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4
Golden Age

TALES OF ANCIENT IBAL:  
The Deluge and the Visit of the Celestial Siblings, p.4

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And the Golden Age of Ibal

Beckoned to the Celestial Siblings

As they marveled again

At its crystal cataracts and rivers

 

And from the firmament they descended 

Under the full moon when Haliya

Was full and fertile and ready

To share her blessings with the people

 

And the women stepped in unison 

In their graceful tarok, clapped and waved their 

Hands at her ripening belly, raised their stems

 

Of the purple lotus of the lake, their voices 

Lilting and rising, chanting her name

In the moonlight:

 

       Haliya! Haliya! Panô ka nin Karahayan! 

       An saimong pagbisita sa gigidom ni Búlan

       Samuya minadara nin kasaganaan.

 

       Haliya! Haliya! Panô ka nin Karahayan! 

       Sa saimong masuripot na kagayonan

       Minahalì an samuyang masaganang buhay!

 

       Haliya! Haliya! Pano ka nin Karahayan! 

       Basbasan mo kami sa gigidom ni Búlan

       Haliya! Haliya! Ngonyan asin sagkod pa man!

5
The Deluge

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The Golden Age was not to last

The Gugurang on Isarog could not hold back

The scheming Onos who controlled the winds,

The heaving of earth: He couldn’t bear to see 

Humans so prosperous and at peace.

 

In a trice the volcanoes Kolasi and Hantík 

Groaned, rumbled, and burst, they let out

The first blasts of the great upheaval

That would shake and uproot the land,

Lift up the waves, shuffle and displace mountains. 

 

From the mainland calved the isle of Malbogon,

From where the malign prophets Hilang and Laryong

Sent out their curses of illness and pestilence;

Too during the ceaseless temblors the sea

Disgorged the thin isthmus of Pasakaw.

 

The rapids and cataracts of Inarihan rushed 

In a different direction, toward the east,

Away from Ponong with its cyclopian beasts;

As the rumbling and trembling subsided, 

In a place called Bato the land caved

 

The mountain crumbled and the hole

Filled with water that is now the famous lake

Whose tiny fish became the favorite of Ibalon. 

From the gulf of Kalabanga came the people

Called Dagatnon, before they settled Katmon.

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