FEATURED POETS IN TRANSLATION: EDITH L. TIEMPO and JOI BARRIOS, with Translator RALPH GALAN

EDITH L. TIEMPO and JOI BARRIOS, with Translations by RALPH SEMINO GALAN

Poems and Translations were first published in Sa Mga Pagitan Ng Buhay at iba pang pagtutulay / Between-Living and Other Bridgings by Ralph Semino Galán

Between-Living

By Edith L. Tiempo

When we love a wanderer,

We wait for footsteps

That may, or may not, come:

First the hours-the-days-

Then-years. Then, never.

Yet always we do know

Whereof we wait:

The creaking gate

The scraping of the steps

And at the door the level gaze;

For these we wait to know

The roving one is home.

We boast of a green thumb

And coax the stems to bloom:

Hibiscus, santan, the wholesome

Cabbage rose; and make ambitious room

For gardenias, irises, and orchids

(Taking time to scour the aphids),

And maybe, soon or late

The flowers show;

But always we do know

Whereof we wait:

The nectar and the odors,

And the windblown blazing colors.

So it’s the space between

The wishing and the end

That is the true unknown;

The massive world’s timekeeping

And our own agile flow

Never to blend.

And thus we care,

And thus we live

Not for the end

(Since that is not unknown),

It is the wait, creative

Life and love in full;

Unfinished, uncertain, unknown,

Yet mocking the known end

That comes sooner,

Later, or not at all.

Sa mga Pagitan ng Buhay
Ralph Semino Galán (translator) 

Kapag nagmamahal tayo ng galâ,
Maghihintay tayo ng mga yabag
Na maaaring, o di maaaring, dumating.
Lilipas ang mga oras, tapos mga araw,
Tapos mga taon, hanggang hindi na talaga.
Ngunit laging batid natin
Kung ano ang ating hinihintay:
Langitngit ng tarangkahan
Mga yapak sa hagdanan
At sa pintuan ang matatag na titig;
Inaabangan natin ang mga palatandaang ito
Na umuwi na sa tahanan ang galâ.

Pinagyayabang natin ang kakayahang
Magpayabong at susuyuin ang mga tangkay:
Gumamela, santan, ang dalisay
Na rosal romano; at magbibigay puwang
Para sa mga gardenia, liryo at waling-waling
(Matapos kaskasin ang mga pulgon),
At bakasakali, malapit na o malayo pa,
Lilitaw ang mga bulaklak;
Ngunit laging batid natin
Kung ano ang ating hinihintay:
Ang pulot-pukyutan at mga halimuyak,
At ang mga hinanging nagliliyab na kulay.

Kaya ang espasyo sa mga pagitan
Ng pagnanais at katuparan
Ang siyang tunay na walang nakaaalam:
Ang paghihintay ng malawak na mundo
At ang ating mabilis na pagdaloy
Na hindi nakikihalubilo.

At tayo ay mag-aaalala,
At tayo ay mabubuhay
Hindi para sa tiyak na katuparan
(Dahil hindi iyan ang tunay na di natin alam),
Kundi ang paghihintay, malikhain,
Buhay at pag-ibig na lubos:
Di tapos, di sigurado, di alam,
Ngunit kinukutya ang tiyak na katuparan
Na dumarating malapit na,
Malayo pa, o hindi na talaga.

*

Babae Akong Namumuhay nang Mag-isa

By Joi Barrios

Babae akong namumuhay nang mag-isa,

hiwalay sa asawa,

matandang dalaga,

kerida,

puta.

Ang aking pag-iisa’y

batik na itinuring,

latay na pabaon ng nakaraan,

pilat na taglay habambuhay.

May pagsusulit na di ko nakayanan,

may timbangang sumukat sa aking pagkukulang,

may pagsusuring kumilatis

sa pagkatanso ng aking pagkatao.

Lagi’y may paghuhusga sa aking pag-iisa.

Ang di nila nakita’y

akin ang pasya.

Maliit na kalayaang

hinahamak ng iba pang

pagkapiit at pagkaalipin

sa aking lipunan.

Ang pag-iisa’y di pagtalikod sa

pag-ibig, o pagnanasa, o pananagutan.

Hindi ito pagsuko

Sa katuparan ng mga pangako

o pagkakatutuo ng mga pangarap.

Hindi pagtanaw sa buhay

nang hubad sa pag-asa.

Paghangad lamang

na kamay ko ang magpatakbo sa aking orasan,

puso at isipan ang sumulat ng aking kasaysayan,

sarili ko ang humubog sa aking kabuuan.

Hayaan akong mabuhay nang payapa,

nang hindi ikinakabit sa aking pangalan

ang mga tawag ng pagkutya:

puta,

kerida

matandang dalaga,

hiwalay sa asawa,

babae man akong namumuhay nang mag-isa.

Woman Who Lives Alone
Ralph Semino Galán (translator) 

I am a woman who lives alone,
separated from spouse,
old maid,
mistress,
whore.

My being alone

is deemed a stain,
welt of the legacy of the past,
scar I will bear for the rest of my life.

There was a test I did not pass,
a scale that measured my lack,
a scrutiny that determined
the falseness of my being.
Always a judgment on my being alone.

What they failed to see is that
the choice is mine.
A little liberty
being despised by the other
forces and enslavements
of my society.

But being alone is not turning my back
on love, or desire, or responsibilities.
It is not giving up
on the fulfillment of promises
or the realization of dreams.
It is not looking at life
bereft of hope.

It is only my wish
that my hands wind my own clock;
heart and mind chronicle my own history;
myself who will shape the entirety of my being.

Permit me thus to live in tranquility
without the labels of derision
attached to my name:
whore,
mistress,
old maid,
separated from spouse,
though I am a woman who lives alone.

*****

Edith L. Tiempo was a poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic who was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in the Philippines. More information at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tiempo

Joi Barrios (Maria Josephine Barrios-Leblanc) teaches Filipino and Philippine Literature at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies and the Asian American Program of the University of California, Berkeley. She has a Ph.D. in Filipino and Philippine Literature from the University of the Philippines and has served as Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters. She is the author/editor of more than a dozen books, among them, her poetry collection, To Be a Woman is To Live at a Time of War (Institute of Women's Studies, St. Scholastica's College, 1990), and the anthology, Savage Stage: Plays by Ma-Yi Theater Company (Ma Yi Theater Company, 2007). For her contributions to literature, she was among the one hundred women chosen as Weavers of History for the Philippine Centennial Celebration. In 2004, she received the TOWNS (Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service) Award in Manila, Philippines.

Ralph Semino Galán, poet, literary and cultural critic, translator and editor, is the Assistant Director of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies. He is an Associate Professor of Literature, the Humanities and Creative Writing in the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters and the UST Graduate School. He has a B.A. in English (Major in Literature), magna cum laude, from the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, and an M.A. in English Studies (Major in Creative Writing) from UP Diliman. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Literature in the UST Graduate School. His poems in English and Filipino have won prizes in the Philippine Panorama (1993) and Home Life Magazine (1998) poetry contests. His works, both creative and critical, have been published in numerous national and international anthologies and literary journals. He is the author of the following books: The Southern Cross and Other Poems (UBOD New Authors Series, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2005), Discernments: Literary Essays, Cultural Critiques and Book Reviews (UST Publishing House, 2013), From the Major Arcana (USTPH, 2014), and Sa mga Pagitan ng Buhay at Iba pang Pagtutulay (USTPH, 2018).