55 Poems: Selected and translated into Tagalog by Hilario S. Francia

by José García Villa, Hilario S. Francia (Translator)

Jose Garcia Villa is one of the Philippines’ National Artists for Literature. “The center of Villa’s universe is man, the puny inhabitants of a tiny planet, and the poet measures him fearlessly in the scale of perfection, which is God. He affirms God with a lyric exaltation allied to the religious mystics. Yet, on behalf of man, he challenges God in a daring affirmation that the creature made in His image contains in himself the seeds of His perfection.”—from the Citation of the National Artist Award

138 pages

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Jose Garcia Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the penname Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself. These animals were also explored by another poet e.e. cummings in Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa.

(From wikipedia.org, retrieved 14 March 2011. More info here.)

Reviews

[Enrico Figueroa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writes a lot about God. He writes so dramatic, so timeless is his use of language as he feels like old English come to new life. Interesting exploration of the comma and how we read poems, not the biggest fan however, I thought it didn’t add any depth to what I was reading. Many of his poems use flattering words and describe things I can’t quite grasp. Perhaps it’s a language thing, perhaps the meaning is just very far off from what’s familiar to me. There’s just something about his poems I don’t quite connect with. The ones I do like I like them on their use of technical aspects and language. I liked the poems with good rhymes and that utilized alliteration well. Most his poems are about love, God, or the meaning of something, whether it be life or whatever. His love poems feel you know… saks lang. probably that’s how I feel because of all the poetry I’ve been exposed to but I’m sure it was revolutionary at the time to hear such poetry especially in the English language written by a Filipino writer. His God poems often use too grand of a language that really separates me and I sometimes miss the point, if there even is one. Overall respectable for its time and influence, but currently just not my style of poetry. I didn’t feel connected much, inspired, or drawn to his poetry. Some of his use of language was impressive but my praise extends only to that. That’s all.

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe Villa should speak for this:

30
When, i, was, no, bigger, than, a, huge,
Star, in, my, self, I, began, to, write,
My,
Theology,
Of, rose, and,

Tiger: Till, I, burned, with, their
Pure, and Rage. Then, was, I, Wrath-
Ful,
And, most,
Gentle: most,

Dark, and, yet, most, Lit: in, me, an,
Eye, there, grew: springing, Vision,
Its,
Gold, and
Its wars. Then.

I, knew, the, Lord, was, not, my, Creator!
--Not, He, the Unbegoten -- but, I, saw,
The,
Creator
Was, I -- and,

I, began, to, Die, and I, began, to, Grow.


But of course, do not read Villa if you are expecting to heighten your revolutionary fervor; that of course is one of the yummier glories of his works.

[charlayne-aye ⭐️]

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