TWO
POEMS BY E. SAN JUAN, JR.
(TRANSLATED
FROM THE ORIGINAL FILIPINO BY THE AUTHOR)
WANDERLUST
IN MAKATI, PHILIPPINES
Whirling
in the maniacal traffic, you're still jobless and traipsing here and there.
Counting
posts and stars, you arrive at "nirvana."
Unable
to catch time, you are assailed by Madonna's "Like a Virgin."
Worms in
the guts or in dirt? You know the
twisting innards of the bourgeoisie but their advice for you is to bear the
pangs, convulsing....
Eluding
caresses when you're up the wall.
"New
World Order" is here, they say, so to hell with your rage. Drag your cloak while fuming--
Meteors
and mud shroud your whitening eyeballs.
Pushed
up your wazu are the machinations of capitalist society, but what can you do?
"Sir,
alms...." (Pluck it out, bad luck.)
Dispossessed,
disinherited, while the ghouls of democracy feast on....
Though
your tongue's hanging out, your navel and anus are still stuck....
On your
footsole is inscribed the hieroglyphic of those fried in their own fat while
tempted by Saudi juice.
"How
much are you, Miss?" (Sell yourself so as not to lick the salt of
contempt.)
Tripped
by leaves of grass, your sharpness will sensitize the rock. Beware....
You
don't want to scratch your belly. Can
the turtle overtake the monkey?
Skeletons
of tanks and bones of the killers and their victims criss-cross the deserts of
Kuwait and Iraq.
Autonomy?
Or each one grabbing for one's self?
You
wandered up to Ayala Avenue. With eyes
shut swallowing your balls down your throat.
Prawns
dreaming, carried by the waves....
You rush
on the train in Dr. Zhivago (the movie) but we only reach
Tutuban station.
In the
dungeon of your fantasies penetrates and seeps in the scent of gunpowder.
Because
forbearance cannot yield nor garner, hold tight the sharpest blade you can
grab.
[Translation of "Lagalag Sa Makati"
by the author]
---------------
MEGAMALL
IN METRO MANILA
A
shrimp's life, one scratch and three pecks....
Your
vision is shrouded by Stateside goods galore even though you don't know the
signification of commodity fetishism.
Condolence
to the down and out.
The
country's progressing, they say. We owe this to the "new heroes," the
domestics (Overseas Contract Workers) in Hong Kong, Singapore, Saudi, and in
Subic, Alabang, and elsewhere.
No more
barricades even though crocodiles continue to scavenge the shores.
The odor
of Pasig River snakes its way up to the boudoir of Malacanang Palace.
"Utang
na loob" [inner debt] and "hiya" [shame] are alleged to be the
two keys to the character of the Filipino.
We watch
on the movie screen the fantastic rumbles of Schwarzenegger, James Bond, Bruce
Lee and Sigourney Weaver.
Your
thick skull might be contaminated by the fate that's written on the wall.
For the
nation to develop, FREE TRADE ZONES and credit cards are needed.
Kaput...
Tailing behind, you leap and die.
In order
to test the purity of gold, commit juramentado
running amok in Jollibee.
Wherever
the wilderness, snakes abound, approved by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund.
In the
crowds flowing down the escalator, cow-grunts and horse-sighs encounter the
antennae of your conscience.
"Look
at yourself, like a shitty rogue."
Because
the GNP rose, we don't need the New People's Army. The victims of military
zoning are piling up, while in Muntinlupa rot hundreds of political prisoners.
Debts
outside up to the hilt, what about debts within?
Up to
now, no deal, brother. Your strategy's a dud.
Your
dreams are now on motorcycles.
Still
take care? The pain is in between the
toes, but....
"Shit,
you even named me as an accomplice."
When the
pile is way up, it's time to level it with the strickle.
[Translation of "Megamall in Metro
Manila"]
__________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
_____________________________________
E. SAN JUAN is co-director of
Philippine Forum, New York City, and heads the Philippine Cultural Studies
Center in Connecticut, USA He is at present visiting professor of literature
and cultural studies at the National Tsing Hua University and Academia Sinica
fellow in Taiwan. He was 2003 professor of American Studies at Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Among his recent books are RACISM AND CULTURAL
STUDIES (Duke University Press) and WORKING THROUGH THE CONTRADICTIONS
(Bucknell University Press). Five books in Filipino were launched recently:
HIMAGSIK (De La Salle University Press), TINIK SA KALULUWA (Anvil). ULIKBA (UST Publishing House), and SAPAGKAT INIIBIG KITA and KUNDIMAN SA GITNA NG KARIMLAN (U.P. Press) His collection of poems in Filipino written
in the last four decades was published by Ateneo de Manila University Press in
the volume ALAY SA PAGLIKHA NG BUKANGLIWAYWAY. His new collection of essays in Filipino, LUPANG HINIRANG, LUPANG TINUBUAN will be launched by De La Salle U Press, and essays in English, BETWEEN EMPIRE AND INSURGENCY, will be released by UP Press this year.
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