeeds in this verbal jugglers art.
The theme of the poem as the title suggests is a poet struggling with how to "prioritize" in the double life that he leads, both as an Accounting student and a literary adventurer, In fact parts of the peoms are soliluquys of the persona castigating himself and baring his inferiorities ("...ang matuod nga poetry/Hindi teri-tistingan/kang imong kaumagan") The poem is an Ars Poetica, meaning a poem dealing with themes about the art of poetry, its form, structure, function, the agonies of writing it, etc...
The poem's opening has very Romanticist views of a poem and the poetic process "ginlumos ang kaugalingon s imo gahikahus nga emosyon" which is one way of saying that the poem is a "spontaneous overflow of strong emotion." It sayas here that as the poet picks up the pen, and as the strong emotions kick in, he then takes glances at the Accounting textbook, in which he has a major exam the next day. Because of this he feels confused leading the persona-in-soliluquy to declare that "Hindi kita maintsindihan" (i prefer maintiendihan)
The next stanza for me bears the most meat in the poetic discussion of this poem. Herein the poet declares that he feels powerful because "napalibug mo ang hinu-hino/kang wide readers mo." Like other Arts, we value a reaction in our readers, this line would imply not a mere confusion caused in the minds of the readers but that the poems of this persona has spurned the readers into thinking about the things that they themselves can glean from reading the poem.
The twist of the third stanza comes in the next line "But the truth is,/ sila lang gali ang ginatando-tando mo." Here the poet is shown as a "liar" the age old Platonian complaint about poets. Plato always feared that the poets are irresponsible/ are not able to be responsible for the words they write about. Here the poet is shown not only as a liar because he represents "falsity" of reality in the words of the page, but the poet is an actual lying SOB, a HUKBALAHAP who has gone on extorsion sprees after the Japanese have gone, a dirty lying schmuck. Haha, the idea of the evil poet! Not a poet full of Garcia-Lorca's Dark-but-not-evil duende power, but an actual evil conjurer of false ideas and images. An idol-maker, a reality-rapist, a Photoshop artist thinkering with your grad pics! Haha!
But before the evil side of poetry is unleashed, the "good" side of the poet comes out and stops the destruction of the universe as we know it. He scolds himself telling the evil poet-self to go home and magahuway (or go home and plant kamote") and that the evil-poetself is not practising "real poetry" which has no place for his "dumbness".
The Accounting student side of the persona then says Untati ang hinampang, sipal sa silid-aralan.
the last line is especially true. First, the "real" and "good" poet-self is the Accounting student, who one day will pass the board exams get a hefty paycheck to feed the rest of him. This might be an ego-response to the id. Secondly, that the practice of "evil" poetry, that poetry wherein the poet writes lines that mean nothing to him (hinampang, sipal) is intrinsically evil.
But wait there's more!
There is no such thing as "evil" poetry. A poem seeks its reader, meaning the reader can derive meaningful ideas/concepts/Kantian aesthetic ideas from any poem, giving the poem in itself a certain validity as an organism.
Its like this. A son born out of an "evil" and "illegitimate" relationship is not evil per se. That judgment should be left his effect on other people. Just like a poem, even if the poet has bad intentions, he cannot manipulate what meanings we derive from his work. The poem once written on paper is an organism with its own life. So poets take care to give it the proper genes for survival.
Rodelen Paccial
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