Kallamo

It is keeping secrets, this.

Like writing in the old kur-itan
Where you hide what needs to be hidden.

But yours is the opening up
Of language to what it cannot reach.

A pillow you get, so says the tale,
And you expose its bowels
For the drunken north wind to play on and on
And you see the cotton dance,
The feathers too, or whatever
Remnants of demonic memory and self
You have put in there, evil woman:
Words you bloodied, butchered too.

And you made us believe
Of the lie you called truth
Even as you led us to the dark
Corners of our fear. There,
The sun is a shy young man,
Unable to say into a syllable
What needs to be said about
You being the smiling temptress,
Evil woman and more so, cavorting
With alien friends, unable to see
What seeing is or ought to be.

Now, we have come to know:
This apprentice novice which is you,
Appended to what we could
Have become, better and better be.

In the Ilocos of your hand,
Its hollowed land is not hallowed.
Not anymore as you wreaked
Havoc on our words.

You have taken away the holiness
Of our pain, and you have sold
It all, thirty pieces of silver.

And more.

You could have become a leader,
And could have led us to freedom
We have not possessed
Not for a long long while.

Instead you danced around, swayed
Your fat hips to the beat of songs
Whose lyrics you do not know,
Do not take to heart.

Praying evil woman, what have you become
Apart from the evil you have become?


Tagbilaran City/
July 15, 2011

call of nature: Talastasan @ UPB w/ Dr. A.S. Agcaoili: Cultural Na...

call of nature: Talastasan @ UPB w/ Dr. A.S. Agcaoili: Cultural Na...: " Posted on Facebook by Junley Lazaga (DLLA, CAC, UP Baguio) The College of Arts and Communication University of the Philippines Bagui..."

Talastasan at the University of the Philippines Baguio

The College of Arts and Communication
University of the Philippines Baguio

presents

Talastasan
with

Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili
University of Hawaii at Manoa


"Cultural Nationalism
and the Languages of the People of the Philippines:
Towards a Theory and Practice
of Liberatory Literacy and Education"



The talk addresses the current concerns on the need to revisit several conceptual issues in the Philippines, to wit, cultural nationalism, language diversity, and liberatory literacy and education. Arguing from the framework of emancipatory education, cultural difference, and the question of nation and state, the talk weaves a reasoning that pushes for a rethinking of the Philippine nation-state concept, for a critiquing of the practice of Philippine basic education, and for a revisiting of the constitutive elements of Philippine literacy in the context of citizenship.


August 5, 2011, 1 PM
College of Social Sciences Audio Visual Room
U.P. Baguio

Open to the public and free of charge.

Kagun

Sabali nga ulimek daytoy.
Adda kadagiti sulinek
Dagiti kuadrado a balikas
Ti babai a mangiyaw-awan.
Isuna ti pader, ken ti sabali,
Babai kas lalaki dagiti sao
Nga iti silo ket pangal
Tapno iti panagtalappuagaw
Ket ti galut kadagiti ramay
Dila, saka, santo ti puso.

Kadakami a saksi kadagiti
Adu a patibong, kas iti silo
Nga iti warnakan ti puli
Ket matuontuon, adda bendision
Dagiti ulimek a nabunniagan
Iti takrot, panurdurog, lamlammiong:
Sika iti teltelko, siak iti teltelmo
Tapno iti awan patingga a kinnudkod
Ket ti awanan ressat met a
Panag-urisay baboy:
Urisay, baboy, urisay, baboy
Iti kakaisuna a ringgor
Dagiti mayat a maturturtor.

Madunggiaran dagiti rabii
Kas ti sipnget nga iti sennek
Ket ti oras nga agbalinsuek
Tapno ti kannag ket iti patibong
Ti babai nga agrennek.

Urisay, baboy,
Urisay, baboy:

Kagun daytoy
Ti daniw ni Ilokano a maibarbarayuboy.


Tacloban City/
Julio 14

Kabuntala

It is east, you are.
From your clouds there rises
My heart, longing for the same longing
You have of my heart. We rise from the ashes
Of your night, and our dawn will come
And pick us up from the midnight
Of our brightening lives.
It is who you are, Kabuntala.
There, between the ridges
Of our dreams peaking
From the mountains
Of our hopes, there,
There you are announcing
What gospel there is
To reside in our broken
Lives. Morning comes soon,
Too soon for us to welcome
The the break of day
As we wake up more alone.

Colon, Cebu City/
July 15, 2011

Undayas

Bangkirig daytoy ti turod
nga iti rabii ket ti kasukat

a kulay-ot ti bituka,
iti russuod ti rusok.

Adda dagiti lagip iti dara
ken ti balikas nga adda iti daytoy.

Agkarayam kas apuy
ti puor nga ipasngay

ti undayas ti lengguahe
nga iti patag ket maitibkol.

Lasunglasong ti rason
iti mangganggantil a patibong

nga iti silo dagiti aldaw
ket ti di mamingga

a karanukon, nagmanto
kadagiti silabat' panagmauyong.

Kastada dagiti mannaniw
iti ili. Isuda ti agibulsa

kadagiti kaipapanan
a kadagiti linabag koma

ket sadiayda nga agbirok
iti puraw a salakan.

Marikina/
Julio 18, 2011

University of the Philippines Baguio Talk

Cultural Nationalism and the Languages of the People of the Philippines:
Towards a Theory and Practice of Liberatory Literacy and Education


Aurelio Solver Agcaoili
University of Hawaii

University of the Philippines Baguio
Baguio City
August 5, 2011
1:30 PM

The talk addresses the current concerns on the need to revisit several conceptual issues in the Philippines, to wit, cultural nationalism, language diversity, and liberatory literacy and education. Arguing from the framework of emancipatory education, cultural difference, and the question of nation and state, the talk weaves a reasoning that pushes for a rethinking of the Philippine nation-state concept, for a critiquing of the practice of Philippine basic education, and for a revisiting of the constitutive elements of Philippine literacy in the context of citizenship.

Ukkuag

Samira dagiti oras.

Awan panawen a pinerdim
Tapno agperdika iti panawen
A koma ket nailatang para kadakami
A sangsangailim.


Ipatom a tagikukuam dagiti pitik
Ti aldaw ngem adda aldaw
Iti kada pitik ti nakem a sudakem.

Pagayam, kunam kaniak.

Ngem pagayammo a dadaelem
Tapno ti korona nga iputongmo
Iti ulom ket kukuam laeng, sika
Nga iti agkabsat a darikmat

Ket lansetaka iti kanito
Ti maat-atangan a mangyaw-awan.

Sika dayta, babai iti ukkuag.

Sika ti kasingin ti kumaw

Ti agabalbalay iti mannibrong
Tapno iti kada pammutbuteng
Ket ti agraraay a panagkumbawami

Kenka, babai nga agindadaniw
Iti verso nga Ilokano a verso a naiyaw-awan.

Dua a tawen ken adu a sennaay.

Dua a tawen ken adu pay a pannakapaay.

Dua a tawen ken adu a panangmulit.

Dua a tawen ken adu a puggaak.

Dua a tawen ken ti maniobram
Iti pudno tapno ti falso ket matagikuam.

Awan bagnos kadagiti rabii
Nga iti sidir ti rikna ket ti manglimlimo

A leddaang. Kukuak daytoy, naminribu
A tinagikuak.

Nagmanto dagiti bannawag a maipasngay
Iti kada bigat dagiti naunday nga aldaw.

Sika ti adda kadagiti panes a dagdagullitek
A karkaragan iti orasion ti ballatek

Tapno dagiti rurog dagiti ukkormo
Ket iti tanemda nga agbanag.

Ditoy, iti pagpumponan dagiti ulpit,

Ditoy ti ukkuag ti baro nga aldaw.

Ita ti rugi ti panangsamira
Kenka ti impaidammo nga ayat.


Julio 12, 2011/
Marikina

FAO Editorial June 2011

Making Sense of Our Freedom

The next two months for the American citizen of Philippine heritage will be one of two separate but interconnected political meditations.

One, in June, is the official celebration by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines of Philippine Independence Day.

The name of the national holiday is a giveaway: it is the landmark day, when, at the height of the struggle of the peoples of the Philippines against the abuses of the Spanish colonizers, our people finally came to their senses that from that day onwards to make sense of our freedom in the way that makes sense to us all is an ethical and moral obligation of every citizen.

Two, in July, there is going to be the Fourth of July, a sacred day for all citizens of the United States of America.

It is the day the Americans declared their independence from the colonizers, the Brits.

Both the Philippine June 12 and the American Fourth of July have parallel narratives made powerful by the fact that people had come to their realization that independence—hence, freedom—matter.

The people of the Philippines who have come to the United States are placed in a position of privilege for having become the beneficiary of this rich historical reality, a legacy, indeed, of the people before them who knew what freedom is.

It is the freedom that creates opportunities to have sufficient food on the table.

It is the freedom that relates to the respect for the fundamental liberties of people, a respect that creates opportunities for labor, and for that dignity of labor to be held sacred.

It is the freedom that relates to justice: that basic justice in the economic front that calls out to people to help in the renewal of the possibilities of the earth.

It is justice that is articulated by the providing of jobs to all able citizens so that in that act of working, there are able to real themselves.

The formula for our sense of freedom is simple enough. There is no waste of words here but a mantric transformation of our ideals into some words that refuse to remain words but word becoming worlds in the end, the word and the world one and the same.

In light of our current concerns in the Philippine and the United States, we are challenged by the contradictory realities we around us.

In Hawaii, we live by the power of the spectacular, the power of tourism, which, essentially is about the act of seeing without necessarily knowing.

In the Philippines, we live the power of the psychology of the mass, with promises for scholarship to children of the Overseas Filipino Workers when their cases of capital punishment in other countries become a sensation.

Either way are the ugly realities lurking in each utterance that we have become free, that we have become as free as a bird, that we have become as free as the early morning breeze.

While we see excess in the United States, there is much misery in the country’s hidden places, in the marginalized places, in the peripheralized places.

While we see abundance in the money enclaves of the rich in the Philippines, there is much misery in the country’s slums, streetcorners, makeshift homes and communities under bridges, and far-flung barrios.

While we see palatial homes in Hawaii, we see at the same time tarpaulin homes in places where tourists do not go.

While we see concrete homes with landscaped gardens in the big cities of the Philippines such as Cebu, Davao, and Manila, we see at the same time cardboard houses that serve us dwelling places for those who have luck but less.

But we know that in the making of a society of decent and just people, we cannot settle for less for those who less in life.

That we cannot settle for those who have less in life is the very spirit of the law that provides for the compensation of the not-so-good things that we do to make our political life more tolerable.


FAO/ June 2011

Casamiento (Ilokano version)

Casamiento

(Ken Lydia ken Max, iti kasamientoda iti nagan ni ayat)

Apagisu a gatad ti panaguray, daytoy nga ayat.

Siglosiglo a panagbirbriok iti maysa ken maysa
Tapno ipateg no ania ti ayat
Iti nagbaetan ti leddaang ken leddaang
Ken sabali pay.

Ngem ita, dagiti pakasaritaan
Ibugasanda ti no ania
Ti ukarkaran ti balikas,
Isu met laeng a rinugianyon
Nga inaramat tapno nagananyo
Ti ray-aw nga inkayon
Nasarakan.

Ti panaglangan ti maysa ken maysa
A mangsagsagid iti kaadda
Ti maysa ken maysa
Ket ita, addakayo, agayan-ayat,
Maysa ti ipatpateg, ken kasta met
Ti sabali!

Dimtengen ti aldaw,
Ket ita daytoy.
Ita nga oras ti rugi ti Agnanayon
Ket tagikukuayo ti Panawen,
Maysa ken maysa ti kayatmi,
Daytoy a panangidaton
Iti bagi
Ken espiritu, ken kararua
Daytoy a sagut nga Amin-nagan
Ken awanan-nagan
Kas iti rabii nga agpasngay
Tapno umay ti parbangon,
Sa ti rabii maminsan pay.
Iti parbangon
Di makaidna.
Panaginana.
Pannakaila.
Pannakarnek.
Panagbirbirok.
Pannakabirok.
Amin dagitoy iti naganyon ita,
Dua a tao a tinanikalaan
Dagiti espasio a di agpatingga.

Marikina
July 4, 2011

Casamiento

(For Lydia and Max, on their wedding in the name of love)

It was worth the wait, this loving.

Centuries of seeking for each other
To love what love is
Between grief and one more.
But today, histories define
What can be unravelled by word,
The same ones you have begun
To use to name what joy
You have finally found.
Each other's absence reaching out
To each other's presence
And here you are, lovers,
One beloved and another so!
The day has come, and it is today.
Eternity begins at this hour
And it is your Time, one in the other
We want, this gift of body
And spirit and soul, this gift
All-name and nameless
Like evening birthing so dawn
Comes, and then the evening
One more time. It is restless.
It is rest.
It is longing.
It is satisfaction.
It is seeking.
It is finding.
All these are in your name now,
Two people bound by
Spaces going beyond.


Marikina
July 4, 2011