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Pangasinan to observe non-working holiday on April 5

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, March 27 — It will be a special non-working holiday in Pangasinan on April 5 when the province will observe its 431st Foundation Day, dubbed as "Agew na Pangasinan".

This is provided for under Proclamation No. 103 issued by the Office of the President, signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochua Jr., in behalf of President Benigno Aquino III.

This is only the second year that the province is celebrating "Agew na Pangasinan" since after a research and study committee formed by Governor Amado Espino Jr. determined the official founding day of the province.

The finding of the committee headed by Atty. Gonzalo T. Duque, president of Lyceum-Northwestern University, that Pangasinan was constituted as a province or "alcaldea" under the Spanish crown on April 5, 1580 was adopted in a provincial ordinance enacted last year by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

With the declaration of the official founding day of Pangasinan, the province went on to celebrate its maiden "Agew na Pangasinan" on April 5 last year, in the province's 430th year.

A report of the Provincial Information Office said that this year's "Agew na Pangasinan" will again feature spectacular and historical events to celebrate what is called Pangasinan's "Golden Age".

The celebration reels off on April 4 with an array of activities like the "Parada na Dayew" featuring a floats depicting the different historical eras of Pangasinan, a commemorative program in front of the provincial capitol, the inauguration of the Asna Mini-Park and the unveiling of the Asna Monument, the holding of Asna Awards and Grand Ball.

Asna is the old name of the Pangasinan word "asin" (salt), from which the name "Pangasinan" (salt pan) was derived.

Other activities include the blessing of the Pangasinan Training Center, unveiling of a photo exhibit featuring the various heritage and tourism sites in the province, Oratorical Contest for high school students and the Countdown To Midnight and Fireworks Display. (PNA)

Source: Pangasinan to observe non-working holiday on April 5

Related news:

» P-Noy Declares April 5 non-working holiday in Pangasinan

» April 5 holiday for Pangasinan

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2 Pangasinan Poems: Gurgurlis ed Banua / Ghazal 57 in "A Kabaleyan's Thoughts" (Sunday Punch)

Landscape with Figures (1942) nen Carlos Bulosan,
impatalus ed salitan Pangasinan nen Santiago B. Villafania

PASEMPET lamet tatandaga’y bitewen ed biek-taew,
say awaran et niduman siplog na dagem ed kanonotan
ya sinmabin yalalig ira’y babuak-pataboy na taon iran aman:

sempetan ya pakalmoan na pasen ya abalang ed saray
signos na sansinakuban. Saray pugaro naandi la.
Saray nankarayan alingwanan... Sasalien ya nonoten so kanaway
tan sarama’y atiguay ed nababalang ya dalin
(pokepokel ed talba no iner inatey ira’y atateng tayon duka),
say panwawaywaya et asagmak ed ambelat ya alaal
na pabaing ed panaon diman.

Say banua et maruksa ed sinulmingan:
awaran: ngara’y totoo: palar na bilay:
amin ya arawin salinap a nginmeswa tan kinmiwas,
bebetagen to ‘ra’y kabkabat ya ngarangaran ya pinepe’y
maando ‘ran sangi pian say puso yakis to, “Say sempetan sananey ya ayaman,
kada kupbang paarap et kupbang paarap ed talon lasus ya taon
na impangekal ed katuaan…”

Aliwan dapit-sempetan
ed onan taniag a dalin, ono intaynan
ed amputin beyebey na dayat ya ombubuneknek ed baybay,
odino aron onlulukso ed saray ketegan na lakseb dia’d kamarerua,
bangta maawang ya tawir na bakal tan kaderal onteterak
ya bengatla para ed saray manbibilay tan labay da’y ompatey.

Say bilay et bayes ya salita. Kada too alingon imbalikas to’ya…

Inusar ed antikey a pilikula nen Christopher Gozum ya Surreal Random MMS Texts para ed Ina, Agui, tan kaamong ya makaiiliw ed sika : gurgurlis ed banua. Ginamoran na Ishmael Bernal Award para ed Young Cinema nen 2008 Cinemanila International Film Festival.


Pangasinan Ghazal 57

say amtak no awawas ak la’d sika
talampong ka ed sayan pililikna

agni naomas ed isip ko’y lupan
nipaet lan andi’y talang ed walna

ag nilikod so maabig mon waleng
amalayon ed siak ya aroen ka

anggano nilegias so palar tan dua
inmonung ak lapu’d pinabli taka

nipanon konon saksakey so oked
anta palawpaw iyan singa apa

agko naoynot ed nonot no anto
so masalamsam a yanlong ed sika

ghazal man iyan maralus ya ayat
manempey na panpilalek ko’d sika

Published in A Kabaleyan's Thoughts (Sunday Punch, 27 March 2011)

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Aristos with Ilokano translation by Ariel S. Tabag

For those who missed the Bannawag, 7 March 2011 issue.



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Mexican poet and novelist at the Philippine PEN

Philippine PEN will host a reception for Mexican writer Javier Sicilia during the General Assembly on March 26, Saturday, 5:00-6:30 pm at the Solidaridad Bookstore, Ermita, Manila.

Poet, essayist, screenwriter, and novelist Javier Sicilia was born in Mexico City in 1956. His poetry collections include Permanencia en los puertos (1982), La presencia desierta (1986), Oro (1990), Trinidad (1992), Vigilias (1994, 2000), among others. His poems are reflections of his Catholic faith and his understanding of Christian mysticism.

He is editor-in-chief of the magazine Poesía and director of the magazine Ixtus. He is currently a professor of literature, aesthetics and scriptwriting at the Universidad de La Salle de Cuernavaca.

In 1990 he won the Premio Ariel for best original story written for film. In 2009, he received the Premio Nacional de Poesía de Aguascalientes for Tríptico del desierto.

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Translations of 'Swansong of the sea' into Italian by Mario Rigli and into Arabic by Nizar Sartawi

Il canto di cigno del mare
di Santiago Villafania
(Traduzione di Mario Rigli)

Quella notte ho sentito il canto di cigno del mare
le erolalia (*) di amanti senza nome
che rubano paradiso ed eternità

è stato il grido di un uccello pellegrino
che ha punteggiato il silenzio della notte
ma i venti e le onde hanno sussurrato quiete

Ho aspettato il risveglio del giorno
ho sentito al di sotto il respiro della terra,
le palpitazioni della Via Lattea

poi Atlante ha mosso un dito
e rotazioni sono scaturite
e improvviso tremore
E il mare aveva le ali di uno tsunami!

La morte è giunta senza preavviso e ragione
a coloro che ascoltavano i salmi dell'oblio

e poi ho sentito il canto di cigno del mare
. . . e le grida di chi se ne è andato via.


(*) Erolalia è un termine coniato dal Dr. Robert Chartham nel suo libro la “La coppia sensuale” per definire l'insieme di gemiti, grida, suoni e sospiri che escono alla coppia durante il rapporto sessuale.


Swansong of the sea
By Santiago Villafania
(Published in the Manila Times / Sunday Magazine, 20 March 2011)

That night I heard the swansong of the sea
the erolalias of nameless lovers
stealing a heaven and eternity
there was a crysong of a pilgrim bird
that punctuated the silence of the night
but the winds and the waves whispered a hush
I waited for the waking of the day
feeling the breathing of the earth beneath
the palpitations of the Milky Way
then Atlas moved a finger and it came
the gyrations and the
sudden trembling
O the sea had wings of a tsunami!
death came without warning or a reason
to those who heard the psalms of oblivion
and then I heard the swansong of the sea
. . .and the crysongs of those who went away


أغنية البحر الوداعية
شعر سانتياغو فيلافانيا
ترجمة نزار سرطاوي

في تلك الليلة سمعت أغنيةَ البحر الوداعية
...أنّاتِ وغنجاتِ وصرخاتِ عشّاقٍ بلا أسماء
تسرق الفردوس والخلود

وشقّت سكون الليل
أغنية طائرٍ في طريقه إلى الحجّ لكن الرياح والأمواج همست بالسكون

انتظرتُ صحوة النهار
شعرتُ بأنفاس الأرض من تحتي
وخفقات درب اللبانة

ثم حرك أطلس أحد أصابعه وحيندئذٍ جاءت
حركات الدوران
وفجأةً رجفت الراجفة

آه، كانت للبحر أجنحةٌ تسونامية!
حضر الموت بلا نذير وبلا سبب
إلى أولئك الذين سمعوا مزامير النسيان

ثم سمعت أغنية البحر الوداعية
. . . والصرخات الأخيرة لأولئك الذين مضوا بعيداً

Translated by Nizar Sartawi

This poem rests uneasily between memorial and epic (I exhort you to go to Villafania's piece, from which this is an excerpt.) As a poem standing at the beginning of a longer piece, it exudes history and tradition, and, in particular, the invocation of the muse which is, for Villafania, going to be one of both destruction and transcendence: a kind of Christian paradox of life through death, or perhaps one of those Virgilian prefigurations.

What really stuns about Villafania's piece, however, is just the lyricism, completely unashamed good-sounding words strung together on a line, the exacting choices he makes so that the hard p and growling g come after the vowely "crysong" to rescue it from sentimentality. This is a piece whose excellence comes from making the difficult look simple.

There is more to be said about Villafania's epic reach, the way in which his narrative can effortlessly encompass both Atlas and the "palpitations of the Milky Way" (look at how that palpitation reduces down our galaxy to a little throbbing thing, a kind of toy for the poem to play with, a counter, almost on a checkerboard.) The way, in particular, a kind of circumlocution, a kind of epithet, merges seamlessly into the language: "stealing a heaven and eternity."

The theme of death as listening, death as coming to those who have paid attention, is just one aspect of the paradoxes that simmer just under the melifluous prosody here; one of the sharper points to notice is the way in which only the speaker himself emerges unscathed, Ishmael-like to tell the story having heard the "psalms of oblivion."

(from the Rhubard is Susan Review, April 25, 2005)

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World Poetry Day 21 March

Poets convey a timeless message. They are often key witness to history’s great political and social changes. Their writings inspire us to build lasting peace in our minds, to rethink relations between man and nature and to establish humanism founded on the uniqueness and diversity of peoples. This is a difficult task, requiring the participation of all, whether in schools, libraries or cultural institutions. To quote the poet Tagore, the 150th anniversary of whose birth will be celebrated this year, "I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing my instrument."

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
Message for World Poetry Day
21 March 2011

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Two Poems: A COUNTRY OF MY OWN & REKINDLED

A COUNTRY OF MY OWN

And I measured your symmetry
with a gaze or a look
every curve and every contour
or slope or a mountain that
I have conquered

I traversed your horizon
with just a blink of an eye
tamed and rode the four winds
galloping in your green stables

I crossed your rivers on carabao’s back
and lined the muses to know the secrets of your
first name and orient beginning

I learned your folktales and legends by heart
mythologized the loves and lives
of your sons and daughters in my verses
as if they were written a thousand years ago

I have lived to add colours, and lease of life
to your golden age and renaissance

I have lied a thousand times even more
for your histories to be heard
amongst your own people who are losing
their legacy and the salt of their tongue

you are within my grip Caboloan
Camelot of my imagination
you are the country of my own
right here in the province of my heart
when syllables palpitate like the breathlessness of turtledoves
where words are red wine flowing
like the blood in my myocardial arteries

let me hear once more the bamboo songs
the lover’s sonnets and serenades
the manag-anito and orisons o let me hear
even the silence of the hillocks
before I fall into my darkest night
before I soar into my dreadful flight

rise up Cabaloan and speak through my words
speak in your language dying for your rebirth
until your children learn to lend their ears

listen to the voice of their inmost selves
hasten to the quickening of their disquieted souls
speak before I give away my existence
and/or turn into a reed or a blade of grass


REKINDLED

There’s a rice-pounding song tonight playing
somewhere not to distant the hunter’s moon
bathe in all her glory unconcealing
the primeval dance of the gathering
where the reapers offer what they have sown
to the goddess of the earth and planting

I hear their silent chanting and singing
the last of the Tumatagaumen
with his uncouth and commencing
the rhythmic gyrations—the quickening
I see them all glistening flesh and worn
ere the embers consumed its own breathing

they touched me not softly with rememb’ring
this pagan ritual this primal passion
but the bardic voice within my being

there’s a rice-pounding song tonight playing
somewhere not too distant the reapers’ moon
will embrace my adamhood arising
they will hear me scream my
poems of hunting

Published in the Manila Times / Sunday Magazine, 13 March 2011

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CCP launches Ani 36, Disaster and Survival Issue

The Ani 36 cover depicts the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The eruption, which caused massive damage to Central Luzon and outlying regions, inspired creativity among the citizenry in harnessing resources that the disaster brought in its wake. The Mount Pinatubo havoc posed challenges that served as impetus for strategies of recovery and growth.

Pasay City – The Literary Arts Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) will launch Ani 36 on April 1, 2011, 7:00 p.m. at the CCP promenade. Ani is a publication that showcases the varied literary traditions in the country and the vibrant creative writing by Filipinos in other parts of the world. Ani 36, themed Disaster and Survival, has sections on prose, poems, children's literature, an essay on a CCP activity in response to a disaster in the regions, and art reviews.

The art reviews section is composed of three winning essays in a competition spearheaded by the Liongoren Gallery at the CCP dubbed Walong Filipina 2010: Sa Ngalan ng Kalikasan III from October 14, 2010 to November 28, 2010. Works outside the issue's theme are in the section titled “Malayang Haraya”.

“Ani 36 mirrors the writers' reflections on and responses to experiences in confronting disasters,” says Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., Literary Arts Division Director. “Although the works express untold suffering, destruction to life and property, nightmares and folklore, they also speak of courage and heroism, which inspire imagination, literature and art,” adds Beltran, the Ani 36 editor.

Ani 36 features the works of 43 authors namely, Angelo B. Ancheta, Rebecca T. Anonuevo, Mark Joseph Z. Arisgado, Edgar Bacong, Miguel Balboa D'Mendoza, Abdon M. Balde, Jr., Gil S. Beltran, Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., Catherine Candano, Ayn Frances dela Cruz, Jun dela Rosa, China Pearl Patria M. de Vera, Raul Esquillo Asis, Luis P. Gatmaitan, Genaro R. Gojo Cruz, Joscephine Gomez, Melanie Joy Gunio, Nestor Librano Lucena, Elyrah Loyola Salanga, Scott Magkachi Saboy, Perry C. Mangilaya, Shur C. Mangilaya, Francisco Arias Montesena, Wilhelmina S. Orozco, Will P. Ortiz, Melba Padilla Maggay, Loreli Pama, Ma. Christina Pangan, Jasmine Nikki C. Paredes, Chuckberry J. Pascual, Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin, Ian Rosales Casocot, E. San Juan, Jr., Priscilla Supnet Macansantos, Ariel S. Tabag, Christian Tablazon, Vincent Lester G. Tan, Ludwig Jan Tauro Batuigas, J.I.E. Teodoro, Enrico C. Torralba, Santiago B. Villafania, Nonon Villaluz Carandang and Bernadette Villanueva Neri.

Betty Uy-Regala is the managing editor of Ani 36 while Rommel Manto did the graphic design and layout.

For more details, please contact Betty Uy-Regala at 0906-2604175.

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The MAKATA, an online journal of Philippine and international contemporary poetry since 2001

from Pangasinan ‘Anlong’: Oral tradition into the 21st century published in Manila Times (Sunday Times Magazine), March 13, 2011

The Makata was intended as a multi-lingual poetry blog but would eventually become an online journal of Philippine and international contemporary poetry in 2000 when some of my online friends submitted their works for publication. Since 2001, half of the contributors of the Makata were foreigners.

Filipino poets/writers included: Leo Fernandez Almero, Estelito Jacob, Alexander Agena, Melchor Cichon, Maria Luisa Jalandoni, Rowan Canlas Velonta, Rolando Carbonell, Rodrigo de la Peña, Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, Lynette Carpio, Zig Carlo M. Dulay, Dennis Espada, Anthony Pabon, Joseph Reylan Viray, Ella Wagemakers, Niña Catherine Calleja, Phillip Kimpo Jr., Rey Tamayo Jr., Rachel Chan Suet Kay, Noel Malicdem, Kristina Cajipe, Jake Ilac, Camilo Villanueva Jr., Frances Angela Torrelavega, Roselier Levi Azarcon, Junelyn Delarosa, Raul Funilas, Lolito Go, Silvana Zapanta, Manuel Lino Faelnar, Kris Alingod, Ravelth Castro-Belicena, Noahlyn Maranan, Erwin Fernandez, Hazel Calventas, Mary Ann Cariquez, Florentino Lorenzana, Maria Carmina A. Reynaldo, Mark Angeles, Willie Bongcaron, Sergio Bumadilla, Jesamyne Diokno, Napoleon Resultay, Nelson Singson Dino, Alegria Imperial, Aliazer Abdurajim, Frederick Lim, Jen Macapagal, Wilfredo Villanueva, Angelo Ancheta, Michael Obenieta, Noel Sales Barcelona, Marie Bismonte, Jose Jason Chancoco (Bicol and Filipino editor) and more . . .

Foreign contributors included: Duane Locke, Christopher Mulrooney, Averil Bones, Monique Nicole Fox, Kevin Eather, David Sutherland, Erin Elizabeth, Judith Gorgone, Linda Dominique Grosvenor, Janet Buck, John Bryan, Eoin Dunford, Ashok Bhargava, Aurora Antonovic, Nick Zegarac, Keli Stafford, Srinjay Chakravarti, Bill Mitsuru Shimizu, David Zorc, Tyler Joseph Cusick, Ron Nhim, Pat Paulk, John G. Hall, John Faucett, C. W. Hawes, Christopher Major, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, G. David Schwartz, Robert Wilson, Janet Lynn Davis, Iliana Ilieva, Rositza Pironska, Tammy Ho Lai-ming, Luis Benitez, Stella Jones, Janaj Yanay, Silvia Favaretto, Bishnupada Ray, Christopher Barnes, Guillaume Berne, Eduardo Cong, Dawn Bruce, Afrah Al-Kubaisi, Cyril Dabydeen, Walter Ruhlmann, Arti Honrao, Arthur Leung, Yassen Vassilev, Mario Rigli, Munir Mezyed, Vijaya Kandpal, Marius Chelaru, Ryan Chakravarty, Daniel de Cullá, Ute Margaret Saine and etc. Read more...

Last of two parts: Pangasinan ‘Anlong’: Oral tradition into the 21st century

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Pangasinan Anlong: Oral Tradition into the 21st Century

Santiago B. Villafania

SONITO PARA’D MANANGALIN KAMARERUA

No nagnap la’y liwawa’d letakan
Marleng a sinmener so bilunget
Dengel mo so laineng na dagem
Ta agmo la naerel so bekta

Kabuskag na payak na kabuasan
Tan mapalna so asul ya tawen
Nengneng mo ira so ganaganan
Matalag a nanengneng ed kugip

Tan agmo panermenan pinabli
No melagmelagen ka’y karaklan
Wala’y ibilunget na mata ra
Dalanen da so kipapasen ta

No magmaliw lan dabuk so laman
No mangangga la’y agew ed banua


SONNET TO A PILGRIM SOUL

When the sun gilds the sky in the morning
And deep darkness makes a noble retreat
O hear the music in the air fleeting
For you can never recapture the beat

When the morning spreads her warm golden wings
And the sapphire sky is wordlessly deep
Look yonder and feast with your eyes the things
Which you seldom see in your dreamful sleep

Don’t you feel forlorn beloved pilgrim
If the world will mind your lowly a state
A time will come when their eyes will grow dim
And they too will fall on our self-same fate

An empty shell to decay into dust
When our days in the sun come into the past


The first half of the twentieth century is said to have been the Golden Age of Pangasinan Literature, but indubitably without succeeding in establishing Pangasinan as a popular literature. The emergence of umaanlong (poet) in the said period produced excellent poems written in the vernacular but only few were published. There was not even an anthology of poetry published in that period. Anlong was not the principal expression of our writers in that era.

The Pangasinan anlong or poetry was once predominantly oral: tumatagaumen and umaanlong performed poems. Often, it was accompanied by kutibeng (ancient guitar) and/or tulali (a kind of string instrument similar to kudyapi or lyre.) One good example of Pangasinan oral poetry was the Petek, a kind of poetic joust similar to the Tulang Patnigan of the Tagalogs. When the written form of poetry became dominant, oral poetry became unpopular.


I. Literary Influences & the Pillars of Pangasinan Literature

One of the questions writers get asked often is who their literary influences are. I will only talk about three major writers from Pangasinan who contributed into the development of our literature, but not necessarily the writers who influenced my writings.

Pablo de Guzman Mejia (1872-1934)
Mejia was a playwright, poet, painter and composer; the Father of Pangasinan Language, Prince of Pangasinan Poets and Balagtas of the North. Aside from his zarzuelas, Mejia was known for his Bilay tan Kalkalar nen Rizal (Life & Teachings of Rizal) written in verse form. He also translated Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios (Kaonoran kon Patanir) into Pangasinan. He founded the Awiran na Pangasinan (Pangasinan Academy of Letters) and became the editor of the publication Tonung (Uprightness) which lasted for a decade (1924-1934).

Another notable writer was Pedro U. Sison. He was a revolutionist, playwright and a poet known for his long picaresque poem entitled Bilay day Sisira ed Dalem na Danum (Lives of the Fishes Under the Water, 1939), a satire against or about the dirty politics of the political elite during his time.

Maria Prado Magsano (1893-1968) was a writer/novelist, editor of Silew (1936-1948) and Founder of the Pangasinan Courier. Magsano studied at the University of the Philippines as a “special student’. She was the first female teacher from Pangasinan who passed the civil service and taught at the Philippine Normal College (now PNU) for 20 years. In the 1930’s, she was active in the promotion of women’s rights when she became the president of a large women’s federation known as The Women Suffragists. She was a President Awardee for Women’s Rights in 1966. Most of Magsano’s short stories and novels were published in Silew and later in Sandi’y Silew, the vernacular section of the Pangasinan Courier. Her writings are said to have set the direction for old and new writers in Pangasinan. (Balon Silew 2004).

II. Literary Silence (1960s-1990s)

After Magsano, there was a paucity of published works and abrupt change in the literary environment of the province. Pangasinan was dying as a literary language. Though Pangasinenses speak their language with gusto, it did not help in giving it a greater literary standing. While it is true that English and Filipino put a check on the spread of Iluko it did not really help the Pangasinan position.

Dr. Ma. Crisanta Nelmida-Flores in her introduction to my book Balikas na Caboloan (NCCA, 2005) noted that, “In recent times, vernacular writers dwindled in number as more and more Pangasinan writers educated and exposed to foreign literatures and periodicals shifted to English.”

Thirty-five years before, Fr. Fidel of Amurrio wrote that, “Starting since the uprising of Serrat in 1816, Iloko settlers were coming to Pangasinan, especially to the barrios of the boundary towns. This gave origin to the strange phenomenon: many Pangasinanes gave up their language for the language of those who came to make a living among them.” (Pangasinan History and Literature, 258).

The literary silence was only broken after 30 years or so with the publication of the special issue of ANI (a literary publication of the Cultural Center of the Philippines) in 1992.

The dame of Pangasinan love stories and novelletes, Leonarda C. Carrera (Amor Cico) published her Matuan Panangaro as early as 1983 followed by Tongtong 1 & 2; and Short story writer Dr. Linda Andara (now Grubb) published her Gamal: tan arum ni ran antikey ya istorya in 2004. Both Carrera and Andaya also wrote poetry in Pangasinan language.

Eight years later, the Ulupan na Pansiansia’y Salitan Pangasinan (Association for the Preservation of the Pangasinan Language) was founded in Lingayen. The group adapted Magsano’s Silew as the official publication of the Ulupan and named it Balon Silew (New Light). Ulupan just celebrated its 10th year anniversary with the publication of an anthology of Pangasinan poetry and essays, and a children’s book.


III. The Poet Regionnaire

In his Nobel Lecture, Czesław Miłosz pointed out that “Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him.” But that is not the case for me who gave myself to this kind of avocation—that is, to writing poems in Pangasinan.

I started writing poetry in my native tongue in 2001, and relied solely on my mastery of the spoken language and instinctive phonetics to come out with my first poetic attempts. It was still patterned, however, after the manner of my contemporaries who wrote in English and Filipino. Although I tried to maintain a certain image of a poet who wants to revive the petrified state of the Pangasinan anlong.

Asphyxiated by the scarcity of outlets to publish my works, I resorted to seeking publications in the web and even created my own personal website Dalityapi to showcase poems in Pangasinan language. Part of Dalityapi is the Makata, intended as a multi-lingual poetry blog but would eventually become an international poetry journal in 2000 when some of my online friends submitted their works for publication.

Since 2001, half of the contributors of the Makata were foreigners. Filipino poets/writers included: Leo Fernandez Almero, Estelito B. Jacob, Alexander Agena, Melchor F. Cichon, Maria Luisa Jalandoni, Rowan Canlas Velonta, Rolando A. Carbonell, Rodrigo V. Dela Peña, Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, Lynette B. Carpio, Zig Carlo M. Dulay, Dennis Espada, Anthony Pabon, Joseph Reylan B. Viray, Ella Wagemakers, Niña Catherine Calleja, Phillip Kimpo Jr., Rey Tamayo Jr., Rachel Chan Suet Kay, Noel Malicdem, Kristina V. Cajipe, Jake F. Ilac, Camilo Villanueva Jr., Frances Angela C. Torrelavega, Roselier Levi G. Azarcon, Junelyn Delarosa, Raul Funilas, Lolito Go, Silvana Zapanta, Manuel Lino G. Faelnar, Kris Alingod, Ravelth Castro-Belicena, Noahlyn Maranan, Erwin S. Fernandez, Hazel Calventas, Mary Ann Cariquez, Florentino B. Lorenzana, Maria Carmina A. Reynaldo, Mark Angeles, Willie R. Bongcaron, Sergio Bumadilla, Jesamyne Diokno, Napoleon Resultay, Nelson Singson Dino, Alegria Imperial, Aliazer S. Abdurajim, Frederick Lim, Jen Macapagal, Wilfredo G. Villanueva, Angelo B. Ancheta, Michael U. Obenieta, Noel Sales Barcelona, Marie Bismonte, Jose Jason Chancoco (Bicol & Filipino editor) and more...

Foreign contributors included: Duane Locke, Christopher Mulrooney, Averil Bones, Monique Nicole Fox, Kevin Eather, David Sutherland, Erin Elizabeth, Judith Gorgone, Linda Dominique Grosvenor, Janet I. Buck, John Bryan, Eoin Dunford, Ashok Bhargava, Aurora Antonovic, Nick Zegarac, Keli Stafford, Srinjay Chakravarti, Bill Mitsuru T. Shimizu, David Zorc, Tyler Joseph Cusick, Ron P. Nhim, Pat Paulk, John G. Hall, John Faucett, C. W. Hawes, Christopher Major, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, G. David Schwartz, Robert Wilson, Janet Lynn Davis, Iliana Ilieva, Rositza Pironska, Tammy Ho Lai-ming, Luis Benitez, Stella Jones, Janaj Yanay, Silvia Favaretto, Bishnupada Ray, Christopher Barnes, Guillaume Berne, Eduardo A. Cong, Dawn Bruce, Afrah Al-Kubaisi, Cyril Dabydeen, Walter Ruhlmann, Arti Honrao, Arthur Leung, Yassen Vassilev, Mario Rigli, Munir Mezyed, Vijaya Kandpal, Marius Chelaru, Ryan Chakravarty, Daniel de Cullá, Ute Margaret Saine and more...

I joined the Ulupan in 2002 primarily because I wanted to know more about the older generation who wrote in my native tongue. I was the youngest member then and have already written most of the works that would eventually be ritualized in the pages of the Balon Silew. But I wanted more for Pangasinan poetry. I wanted to bring it out from its provincial root, beyond its borders.

I self-published my first book entitled Pinabli tan arum ni’ran Anlong (Beloved and Other Poems) in 2003 with just 1000 copies and also upon the encouragement of Jaime P. Lucas, the founding father of the Ulupan. Some of the poems included in Pinabli were sent to the NCCA for its UBOD New Authors Series which came out in 2005. I continued to write in both English and Pangasinan, joined poetry groups like Km64, Pinoypoets and online literary groups. It was during these times that some of my poems have appeared in local and international print and web publications: Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, ANI, Philippine Panorama, Sunday Times Magazine (Manila Times), Magnapoets, The Heron’s Nest, HaikuHut’s Short Stuff, Ygdrasil (Canada), Crimson Feet (India), In Our Own Words 1 & 2 (US), Picolata Review, MindFire, Crowns and Oranges: Works by Young Philippine Poets, Literary Apprentice, Ipu-ipo sa Piging, etc.

In 2007, with the help of the maverick Chief Commissioner of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), Dr. Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco and the president of Emilio Aguinaldo College, Dr. Jose Paulo E. Campos, I was able to secure a publishing grant for my second book Malagilion: Sonnets tan Villenelles. It is quite ironic that a work in Pangasinan was funded by non-Pangasinenses.

Malagilion was hailed by Cirilo F. Bautista as “a boost to Pangasinan literature”. He even encouraged me to send copies of the book to the National Book Development Board and Manila Critics Circle. That same year, it was selected as finalist for Best Book of Poetry in the 27th National Book Awards. My first and first so far for Pangasinan as there has never been a literary work submitted or nominated in the said award body.

In his Breaking Signs column in the Panorama, Bautista wrote, “This second book by Pangasinan’s leading poet today is impressive in both form and substance. Villafania has created 300 sonnets and 50 villanelles in his own language that attempt to reflect the primacy of native culture and return the poet to the central stage of social life.” And from that day on, I have always considered Cirilo F. Bautista as my surrogate father.

In 2009, a fellow Pangasinense and an indie filmmaker, Christopher Gozum produced and directed the first full-length film in Pangasinan entitled Anacbanua (or Child of the Sun). Gozum used selected poems from my two books as voice over narration providing concrete ideas and emotions to the cinematic images presented. Again, I wanted more for Pangasinan poetry. I wanted to bring it out from its provincial root, beyond its borders but Christopher Gozum has elevated the Pangasinan anlong into visual poetry so to speak. Anacbanua had its World Premiere in the 11th Cinemanila International Film Festival and won the Lino Grand Prize and Best Director Award for the Digital Lokal category.

Pangasinan poets in the 21st century will not emerge from the fossilized remains of their literary past, because they or we do not have one to look back into. Rather, the Pangasinan poets are a paradox, distinct and unique like the rare kind of epiphytic plants that have been pushed on the verge of evolution and virtually disappeared. Like these epiphytic plants, they will thrive in a different time and place bound by a collective instinct and determination to survive until they will evolve to produce a seedpod for poets who will write Pangasinan poetry as easily as speaking the language.

And to end my short talk, let me share to you F. Sionil Jose’s email to me, “I am sure that in the future, Pangasinan, Zambal, Pampango will die and will be taken over by Tagalog and Ilokano which, in a sense, are stonger because they have more people speaking them. This is a fate that is inevitable and this makes you more important, with a challenge which you must face. There must be a record of Pangasinan literature; if it can be avoided, it must not die or that if it should--the dying should be long, arduous, and not until a body of literature is left behind to be perpetuated in translation. There is something very sad about a language dying because it means a soul, a culture is being snuffed out, and with it--all that is good and memorable. Latin is dead, and so is Sanskrit--but the literature in these languages survive because there were believers in these languages who left behind indelible markers that time cannot erase. This is where people like you come in. Carry this difficult burden because you are an artist, because you are Pangasinan and because you are Filipino.”

And a quotation from The Aristos by John Fowles, “If we think poetry of least concern among our arts, we are like generals who disband their best fighting troops. Cherish the poet; there seemed many great auks till the last one died.”

Salaya and Masantos ya kabuasan ed sikayon amin. That to say, “A Blessed Morning to All of You.”


From the author’s paper read at the Philippine PEN conference in Cebu last December 2010. Published in Manila Times / Sunday Magazine, March 13/20, 2011

Far Eastern University English & Literature Journal
http://ejournals.ph/index.php?journal=ELJ

Magnapoets ISSN1916-3010
Issue 8, July 2011 (Canada)

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Sapphics (with a translation in Italian by Ute Margaret Saine and Antonio Blunda)

Sapphics I

1.

O my heart whose fire
is cocooned in my darkness
open so beautifully
for a love divine!

O my soul whose brilliance
is hidden in a rose
burnen O burnen
for a beauty divine!


2.

the heart is a face
whose eyes are brighter than God’s
first bright scallywag

the heart is a who
whose inmost is the cause of
man’s immortal woes


3.

the sun went down
and as i stroll along
the silent ground
i heard the song
of the low rushing wind

the twilight hour
filled with balsam air
eased the burden
of my searching soul

beloved
tonight i will sleep alone
remembering
the sins of your lips
burning on my skin

(Philippine Graphic Magazine, June 5, 2006)


SAFFICHE I

1.

O cuore mio cui fuoco è avvolto
nel bozzolo della mia oscurità
apriti così bello
per un amore divino!

O anima mia la cui brillantezza
è nascosta in una rosa
brucia O brucia
per la divina bellezza!


2.

il cuore è un volto
dagli occhi più luminosi di quel primo
furfante luminoso di Dio

il cuore è un essere
cui essenza è la causa
d’immortali guai umani


3.

il sole è tramontato
ed io passeggio
per la terra silenziosa
ascoltavo la canzone
del basso vento affrettato

l’ora crepuscolare
riempita d’aria balsamica
sollevava il peso
della mia anima indagante

amata mia
stasera dormirò da solo
ricordando
i peccati delle tue labbra
bruciandomi sulla pelle

(Traduzione di Ute Margaret Saine e Antonio Blunda)

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11th Philippine Linguistics Congress, Dec. 7-9, 2011

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Taboan 2011 : Photos

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