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Cebuano is my original language. I learned to speak it long before I learned how to say anything in English. But sadly, Cebuano is not my strong language now. I was thrown into an imbalance wherein I studied and learned English in schools for eight hours a day for five days a week while I speak Cebuano for four hours or so at home before going to bed on weekends. I am what Mojares refer to as an imperfectly literate Cebuano when he said in his introduction in the book:
“Today…much of the richness of Cebuano language and poetry has been depleted—through disuse (the language is not studied in the universities; it is, if at all, marginally used as medium of instructional, and outlets for Cebuano writing are sorely lacking) or because of the dominating influence of a foreign language that has created imperfectly literate Cebuanos inhabiting the inarticulate spaces between the world of Cebuano and that of English. For many Cebuanos today, to read Cebuano poetry is to experience something both intimate and strange. In a sense, this is the experience of poetry itself. Yet, there is another dimension: it is also the experience of passing through ancestral grounds long forsaken—and now revisited and, hopefully, reclaimed.”
I opened a few pages of Cebuano Poetry and grinned at some familiar Cebuano words—balitaw, harana (serenades), and pamalaye (verses for negotiating a marriage). I’m going to share a poem from this book in this blog post, both the Cebuano and English version, and perhaps in my succeeding posts for Poetry Project. Reading through some Cebuano poems, I discovered how the Cebuano version of the poem is more intimate, closer to my heart and senses than that of the English version. If you’re a Cebuano, I encourage you to read and even share a few verses of your own here.
Cebuano version:
Mga Talan-awon (1935)
Ni E. Gadiana Cabras
Mao kini ang mga talan-awong masulubon:
Usa ka bulak nga sa tanaman
siya da ang sayong napukan;
Usa ka langgam kinsang dughan
sa idlot nga pana gilagbasan;
Usa ka lalaki nga nabuang
Kay sa babaye gibudhian;
Usa ka nagtingang anak ug inahan
nga namokpok sa dughan!
English version:
Images (1935)
By E. Gadiana Cabras
(Translated by Resil B. Mojares)
These are the sights that sadden:
A flower that in the garden
she alone early withers;
A bird whose breast
by a poisoned arrow pierced;
A man gone mad
By a woman betrayed;
A child dying and a mother
beating her breast!
- - -
So, what do you think?
- Nancy -