Lyrics from a dead language: Poems 1977-1991

by Eric Gamalinda

English, Tagalog

Genres: Poetry

109 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Born and raised in Manila, Eric Gamalinda first published in the Philippines four novels: Planet Waves, Confessions of a Volcano, Empire of Memory, and My Sad Republic; a short story collection, Peripheral Vision; and a collection of poems, Lyrics from a Dead Language. All were written and published in the last decade of the twentieth century to literary acclaim and recognized with National Book Awards and the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards many times over, on top of his nonfiction and plays. His fifth novel, The Descartes Highlands, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize. His other US publications include the poetry collections Zero Gravity, winner of the Asian American Literary Prize, and Amigo Warfare; and a short story collection, People are Strange.

Reviews

[d · Rating 3 out of 5]

The city is no longer ours.
Thus the tale sadly unfolds.
We are always threshed out of its mad rush
to time's prodigious mouth, that old
ravine; and so we go on living.

Quiapo, having sold her soul
to stone-stopped saints
and boys with eyes of snakes,
fans herself like a tired madonna,
heavy with useless heirlooms,

and at night, under a rosary
of monoxide stars, she drums her oldest

prayer, waiting for gods to intercede
between her and her ancient hunger.

Of all the Gamalinda poetry collections I've read, this is the earliest and also the one I liked least. Which isn't bad at all considering that Zero Gravity set such a high bar. I found this collection the most abstruse, raw, and incohesive, but I still enjoyed it. There are some gorgeous standouts: "Quiapo: Neon Dawns", "Program Notes for an Execution by Firing Squad", "Chinese Traders Consult the I Ching", "Indulanin: 20 Sonnets", "M. Baudelaire's Cocktail Hour", "La Naval de Manila: Selim Sot as a Modern Political Observer". A lot of Manila. I liked how Gamalinda's frequent use of jewels, flowers, and angels alongside blood, wounds, and the coarseness of Manila streets. The Tagalog was pretty difficult for me, honestly. A casual reading of this (which is all I can do right now) is not enough to parse the themes, which I found pretty difficult to decipher.

[C. Ting · Rating 4 out of 5]

it feels like memories that I didn't have

[Jim Agustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the books I keep going back to. Luckily I brought it with me to South Africa. :)

A proper review one day.