Thursday, November 10, 2022

Guest Blogger Manuel Lino Faelnar - Cebuano Advocate

 

My Guest Blogger is MANUEL LINO FAELNAR, am advocate of the native Cebuano language. I knew him way back in Cebu as a good friend of my brother Jess Manguerra. I was recently surprised and delighted to read some of his poems in Bisaya and asked if he could share those in my blog. He kindly obliged. Here then is information and the poems with translation by Manuel Faelnar. 

 


Born in  Cebu City  September 23, 1938. 
Education 
Primary schooling (grades 1-4) Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, Cebu City. 
Intermediate (grades 5-6) and High School (1st to 4 th year) 
Colegio del Sto.Niño, Cebu City (HS class 1956).
Pre-Law Ateneo de Manila (class 1958).
Law and Jurisprudence (Ll.B and BSJ)
University of the Philippines, Diliman , QC (class 1962)
MBA UP Cebu.
Degré Français Comerciale, Alliance Française de Manille.

 

Work.
Counsel, Asian Development Bank , 1970-1996.
Resource person of DepEd, Reviewer for Cebuano language materials for the Mother Tongue-Based Multi Lingual Education Program.

  
 I have always felt at ease writing Binisaya poems as, in my view, I would not be constrained by foreign (i.e., Western) structures and straight
jackets. I could write very much as I pleased and as I felt, giving free vent to the flow of my native tongue.  
 
  I would like to share with you some of my poems. The first one, Hinumdom (Memory) was published by Sonny Villafania in Makata 2004 (a web site). In the spirit of World Poetry Day which will fell on on March 21, 2005, I write both the Cebuano and English versions. Both versions can be sung to the tune of  I Wonder Who's Kissing her Now.  copyright is not a problem.The tune is very old so
Here is the first poem.

Hinumdom (Memory)
 
Nganong nahinumdom ako,
Hinumdom ako kanimo,
Ang kagahapon wala magdayon,
Nganong nahinumdum ako.
 
Nganong gimingaw man ako,
Gimingaw ako kanimo,
Akong pagpangga gitalikdan mo, 
Nganong gimingaw man ako.
 
Imong gitalikdan ako,
Nasamdan and kasingkasing,
Apan pag-agi sa mga tuig,
Baga na sabliga'g tubig.
 
Ang palad wala mag-uyon,
Ugod kita magdayon,
Og pag-agi's dugayng panahon, 
Wala nay gibati karon.
 
Hinkalimtam untang tanan,
Lahi na ang kinabuhi,
Nganong mibalik and paghinumdom, 
Batan-on, wala pay dag-um."
 
Translation of the Poem (Memory)
 
Why am I reminded of you. 
Why do I remember our youth,
Our yesterday that did not push through,
Why am I reminded of you.
 
Why am I so lonesome for you,
With feelings of sad loneliness,
You couldn't give 
My desired happiness, 
Why am I so lonesome for you.
 
Your love you could not give to me,
You wounded me, left me in tears,
But with the passing of so many years,
The embers long died out in me.
 
Our stars did not favor us then, 
Nor did we our paths cross again,
And with the passing of time in our lives,
The feelings were gone now besides.
 
Forgotten, you were out of mind,
Life moved on, going with the wind,
Why do the memory of our cloudless youth,
Come back to remind me of you.
 
          Somehow the translation seems to be another work altogether. But I guess translations are like that.

***

Manuel Lino


Let me share with you the following Visayan poem and English translation, both of which I wrote.

The poem and translation have been published in the Dalityapi- Makata internet poetry magazine, Vol 7, No. 3 (2006). The last two lines went missing in the original translation and they have now been supplied, marked with an asterisk*


Dalaga Sa Pila (Girl From Pila) Sinulat ni Manuel Lino G. Faelnar


"Dalaga sa Pila”


Dalaga sa Pila,

Wā pay tag-iya,

Ayaw hilabti

Kay wā pa hinghagki.

Katam-is og pahiyom,

Kalami ilarawan

Sa paghinumdom

Ning Dalaga sa Pila

Nga bag-ong kaila.


Translation of poem

by Manuel Lino G. Faelnar


Girl from Pila

Not yet possessed,

Don't touch her,

She's not yet been kissed .

Her sweet smile I capture,

In memory's rupture,

*This sweet girl from Pila,

Whom I have just met.*


Both Visayan and English versions Copyright 2006 by Manuel Lino G. Faelnar


***

Here are two of my poems which were published in Makata
April 8, 2007 issue.

Linghod nga Gugma
Tana sa kabukiran,
Ilalom sa mga bitoon,
Na-ay palad nga malipayon,
Gakson tika ug hagkan,
Gapuson sa mga bukton,
Ining bulahan nga himaya
Linghod tang paghigugma.
Young Love
To the hills let us go
Into the lovers' bough,
Now breathes our happiness,
Great will be our kisses,
Great too our embraces,
In ethereal joy we kiss,
Love so young is bliss.

*** 


Bendisyon
Hinaot unta kanunay kang malipayon,
Hinaot unta kanunay kang masadyaon,
Hinaot unta ang buot mo kanunay magaan,
Hinaot unta sa kinabuhi dili ka paduhaduhon,
Hinaot unta dili ka pahilakon,
Ug hinaot unta muabot kanimo
Ang maayong palad nga gipangandoy mo
Benediction (translation)
May you always be happy,
May you always be merry,
May your cares always be light,
May there be no doubts in sight,
May none make you cry and suffer, And may you in your life acquire,
The good fortune of your heart's desire.
(c) Manuel Lino G. Faelnar

tags: Cebu literature, Cebuano poetry, Cebuano poems. Bisaya literature

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