Felino Garcia’s prolegomenon, 4th and last of 4 Parts

IT IS MY contention that Felino S. Garcia, Jr. is a force to reckon with in literary criticism for our generation. Probably the best there is in Western Visayas based on output and track record.

Five years ago, recognizing his work in the field of literary history and criticism, The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. awarded him the 2014 Special Peter’s Prize for Excellence in Literary Criticism, and made him the first ambassador of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for literary scholarship.

In the last four outings of “My Life as Art”, I have yielded my column space to Felino’s umbrella essay about the gift of essays crafted especially for my book of poems “At My Father’s Wake.”

At My Father’s Wake was published in the US on January 29, 2019. It’s basically ten elegies in English with their Filipino and Hiligaynon versions that I wrote/translated myself. But what made the book so much bigger than my poems are the smart introductions and intelligent commentaries by foremost Filipino writers, who happened to be my friends.

I hope you enjoyed Felino’s work. For a full appreciation of the prolegomenon, I encourage you to read back the installments you have missed in this four-part series.

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Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night — A Prolegomenon of the Introductory Essays to the Elegies

by Felino S. Garcia, Jr.

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Written in a Hiligaynon reminiscent of the literary masters of the language exemplified by Ramon Muzones, Magdalena Jalandoni, Flavio Zaragoza Cano, Conrado Norada, Santiago Alv. Mulato, among others, Ismael Java’s essay, “Haya”, bursts with intellectual fervor and lyrical vigor through his careful and studied use of the Hiligaynon lexicon.

Listen to the melodious syntax of his description—“…ginsipadsipad sang manunulat sa pulo ka bahin nga mga pagpanaghoy sang balatyagon ang mga nagapunduk nga mga daga sang paghibubun-ot sa dughan. Mga panukmaton nga wala napautwas sang buhi pa ang nagtaliwan. Mga panukmaton nga naghatag sang tunay nga larawan sang pag-inupdanay kag kaangtanan sang anak sa amay. Mga panukmaton sang dughan nga nagasinggitan sang mga kakulangan sang kaangtanan.”

Take note of his use of the word “daga” as a metaphor for the elegies — “mga nagapunduk nga mga daga sang paghibubun-ot sa dughan.” It comes from the Spanish word “daga” which means a dagger. Hence, the elegies are like daggers of unexpressed anger stuck deep in the heart (my translation).

The expressive and onomatopoeic onslaught of the word “panukmaton” approximates the semiotics of the English infinitive—to blame, yet panukmaton’s very own verbal and orthographic strength emanates from the dagger’s sharp, and piercing pain, as its psychological mooring in the Hiligaynon cultural sensibility and linguistic sign system allow it to be embedded nowhere else but in the heart (“mga panukmaton sang dughan”).

Speaking of the heart, Felino S. Garcia, Jr.’s essay, “Ang Nagakabuhi sa Tagipusuon”, locates redemption and resurrection in the heart (“didto nagakabuhi sa tagipusuon niya ang iya amay”). 

Obviously, this is not to be construed as the human body, per se, coming to life like Lazarus of the New Testament; but of memories, reminiscences in both calm and inclement weather. And most of all, love — or what has remained of it after all the words unspoken, and unsayable, between father and son (“magpalangga sa liwat kag tubtub sa walay katubtuban”).

“Pamukaw kag Pahanumdum” is Ma. Joji B. Tan’s essay on the elegies. As what its title suggests, it should be treated as a treatise to awaken (pamukaw) and remind (pahanumdum) everyone, particularly the youth, about the need to resolve what has remained unresolvable, to rectify what has continued to be crooked and lopsided in the relationship between parent and child, most especially when there is more than enough time to straighten things out, hold hands and tearfully embrace, before it might become too late. “Ginalaum ko nga magmuklat ang mga mata sang mga kabataan sa tion nga mabasa nila ang Sa Haya sang Akon Amay. Ang paghangup, pag-ulikid, pagpalangga, kag suud nga kaangtanan nagakadapat mangibabaw samtang buhi pa ang ginikanan. Kon indi, mangin ulihi na ang tanan.”

Most insightful is Tan’s recollection of her own difficult moments with her late father made more vivid while she was reading the elegies. “Sa akon pagbasa sang Napulo ka Panaghoy  ni Peter Solis Nery nga ginatigulohan Sa Haya sang Akon Amay, akon nabatyagan ang pagpanandug sini bangud may mabudlay man ako nga kaangtanan sa akon nagtaliwan nga amay.” 

This must have urged her to write her essay, I can only surmise, perhaps to serve as an unwavering beacon of hope and faith in the midst of a not-so-perfect, and sometimes murky and dark relationship, between parent and child.

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Redemptive Power

When I was tasked of reading through the introductory essays where each one is both a “reading” and a “response” to the elegies, I willingly accepted the challenge.

At first glance, a neophyte reader may be overwhelmed by an avalanche of different, and not necessarily concurring, perspectives about the elegies, and he/she might concede to the onslaught of words. However, the seasoned reader would rather take up the cudgels not for a linear mode of simply building a monolithic and homogenizing taxonomy of the contents of each essay. But rather, reading the essays for the latter, is, in fact, a way of coming to terms with each essayist’s subject-position (in its poststructuralist sense) on the elegies. And this is the path I have avowedly taken in writing this prolegomenon. In hoc signo vinces.

In all these introductory essays for the elegies (a total of sixteen), one cannot help but notice, and in fact, be awed by the generosity of spirit, the abundance of words—this cacophony of voices coming together post-mortem, this reflective verbosity, this radiant moment of impassioned readings in three languages, this simultaneous, superlative downpour of friendship, humanity, and love. Amor con amor se paga.

The elegies, indeed, have provided the rare textual space and opportunity for this once-in-a-lifetime literary convergence, as if all these were long foretold in the planets and stars.

Linguistically diverse and replete with their respective idiosyncrasies and fierce devotions, these essays serve as testaments to poetry’s redemptive power — undoubtedly the unrelenting singular force transcending our very own mortality. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)

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