My online existence has been zapped to oblivion. I am back home in Manila but have no internet access. So all my contacts on various online media seem to be living behind a very high wall while all I have is a spool of thread and a paperclip – I can throw bits of paper stuck to the paperclip but the wind blows it away before it reaches the top of the wall.
So much for connecting with people. Sigh.
In a few hours I will sit for nearly a day among total strangers with one thing in common – we shall convince ourselves that a heap of metal, rubber, glass, plastic and other materials held together by technology (or magic, faith, man’s arrogance? what’s a better term?) will successfully (if not safely) take us across vast masses of land and water.
I wrote this poem many years ago while flying from Manila to Cape Town – today I fly the other direction, and maybe some day a poem from this current trip will be born. I’ve attempted a translation to accompany this post. The original Filipino appears in my book Baha-bahagdang Karupukan.
Kalawakang Binabagtas
lumilipad akong pabalik sa panahon
na anim na oras paatras
palayo sa sinapupunan
palalim nang palalim sa gabi
itong eroplano,
patay na ang mga ilaw sa napakahabang pasilyo
nakabalabal kami ng maninipis na kumot
humihinga ng hanging hiram lamang
sa kalawakang binabagtas
nakatiklop ang aking mga binti
nais bumulusok pauwi
sa payapang lawang pinagmulan
samantala, pinupuno ng mga sinag
ng bagong umaga ang inyong silid
at malapit ka nang magising, inay
paggising ninyo ang aking pagtulog
at higit pa sa anim na oras
ang muling mamamagitan sa ating daigdig
-o-
translation attempt 9abril2012 (I fly in a few hours)
1323-1341
pb2
The Space We Cross
I am flying back in time
six hours behind
away from where I was born*
deeper into the night
this plane plunges,
lights turned down in the long passage
we are wrapped in thin blankets
breathing air borrowed
from the space we cross
like a fetus with legs folded,
I wish to fall back home
into the calmness of a lake
meanwhile, rays of light
begin to fill your room
just before you wake up, mother
as you rise it will be time for me to seek
slumber, and more than mere six hours
rend me from your world
-o-
*the Filipino word “sinapupunan” means womb, but in translation it sounds inappropriate
Matangmanok 