Jim Pascual Agustin's Blog, page 42
November 15, 2012
From Switzerland
In my early years of writing, I started to wonder when the next letter of acceptance or rejection might arrive. We had a dog, and often this creature would bark wildly at the postman – the arch enemy of dogs, apparently, followed by the newspaper man and the pandesal delivery boy. Those stories about a pet chewing one’s homework are only true if you had a dog like ours. This dog jumped for anything that got placed in the postbox or stuck between the topmost metal spikes of our gate. So I had to know when the postman arrived, usually around three in the afternoon. A chewed up letter is not easy to read, let alone retrieve.
These days I live on a semi-rural area where no postman comes around. We have to drive to a small shopping centre where they have postboxes. A bit of a trip, so I go once a week, usually on a Friday. Today, though, I felt something was calling me. I went, and sure enough there was something, posted all the way from… Switzerland?!?
I’d never received a parcel that had been posted from Switzerland. Odd, since as far as I know Modern Poetry in Translation is published in the UK. Here then, to share with friends and readers, my bit of excitement for the day!
Filed under: Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, poetry, Silly Babble Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, David Constantine, Helen Constantine, Jim Pascual Agustin, Modern Poetry in Translation, poetry, Sasha Dugdale, Transitions, UK, UST Publishing House
November 14, 2012
“Operation Cast Lead” is not the Title of a Movie
“Operation Cast Lead” is not the Title of a Movie
After a night of gasping
at fireworks
I nurse the consequences
of champagne.
Somewhere else they are remembering
smoke that takes forever
to clear, the ringing in the ears,
the smell of burnt flesh
among personal belongings.
-o-
“Operation Cast Lead” on Wikipedia (as always, don’t place complete trust on one source, please)
Filed under: Fragments and Moments, Imperialism, Influences, Life in a different world, Mga Tula / Poetry, Middle East, poetry, politics, terrorism Tagged: Humanitarian aid for Gaza, Israel, Israeli apartheid, Israeli atrocities, Israeli propaganda, Jim Pascual Agustin, Palestine, poetry, Sound Before Water, UST Publishing House, war on terror
Letter from Gaza
14th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip
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Dear All. I am calling on all your support for the besieged people of the Gaza Strip.
Here in Gaza, more than 10 people have been killed so far in the Israeli operation named “Pillar of Defence” within the last 7 hours, including countless children such as 7-year-old child Ranan Arafat and an 11 month old baby. We’ve seen charred bodies of dead and injured children pouring in to Al Shifa hospital of Gaza City and the other depleted hospitals around the Gaza Strip. 50 airstrikes all over the Gaza Strip so far. Deafening explosions shook us all as bombs landed close to us in the streets near the Universities. Huge explosions are landing all around us in Gaza City now as I write, some entire families have been injured. We can also hear the shelling of Israeli Gunships. Announcement of possible Israeli land invasion very soon.
More than 330 children were killed in the last bloody operation like this in operation Cast Lead, killing over 1400 in total: the vast majority civilians. We are reporting from hospitals, streets and bombed areas. How many, terrified in there homes will have their lives shortened by tomorrow, or after the days of airstrikes, tank shellings and Gunship missiles Israel has announced. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MOVE. ACT NOW TO STOP ANOTHER GAZA BLOODBATH. INACTION AROUND THE WORLD HAS LEAD US TO THIS POINT. ACT NOW.
Adie
For more information on how to contact International activists in Gaza now please email: palreports@gmail.com
Filed under: Imperialism, Middle East, politics, terrorism Tagged: Gaza Siege, human rights, human rights violations, Humanitarian aid for Gaza, Israel, Israeli apartheid, Israeli atrocities, terrorist state
Modern Poetry in Translation’s newest issue, Transitons, Launches on 20 November
-o-
I have five poems in the issue! Yippeeeeeee!!!!
Filed under: Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, poetry Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, Filipino poetry, Jim Pascual Agustin, poetry, translations, UST Publishing House
Am I a Puddle or a Pebble? Neither? (just a silly title haha)
I finished the initial translation of the first of three sections from my first book of poetry, Beneath an Angry Star (Anvil, Manila 1992). It comes as a surprise to me that most of the poems still work – at least based on my own attempt at “pretending-to-be-reading-someone-else’s-work” – and that, translated into or from English, something new starts to quiver as if coming to life. There are a few from the original Filipino that just flounder in translation because the subject matter itself demands a particular knowledge of (dated) local popular culture.
Although I do this work on the side, I do have my own deadline to meet. I need to complete this work so I can get on with writing new poetry, and perhaps get back to attempting essays and stories which, in my experience, take more time and effort.
After I finish translating and editing the text, I intend to find a publisher or, failing that, put it out as an ebook on my own. I am declaring this to the world in case some good soul urges me to persevere, or even offers me a door. It does seem like a long and lonely road, otherwise.
A pebble that never gets thrown will never cause a ripple. hahahaha. A terrible inverse (or some other term perhaps?) of a poem by one of my heroes, Emmanuel Lacaba, called. . . ready for this? . . .
Poem
In puddles and rivers
Pebbles hit bull’s-eyes
Before targets are drawn.
Filed under: Asia, Creatures, environment, Fragments and Moments, Influences, Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, poetry, Silly Babble, Uncategorized Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, Beneath an Angry Star, early poetry, fiction, Jim Pascual Agustin, Philippines, poetry, poetry in translation, translation
November 12, 2012
The Thief of Ideas
Translation has become a good way for me to cross between two types of consciousness – as one way of saying it. My Filipino roots and other influences come together when I write, but more so when I translate. Translation has become more than a bridge. It is now like a village with no gates or guards, the borders are always expanding if there are any at all: many ideas come together.
Translation has made me aware that what may seem easy to say in one language becomes a task in another. And often I find there are other ways of crossing the rushing waters – one can even leap. Of course sometimes one lands in a not so graceful way. There are always second, third attempts, or as many as it takes. Sometimes one has to choose another part of the river to cross, or find another river altogether. Hmmm mixing metaphors here now. haha.
Enough of that. I was getting more and more upset with the way a Senator from the Philippines has dragged the word “translation,” and, to my mind, is justifying the stealing of ideas.
This article will shed some light: PLAGIARISM COMPLAINTS VS SOTTO.
Here is an odd poem in two versions and two languages.
-o-
TARB A SI OTTOS
Each time his mouth opens, his dummy
falls to the ground. He wails
and protests. It is necessary
to speak to him in simple sentences.
Point out his errors and his heart
breaks like a cookie in a hand
in a jar. It won’t be long before
he trips on his own clumsy feet.
Don’t let him see you
laugh. He bites
like a dog.
-o-
TARB A SI OTTOS
version 2
Each time his mouth opens, his dummy
falls to the ground. His cries
sound like yelping hyenas. It is difficult
to reach him even with simple sentences.
Point out his errors and his heart
crumbles like a cookie in a grip.
It won’t be long before he trips
himself as if he had three legs.
Don’t let him see you
laugh. He gnashes
before he bites. Luckily
his teeth are falling out.
-o-
TARB A SI OTTOS
Tuwing bubuka ang kanyang bunganga, nalalaglag
ang kanyang dummy sa lupa. Umaatungal
at nagpoprotesta siya. Mahalagang kausapin
siyang gamit ang pinakasimpleng pangungusap.
Kung tukuyin mo ang kanyang pagkakamali
mabibiyak ang kanyang puso tulad ng biskwit
sa kamay sa loob ng garapon. Hindi magtatagal
bago siya matisod ng sariling mabubuway na paa.
Huwag hayaang makita ka niyang
tumatawa. Nangangagat siya
na parang aso.
-o-
TARB A SI OTTOS
version 2
Tuwing bubuka ang kanyang bunganga, nahuhulog
sa lupa ang kanyang dummy. Tunog hyena
ang kanyang palahaw. Kahit gumamit ng simpleng
pangungusap, mahirap pa rin siyang maabot.
Tukuyin ang kanyang mga pagkakamali
at madudurog ang kanyang puso, animo biskwit
sa kuyom na kamay. Hindi magtatagal bago patirin
niya ang sarili na tila may tatlong paa.
Huwag hayaang makita ka niyang
tumatawa. Magngingitngit siya
bago mangagat. Mabuti na lang
palagas na ang kanyang mga ngipin.
-o-
Filed under: Asia, Fragments and Moments, Influences, Mga Tula / Poetry, North America, poetry, politics, Silly Babble, Uncategorized Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, Jim Pascual Agustin, Kennedy, plagiarism, Sotto, theft, translation
November 10, 2012
Playing
Good to be silly sometimes. Doodles, paper cutouts, finger painting… you have the materials, why leave them lying around?
I took photos with my cellphone camera some months back and now decided to play with some images, stuck Djivan Gasparyan’s music (part of it), and here then. Silly stuff.
Filed under: Uncategorized
November 9, 2012
Molossus 1 Features Two Poems in Translation
David Shook’s Molossus 1 came out this November and two of my poems appear there in translation. “Akong Panginoon” is from my first book, Beneath an Angry Star (Anvil, Manila 1992) and “Si Taft Sa Kalabaw” is in Baha-bahagdang Karupukan.
I intend to release a revised bilingual edition of my first book, so I am busy translating quite a number of poems. I have a slightly longer blog entry in Filipino regarding this HERE.
Molossus means quite a few things. Quick Wikipedia visit gave these images:
Molossus is also a type of metrical foot (in poetry) and a few other meanings. So there. A new word to know (or not know). 
Filed under: Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, North America, poetry, politics Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, human rights, Jim Pascual Agustin, Palestine, Philippines, poetry, US imperialism, UST Publishing House
November 6, 2012
Half Lives
What chance does half an onion have with half an apple? In separate containers, they will only be used when remembered. Perhaps try their best not to offend each other. Ah, the small tragedies of existence!
Filed under: Silly Babble
November 5, 2012
An Invitation
A very good friend of mine the poet, Emmanuel Q. Velasco, fetched my invitation to the 31st National Book Awards. I wish I could attend, just in case my nominated book, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, actually gets chosen. Emman’s own poetry book, Dalawang Pulgada at Tubig, has been nominated for the same award. We’ll still be friends whether either of us wins or not. Or so we hope. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Now if I can just fix the secondhand teleporter Scotty handed me before he got sent off elsewhere…
Filed under: Africa, Asia, Literary News & Articles, poetry, Silly Babble, Uncategorized Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, Emmanuel Q. Velasco, Jim Pascual Agustin, Philippines, poetry, UST Publishing House
