THE WARAY, ACCORDING TO OYZON
Book review by Michael Carlo C. Villas
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An Maupay ha mga Waray ug iba pa nga mga siday
Voltaire Q. Oyzon
NCCA and UPV Tacloban Creative Writing Program
Manila, 2008; 59 pp
It was probably the fourth or fifth draft of An Maupay ha mga Waray when Voltaire Oyzon first showed it to me for review. It was a sheaf of poems from seven years of writing. Forty-seven poems in Waray, a major Philippine language spoken in Samar island and Leyte’s western half, fill this volume. From its very title, An Maupay ha mga Waray is a book for and about the Warays. It means “The Good Thing about Warays” or “Our virtue as Warays.”
An irony, though, is to be noted because even if the book has the word “good” or “virtue” in its title, depending on how one translates maupay into English, the book doesn’t simply give the reader good feelings. Tagnok, as said in Merlie Alunan’s introduction, is an apt word to describe the effect of this entire poetry collection. Like that tiny, pesky insect, every poem in this book disturbs as much as delights. Halfway through the collection, the reader may just find himself studded with “insect bites” somewhere in his/her dughan, which for me, is the symbolic seat of the Waray person’s human center. Maybe you’ll find yourself laughing and sympathizing with Man Uyik, Baoy, Tipay, Dansoy, Anling, among the many characters speaking in An Maupay. It is this proficiency with listening to the people in the Barugo of his imagination that Oyzon creates for us worlds we know exist but because of their ordinariness, we hardly sense them.
Oyzon knows where his native tongue glides and sags, where he can sing the siday with the tact and restraint of a musician. Waray rings in his ear, with its tones, accents, and rhythms coming to life, “with the delicacy and finesse required by the poetic processes. Best of all, in his memory were a gallery of personae to speak his poetry for him, stored from a childhood spent in Barugo…” An Maupay is Waray language in the fine, flowing form of the verse livre.
The collection is, thus, a slight breaking away from the tradition of rhymed, metered verse promoted by the Sanghiran poets and imitated by the DYVL Puplonganon poets, a long-running radio poetry contest in local station, DYVL. I say “slight” because Oyzon still writes along the tradition of the social commentary abundant in the works of the Sanghiran members. The Sanghiran is a group composed of Waray-waray’s literary luminaries then, the likes of Iluminado Lucente, Vicente de Veyra, Eduardo Makabenta, Norberto Romualdez, and Casiano Trinchera. The DYVL siday, in form and to some extent, in content, goes along with the Sanghiran’s poetics, except, of course, for its outright hortatory tone, which seems to issue from a single person of moral authority addressing a faceless audience. An Maupay is of a different quality: Oyzon lilts with his Waray, but bares the human heart with humility, as in the poem, An Gugma (Love):
bisan paghadson
ngan bisan pagsunugon
kun hira—sugad han kugon
ngan han tuna—
nagkakaayon,
maturok nga maturok
la gihapon.
Even if cut/ and burned/ if, like the grass/ and the soil, they are content with each other,/ they will grow/ and be growing still. (Translation by Janis Claire B. Salvacion)
Oyzon here uses the end rhyme on to sustain the music of the poem. With tight and neat lines, the poem as in other poems in the volume like Liso, Lubi, Mga Pakiana, Yana nga aadto ka na tumabok hinin salog, and Hiagi conjures the feeling of suddenness. In fact, the collection begins and ends with poems of this kind, thus, Pagsidlit han adlaw ha Kankabatok: usa ka aga and Yana, making compact poems woven along various themes. Pagsidlit is a poem of how one remembers someone he loves, one morning, while watching the Kankabatok sunrise. Yana is a poem about the need to let go because the now, our yana, is only good for that moment.
With the poems in between, one senses a maturing of voice: from the juvenile preoccupations of the poems from An Pagsidlit to Pagtambal ni Apoy Kuwa han piol ni Anling, an iya ulitawohay nga apo, interrupted somewhere in the middle by a graphic innovation called An Talipsay han Gugma, to the witnessing power of the protest poems, Didto ha Amon, Hi Salvador, Kawatan ako, Para han mga tudlo nga naglara hinin akon duyan nga uway, Pagbarol, Nagbalyo-balyo ako hin Nanay, and Paghimaya, to the mocking laughter prevalent in Waray country, rife with all its irony, in the poems, An Maupay ha mga Waray, Kan Totoy pag-asoy han agsob nga karantahay ha ira balay, Lagong, and An paghugos ni ‘Tay Gayok kan Man Uyik nga parahubog, to issues of a grieving heart from the poem, Yana nga aadto ka na tumabok hinin salog to Yana.
When read by a Waray living the lives of the personae in the poems, a sudden grab on the throat is felt. This is because An Maupay is an artistic and honest account of and for the Waray, how he/she lives, dies, attends funerals, says yes, loves, copes with and resists the changes confronting his culture and language. Oyzon’s poetry is a violent incision on the social and economic conditions that continue to alienate people in this part of the country from his own home, language, and culture. This is where his poems become unsettling because the situations depicted are lived realities, like poverty, for instance, which continues to drag us into the limbo of choicelessness: “Kay dinhi hini nga dapit/ mapili ka la han kauunongan—/ an bala,/ o an kawarayan.” (For in these parts,/ only two choices remain:/ the bullet/ or poverty.) As a poet immersed in the lifeways of the Waray people, Voltaire Oyzon has achieved much for his own culture: the critical, insightful voice so few in this side of the world.
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7 Responses to “THE WARAY, ACCORDING TO OYZON”
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hi kuya! (aha feeling close)
i got d chance to read your book.
twas rizza’s copy.. nanlabot la ak.
twas nice! hope we’ve got the talent too.. ahah.
It’s nice to know there are young people today who cherish Waray-Waray culture and heritage. I hope this would signal the return of the Sanghiran days. A week ago, I had a conversation with Mr. Baltazar Indriga, a former President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He was one of the speakers of the National Competitiveness Council Roadshow in Region 8, held at the Ritz Tower de Leyte. He said, in order to be competitive, we should first be proud of ourselves, proud of our place, proud of our culture and heritage. Then he mentioned that come November 22, they are having a Visayan Musical at the CCP Main Theater, geared towards promoting the Visayan culture and to regain some songs which have been pirated by Tagalog composers. Take the case of the “Kasadya Ning Taknaa”, a favorite Christmas song of the Visayans (specially the Cebuanos). It was translated into “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” without giving recognition to its composer Vicente “Enteng” Rubi. The Cebuano “Sa Kabikiran” which is a favorite orchestra piece, was likewise translated into Tagalog without giving due credit to its original composer and lyricist Piux Cabahar. Then I mentioned that, the song “Waray-Waray” which has been Tagalized may have been a product of intellectual piracy. The lyrics in Waray-Waray speaks well of the good traits of the Waray-Waray people, whereas the Tagalog version mocks the Waray, specially the Waray woman. He said we must find out who the original composer and lyricist of the song so we will be able to correct a great injustice nay a crime to the Waray-Waray people. I appeal to everybody, lets do some research and find out who the original composer and lyricist of the song “Waray-Waray” so we could undo the injustice that has been perpetrated on us Waraynons.
wow! sir, kun my noble award la para hit im dako nga contribution han aton waraynon nga kultura, angay ka gud la matagan hin sugad hito kadako nga premyo.
hinaot ipadayon mo ito nga imo bulawan nga talento!
matry ak sir pagkig-urusa hit preserbasyon hit aton kultura nga waray pinaagi ha mga siday.. mahilig gihap ak hito, english nga lang. peace out! pero yana, yakan ko pa matry ak.
kagdamo nga kusog!
wow! sir, kun may noble award la para hit imo dako nga contribution hit waraynon nga kultura pinaagi hit pansurat, angay ka gud la matagan hito nga premyo.
Hinaot ko unta nga imo pa ito ipadayon nga imo bulawan nga talento ngan ipasarang ha kagdamo.
God Bless!
I never thought I would live to see Waray woven into poetry and a thing of beauty. When I was in high school at St.Paul’s we had a subject in Tagalog. The term Pilipino as a subject which is a misnomer came much later when non-Tagalogs foremost among them the Cebuanos, who outnumber every linguistic group in the Archipelago. started complaining on why Tagalog was being taught even to the non-Tagalogs. Not that I have anything against Tagalog for it has produced literature like Florante at Laura, Ibon Adarna, etc. worth reading.
Mr. Garcia, ever a gentleman if ever I have come across one, was a Tagalog who was serious about his business. He would fine anyone in class speaking either English or Waray. Though I have always tried to be a dutiful student I must have racked the most fines in class which was ten centavos per infraction. The problem with his regulation as is the pitfall of most ill conceived laws devised by man is its implementation. I simply refused to pay saying why should I be penalized for speaking the language of my people.
Now that I am reading Waray in its most earthly, elemental form.I can almost say I could die happier.
I spent at most only two years of schooling in Guiuan of which my mother was a native but in between the school years I was happiest spending vacation time there and in Sulangan. And I can recall one of those days spent on the streets hawking a book no one wanted to buy or even look at, not unlike the ways of the Jehovah Witnesses. I have forgotten the title of the book but not the author, Mgr. Federico Morrero, who lies buried under the ground of the Baptismal Chapel of the Church of the Inmaculate Conception.
I must have missed a lot for that was the only book in Waray I have ever put my hands on. We are indeed the poorer when in the world’s quest for the economic advantages that proficiency in the English language purpotedly bestows,we lose our way and no longer can hear the call of the cogon and our own brown cracked or soggy earth.
As the song, I Could Have Danced All Night, goes, now I could spread my wings and do a thousand things I’ve never done before knowing that Waray will not go the way of countless dialects around the world that die each year due to lack of appreciation and disuse and the consequent dying of its people.
As for me listening to the beautiful songs An Iroy Na Tuna and Nahibaro Ako Tigikan Ka Kono and even the ribaldry of Tuba An Maupay Na Tanaman is happiness pure and simple even if heard a world away. I could imagine a little boy cozily content in the warmth of the bosom of his mother.
huh? kamusta? kadati man ngay an nim magsurat.. haha… i really liked it.. keep it up!