Wondering Out Loud… and Dante, You May Never Read This

I don’t have a gadget that is mainly for reading ebooks. I use my laptop for most reading I do that isn’t off a printed page. I’ve been toying with the idea of re-releasing my first book on digital format, but my feet feel like they’re in a bucket of ice.

I’m still working on revising and translating the poems that originally came out in Beneath an Angry Star,plodding a little because of other stuff I need to work on. But it would be good to hear what friends or random readers might think. I know ebooks are nothing new anymore, but to me, when I read one, it feels less of a book somehow.

At the same time I can see the appeal in terms of ease, portability, and saving on paper. Are my words worth the lives of trees?

If you’ve ever read the first and only edition of this particular book, would you even bother to get hold of a revised, bilingual edition? Petty questions while other people struggle with matters far more troubling, like starting life after a super typhoon wiped out most of your family members.

Such is the immense tragedy of Dante Balura. New Bataan, Compostela Valley is close to newly discovered gold reserves. Some say it is the reckless mining that had caused unimaginable destruction from mudslides when super typhoon Pablo struck Mindanao.

Many years ago I wrote a poem after a flash flood claimed the lives of thousands of people in Ormoc, Leyte. That was in 1991 and I vaguely remember that intense logging on the mountains or hills in the area was blamed for the destructive waters that came rushing down to the town, dragging people to the sea.

Does writing about that terrible incident make any difference anywhere, to anyone? Dante, you may never read this.

-o-

Sa mga Bagay na Tulad Nito

Leyte, 1991

Yakap-yakap ang dagat

na ayaw namang magpayakap,

ganoon ang kanilang pagpanaw.

Maaaring iniinom na natin

ang kanilang mga luha,

pinampapaligo, pinanghuhugas

ng malamig na puwit ng bata.

Sa mga isdang ipinipirito kaya

maririnig ang kanilang mga palahaw?

Hindi ko na nais pang isipin

ang iba pang posibilidad.

Malupit ang aking imahinasyon

maging sa mga bagay na tulad nito.

-o-

LITERAL TRANSLATION

On Matters Like This

Leyte, 1991

Embracing the sea

that will not be embraced,

that is how they departed.

It is possible that we are now

drinking their tears, washing

with it our bodies and the cold

bottoms of our children.

Is that them wailing

as the fish sizzles in the pan?

I no longer wish to think

of other possibilities.

My imagination is too cruel

even on matters like this.

-o-

UPDATE… According to a 1992 article from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism it was the clearing of land for sugar cane plantations that may have caused the flooding in Ormoc in November 1991.

How long before we find out who/what is to blame in New Bataan, Compostela Valley – and perhaps keep this tragedy from happening again?

Filed under: Asia, Creatures, environment, Fragments and Moments, Influences, Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, poetry, Uncategorized Tagged: Beneath an Angry Star, Dante Balura, floods, Jim Pascual Agustin, Leyte, Ormoc, Pablo, Philippines, Rappler.com, super typhoon