CANDLEGRIEF

English Version of the Poem, LIDAY TI KANDELA, published in BANNAWAG MAGAZINE, issue January 26, 2012.

 

On this table for two,

my arms support the weight

of my forehead 

plowing the wooden surface

and this candle before my head

is weeping and the tears,

like a river 

strongly flowing

towards the sea.

 

(Is the salt  my pain

and the tasteless water your feeling?)

 

 

The fading flame is so lonely

but  still  mirroring 

brightly your face,

kissed by the thickening darkness

that drinks your empty chair in front of me..

 

( Did I come as a moth tonight

or am I  really a moth as a powdery residue

of  my sobbing blaze? )

 

I don’t hear any other sound

except that very sweet 

melody of the band

but  oh, how heartbreaking does it bring!

YOU ARE SO SAD TONIGHT

You are  so sad tonight.

Your soaked pillow is your raft

and your bed, as deep and wide as the sea…

 

Your whimpers

are sucked by the cracks

in the walls of darkness- bent, clamped

till they  gradually fade  unheard…

 

You are  longing for a spongy song to hear

from angels with wings in the sky,

a song that gently kisses your brow,

your hair,  like how a  wind

softly combs a tangled forest…

 

But is there anyone who could render you one?

 

Your loneliness is a rough ball in your throat

No matter how hard you swallow it,

It just sticks there like a rolling thunder –

aggravates the rain pouring on your rooftop

or tears dropping on your white blanket…

 

You are so lonely now, your eyes

like twin crimson suns  falling to a waiting grave;

more lonely than the elegy soon to be read

beside the rectangular wooden home of your being,  

more sorrowful than your life’s video in the eyes of the mourners..

 

Breathe so deep, my beloved; succumb to thoughts

of this night- you are more desolate than the dirge

that will usher you so dearly to your sepulchre…

 

 

Corazon F. Quiamas

9/27/2011

Daniwanka A Salaksak

 

Daniwanka a salaksak
A nangkuros ti bubungan
Ti gasat; sumaenka kadagiti simmuka
A balikas nga iwarasko kadagiti paladpad
Ti agal-aligagaw a rikna; baribari
Nga angot nga angsaw ti pul-oy
A bugnaw ti lunod.

Ta diakon kayat
A bumangon manen ti naitanem
Nga apges a manggammat ti agbebessag
A kinataok ket mabatiak
Nga awan patinggana a balud
Ti et-et kadenam a nakareppet
Kuppit a barukong
Ken kiwingkiwingen a panunot.