Local Poetry or Binalaybay Introduction

Poems

Poems are expressions of a beautiful mind in beautiful words.

Let’s identify the poems of the Ilonggos and the meanings it evokes.

What is the Ilonggo poetry?

Traditions has put the Ilonggos synonymous with the word “malambing” or affectionate. The Spanish missionary long time ago refers to it as “dulce, mimosa y acariciante", demure, sweet and stroking because Ilonggos means not only the native fire of a race who emerged in the world but as well as the poetic origins of the culture that could not easily be emulated by its sister language.

In content, Ilonggo poetry prevailed by its more native nature.  In form, measurement and emphasis, it is real Spanish. The present Ilonggo poet is the author who is the only creator of the verses which has a full Spanish rhythm. He also uses classical influences of Castilian emphasis.  These guidelines puts the Ilonggo poetry in a high position if compared to the poetry of other dialects.

The start of creating verses of the Ilonggos has been foretold by the emergence of old compositions that tells about “The Creations of the World”, "The Miracles of Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario" or Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary,” “The Maragtas of Panay”and other historical events. These epics were never written. These became a part of the oral traditions which eventually give emphasis to the old corridos of Don Juan Teñoso, which were not only sung, but were also published in small books. The meters of the old songs is not regular which consists from about eight (8) syllables until only twelve (12) syllables of the verse. Almost all of them, however, were written verses style of romance of only eight (8) syllables which has stresses on the third and seventh syllables which was introduced by Spain.

Local Poetry or Binalaybay Explained

These old corridos or kurido gave way to the “korridos modernos” which is known as the “komposo” or composition which has a theme taken from real life which cover from the topics of festivities until tragedy. The popularity of komposo reaches until the years of liberation, when the mass media like the radio and newspapers were not yet fully established. These composition were created according to the meters recommended in Spanish poetry. It is made of six syllables. There is a common beginning and common end. It starts with

Binalaybay In Hiligaynon              English Translation of Poems

O, mga Señores                               Oh gentlemen,

Pamati-I ninyo                                 Hear ye    

Ako naga-asoy                                 I am singing

Diotay nga composo                        Little composition

Banwa sang ______                        Town of ________

May natabu didto                            There took place

Apat ka mag-utod                            Four siblings

Puro gid mestizo                       All mestizo, Caucasian, or whites

Their endings is sometimes funny, sometimes impartial and sometimes judgmental in a Pilate-like method.

Pananglit may sayop               If all of a sudden there’s a mistake

Inyong dispensaron                Just understand

Bag-o lang mag-alam             Just learned

Sining verso nakon                 This verse of mine

Examples of satire and sarcasm which criticizes is the following verse

Ining pagtulon-an                     This teaching

Madamo ang gadayaw             A lot is praising

Lalaki, babaye                          Men, women

Nagakuyaw-kuyaw                  are shunning

Kon sila maghinambal             When they speak

Puro gid sing Ingles               Everything is in English language

Gali ko sayuron                       What I mean is

Kay enamores.                         To inamorata or lady love

“If I will go”                            “If I will go”

Sa hagdan makadto                 To the stairs will go

Gali kon sayuron                     Which only means

Si Inday malagyo                     Inday* will elope

*Inday is a local term which is affectionately called to a young lady

Along with modern composition, the couplet which is called kopla in vernacular emerged. The most popular in this kind is the series of Si Inday, descriptive verses that celebrates the native lady or the countryside maiden through the melodic singing commonly popular to the Ilonggos.

Si Inday nga maitum-itum               Inday who is dark skinned

Angay guid sa balay nga butong       Ideal to live in a small hut

Kon sia magyuhum – yuhum          When she is smiling

Daw bulak sang cachubong.    She looks like the thorn apple flower

Si Inday nga mapula-pula               Inday who is rosy or reddish

Angay guid sa balay nga tapi.        Ideal to live in a wooden house

Kon siya magliki-liki                      When she sways her hips

Daw bulak sang tapulanga.          She looks like the hibiscus

Si Inday nga maputi-puti               Inday who is white skinned

Angay guid sa balay nga tapi      Ideal to live in a wooden house

Kon sia magliki-liki                       When she sways her hips

Daw bulak sang camantigue.      She looks like rose balsam

The things that were noticeable in composo and couplets is the non-recognition or anonymity of its author. These were created by the people for their sheer entertainment and fun. This is just an aspect of Ilonggo or Hiligaynon poetry.

The importance of moro-moro, comedies and zarzuelas or plays in poetry is the presentation of the names and personalities which can be called today as pioneers in Hiligaynon poetry. This generation or period of dramatists and authors of verses include Angel Magahum, Eriberto Gumban, Antonio Ledesma Jayme and Valentin Cristobal. Recent noted Ilonggo poets include former Iloilo governor Conrado Norada, Ramon Muzones and award-winning author Peter Solis Nery.

Following these pioneers is the Golden Age of Ilonggo or Hiligaynon Poetry in the verses of Flavio Zaragoza Cano, Delfin Gumban, Magdalena Jalandoni and Serapion de la Torre. The poetry is an effective link for political education, lifestyle and culture of the masses. The poets in Hiligaynon were also the poets in Spanish and its bilingual form enriches the vernacular or local literature.

Flavio Zaragoza Cano is third to be crowned as the “Prince of the Ilonggo Poets”. A politician and leader of the American creators of the Empire. However his political and cultural ideas were much greater in Spanish language. He expressed the Hiligaynon lyricism while exposing in the fiery Spanish verses the showing of gratitude of the Filipino to Spain and the bad effects of the American occupation. His Hiligaynon verses is clothed with colorful Latin metaphors. The poetic stresses or meters of Zaragoza is completely Hiligaynon thus his poems is mostly music to the ears.

The “Halad Kay San Roque” (The Offering to Saint Roch) by Flavio Zaragoza is an example of a stress mark with eleven syllables that in Spanish poetry is classified as “verso de arte mayor”. The emphasis is usually at the sixth and tenth syllables if not at the top of fourth, eighth and tenth.

Ginpili ka sang Diwa nga baa-an

Mga mangin bulong sang amon kasakitan

Kay ikaw ang dalangpan nga dumaan

Sa balati-an nga labing dalitan.

O mahal nga San Roque,

Ang imo ngalan

Tima-an sang kalu-oy nga hamili

Kay bisan gani sa tunga sang dalan

Ang gugma nimo wala sing kapili. 

English Translation

You were chosen by the divine God
That will be the cure to our pains
Because you are the old refuge
From the illness that is so toxic or venomous
O beloved Saint Roch,
Your name
Is a sign of precious mercy
Because even in the middle of the road
Your love is unconditional

The difference of verses “arte mayor” and “arte manor” is in the number of syllables of the verses. All verses lower than nine syllables belongs to “arte manor”. The verses which consists of nine or more syllables belongs to the “versos de arte mayor”. Zaragoza is an expert in writing poems of “arte manor”.

Ang bulan sa Mayo            The month of May

Bulan sang sinadya            Month of merrymaking or merriment

Among pagsaulog              We celebrate

Kay Virgen Maria              To the Virgin Mary

May mga pagdayaw          There are praises and honor

nga labing toto-o               which are for real

sa ngalan sang Iloy            In the name of the mother

sang aton Guino-o             Of our God

Sa mata may luha,             In the eyes, there were tears,

May paghinulsol               There is a regret

asawang batan-on             Young wife / husband

Daw sa may pagbasol.      There is some blaming

Sa labing pagsunggod        In her great displeasure

na pilas ang dughan          The heart was wounded

nga hulat nga tamdan        waiting to be attended

kag ulo-ulohan                 and cajoled

Zaragoza is one of the famous “Trinidad Poetica Ilongga”. The two others were Serapion de la Torre and Delfin Gumban.

A delegate from Agusan in the 1934 Constitutional Convention, lawyer and former Justice, Delfin Gumban became a Spanish professor in a university in Iloilo City. His “Suba Ang Kinabuhi” (River is the Life) though marked or influenced with Spanish poet Jorge Manrique is featured as a classic in vernacular poetry.

Suba ang kinabuhi, Naga-ilig      River is the life, flowing

Wa-ay langan kag padayon        Non-stop and continuous

Sa lawod sang kamatayon          In the sea of death

Wala sa gahum kag manggad.    Not in power and wealth.

Mag-alangay ang binilog            Equality in mankind

Halangdon kag pinanambi,         Honorable and adjoining

bata, lampong kag tigulang       child, young and old

Wala sing kapin kag kulang        No more no less

Ang madalom kag manabaw,     The deep and the shallow,

  ang mainit kag masulog .           the hot and cold

Sa dagat tanan madulog.            In ocean all will stop

Ang gamhanan kag timawa        The powerful and the noblemen

  sa lulubngan magatulog.           In tomb will sleep

Diin ang mga tanda-an               Where art thy signs?

   sang kahimtangan napanas        of the condition faded

Katulad sang mga pangpang       Just like the banks

   sang suba nga nagalana!           of the river become greasy!

“Ang Gitara,” (The Guitar) by Magdalena Jalandoni is an ode of love and retrospect that according to Delfin Gumban is enough to enshrine Jalandoni as the first lyrical poet of the country. Doña Magdalena Jalandoni who is a famous Jareña, belongs to the period of time with Zaragoza and Gumban. She has a deep and profound learning and readings in Spanish and not just wrote in that language just like the poets of her time. Nevertheless, she possessed an extraordinary proficiency in Spanish meters. Let’s leave “Ang Gitara” speaks on behalf of the poetic Parnassus.

Ang baw-ing nga manga dalan      The desolated roads

 kon hadkan kag pasili-on              if kissed and polished

Sang bulan nga naga-ugsad           Of the full moon

 kag nangin angay sa sulu              which became like a lamp

Upod sa kulas sang hangin    Together with the rustling of the wind

  nga halus gani bati-on                which was barely heard

Ang guitara nagabuylog         The guitar is accompanying

  hinay nga hilibi-on                      gentle soft weeping

Sa pagsuguid sang kasakit            In telling the misery

  nga una niyang guinmulu.           which he lamented first

Halin sa patag kag bukid          From the fields and mountains

   nga sang bulan napawa-an         of the moon enlightened

Halin sa payag nga diotay             From the small hut

nga daw guinbuksan sing hungod  which seems like it was  
                                                         intentionally opened

Pamatii kay galanton ang          Listen it is humming a tune

  guitara nga duma-an                the guitar which is antiquated

Pamatii kay gatu-aw ang           Listen for the shout

    nahut niyang balaan                  of his sacred piece

Sang paghoy nga sa gugma       In the outburst that in love

    kag sa kamingaw natungod.     and in loneliness is referring to

Kag ayhan sa kasingkasing       And perhaps in the heart

    sang gakuskos nga tag-iya      of an owner who is brushing

May unay nga kasulub-on        There is an attachment of sadness

   nga dili didto makakas             that it will never be removed there

Kay samtang nagalanton          ‘Cos while humming

    ang tagsa ka nahut niya           each of his piece

Wala sing dili mawili     Nothing will never make you hooked up to

     sa pagpamati sa iya,                in listening to him

Wala sing dili bumatyag        No one will not feel or numbed

      sing kasulub-on nga lakas.     the sadness that is so strong

The Ilonggo poetry is, without a doubt, one of the richest treasure chest of our spiritual patrimony as a race. The poets of this language discusses all the angles of everyday living. Today, free stanzas are spreading.

The greatest poets in Hiligaynon today and in recent years were Santiago Alv. Mulato who is also known for his novels and chief editor in Ilonggo philology, Isidro Escarre Abeto, Joaquin Sola, Donato B. Flor de Liza, Conrado Norada, Ramon Muzones, Jerry V. Bionat and Peter Solis Nery. Just like their Spanish predecessors, they maintained without fading the measurement or size and form of poems, even the themes of patriotism and nationalism, history of glorious tradition of Ilonggo poetry.

The Confession Of The Ghost

An infamous criminal or bandit who could not have an eternal peace in another life after death because of the crimes committed in the world when he was alive is returning after his death. He appeared to the people and sometimes hitchhiking with the person riding a horse and sometimes revealing himself in the form of a coffin floating in the river until his meeting with a priest, his confession with the latter and the eventual pardon and forgiveness of the priest to him.

One night, a priest was awakened by a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he was shocked by what he saw. In the veranda is ghost peering through wearing a white dress. The priest asked guest what does he needs.  "I am Siam-Siam" (Nine-nine) he replied.

The priest made a sign of the cross and gather all his courage. He knows Siam-Siam.

"If so, why are you roaming around the land scaring people? Why don't you repent and confess for you and your neighbor and other people to find peace? "Father," answered Siam-Siam, "I am here to make a confession."

And Siam-Siam whose bones is spreading in the concrete floor knelt before the priest.

"This is what I want to confess."

When I was still alive, I killed 99 people and stolen 99 carabao or water buffalo and 99 cows, 99 pigs, 99 bananas and 99 guavas. Each sin was committed 99 times."

With this confession, every disturbance and horror brought by the ghost was stopped and since then, Siam-Siam was never seen again.