by Vicente Rivera, Jr. ONE evening in August 1941, I came out of a late movie to a silent, cold night. I shivered a little as I stood for a moment in the narrow street, looking up at the distant sky, alive with stars. I stood there, letting the night wind seep through me, and […]
Long ago in Agamaniyog, the best-known, wealthy couple were Solotan sa Agamaniyog and his wife, Ba’i sa Agamaniyog. They were so wealthy that they owned almost half of the land in Agamaniyog. They had large herds of cows, carabaos, and horses. One morning, when the couple went down to the lakeshore to pray, they happened […]
Tausug Wisdom – To the Tausug, a proverb is masaalla, a word of Arabic origin. Some are pittuwa, or advice about life. Proverbs are part of daman or symbolic speech, which includes riddles and courtship dialogue. Some proverbs follow: Tausug: In lasa iban uba di hikatapuk.
Listen then while I narrate at length
The life of Lam-ang
Because his mother conceived him that month.
She did not abstain from any edible fruit:
Tamarind fruits tender and thin as bamboo strings,
Kamias, daldaligan,
Oranges and pomelos;
By Nick Joaquin THE MORETAS WERE spending St. John’s Day with the children’s grandfather, whose feast day it was. Doña Lupeng awoke feeling faint with the heat, a sound of screaming in her ears. In the dining room the three boys already attired in their holiday suits, were at breakfast, and came crowding around her, […]
by Carlos P. Romulo I am a Filipino – inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such, I must prove equal to a two-fold task – the task of meeting my responsibility to the past, and the task of performing my obligation to the future. I am sprung from a hardy […]
Bukidnon (Mindanao) A long time ago there was a very big crab which crawled into the sea. And when he went in he crowded the water out so that it ran all over the earth and covered all the land. Now about one moon before this happened, a wise man had told the people that […]
ni Erlinda Kintanar Alburo (Alang kang Rene, sa Leap Year 2004) Naa pay daghan dihang naglumpayat. Pananglitan, ang ulan sa sandayong— Ang liso sa iyang bayanan — Ang itoy nga nagkiat — Ang mananaog sa lumba — Ang naghikog diha sa taytayan — Si Inday nga mao pay pagkadawat og sulat ni Undo — ug […]
by Fatima V. Lim Six months since she arrived And yet she does not speak She must have been chained This I guess from the bruises On her wrists. But she will not Let me touch them. She trembles at the sight Of tall men, more so at those With shadows on their lips.
by Bienvenido N. Santos if time took longer than the blood rushing to my face or the pace were gentler than the flow of everlasting covenants I would with dedicated slowness remove my clothes piece by piece and fold them into a corner of your life and go back to them only after a quest […]