Maybe the title should be "some precious sheaves of paper." The short piece below I saved from mounds of paper and assorted files my packrat partner and I hoarded over the years.
Before the New Year dawned, we reclaimed some space, brightened a spare room by getting rid of cartons of paper. I applied a simple criterion for what should be kept: those of heart value stay, those of head (work-related) must go.
This poem, sent by a friend last Easter, stays in the saved files. Alongside the English text written by Mary Oliver is my handwritten translation into Filipino. In the translation venture, Merci Javier Dulawan of the Baguio Writers Group helped me, and I read this at the closing program of the second Cordillera Creative Writers Workshop in Sagada last year.
This is my way of greeting one and all a very good year, one where every bit of life is valued.
THE SENSORY WORLD
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
Into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
How to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
Which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
MAPANDAMDAMING MUNDO
Hindi ko tiyak kung ano ang panalangin
Alam ko kung paano magpatihulog
Sa damo, paano lumuhod sa damo,
Paano tumunganga at mabiyayaan, paano maglakad-lakad sa kabukiran,
Na siyang ginagawa ko buong araw.
Sabihin mo sa akin, ano pa ang dapat kong ginawa?
Hindi ba't lahat ay namamatay, at biglaan?
Sabihin mo sa akin, ano ang balak mong gawin
Sa iyong iisang mapangahas at mahalagang buhay?
Photo by KIMI FERNANDEZ
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