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(Excerpts from my UP Centennial Edition
of Francisco Balagtas' Florante at Laura)

In a wood so dark, a forest deep,[1]                                        1

through thorny bush and growth so thick

Phoebus’ glints can hardly pierce[2]

into the heart of wilderness.

 

            The huge and towering trees                                      2

offer none but pain and grief;

even birdsong wails in sad torment,

that only mocks the joy so brief.

 

            Even the vines contort and twist                                3

around the boughs with thorns enwrapped,

an itchy down covers the skin of fruit,

and makes ill whoever touches it.

 

            The soaring trees put forth                                         4

their blooms whitest among the leaves,

whose color of sorrow blends

with the heady odor that pervades.

 

            Most are cypresses and barren banyan,[3]                5

whose shadows awake a mortal fear,

devoid of fruit, their leaves are huge,

deepening even more the forest shade.

 

            Here the roaming beasts                                              6

are mostly serpents and basilisks,

hyenas, and tigers that prey on men

and the weak so hungrily and swift.

 

            And at the edge of this wood                                        7

is doorstep to Hades,[4] where wicked[5]

Pluto reigns, the vast domain

watered by the toxic River Cocytus.[6]

 

            In the middle of this dark forest                                  8

stands a banyan whose leaves are faded brown;

bound to this tree is the pitiful one,

woeful victim of spiteful fate.

 

            A young man so pure, whose bearing,                         9

despite the ropes that tied his hands, neck

and feet, was that of a Narcissus,[7] nay, an Adonis:[8]

amidst all the pain shone his noble face.

          

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            Smooth of skin, cheeks the burst of youth,                10

radiant arches were his eyelashes and brows,

his hair like newly-burnished gold,

the whole and parts of him in the right measures.

 

            And there dwelt no Oread Nymphs[9]                          11

who, in the wicked Harpies’[10] forest mansions,

could have taken pity or lured to love

the miracle begot of beauty and adversity.

 

            The poor victim taunted by fate                                    12

raised his eyes clear as fountainheads,

tears rolling down his sullen face,

uttered the sorrow he had long kept:

 

            “Vengeful Heaven, where is your wrath?                    13

now my land is overcome, prostrate,

and in beloved Albania’s infinite skies,

lately the flag of evil flies.

 

            “Within and without my country of grief,                  14

betrayal reigns, is enshrined, esteemed;

degraded everywhere, the heart’s goodness

is consigned to the lowly pauper’s grave.

 

            “All manner of good and deed are cast                        15

into the sea of mockery and perturbation,

each good man is treated without respect,

without burial rite entombed.

 

            “But, oh, the cheat, the traitor, the black                    16

of heart, are enthroned in praise,

and for each scoundrel incense is burned,

and offered up in fragrant smoke.

 

            “Betrayal, dishonesty hold high                                   17

their heads, and the righteous is timid, bowed,

dismayed, reason itself is on its knees,

fatigued, and to weep is all that’s left for it.

 

            “And each mouth that opens                                       18

to speak the truth and right

is quickly stopped and cut

by the arrogant blade of death.

 

            “O traitorous ambition for honor and riches!            19

O hunger for airy and fleeting praise!

You are the reason for all this sinfulness,

this misfortune that has befallen me.”

 

 

(End of excerpt)

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[1] Dense jungle outside the city of Epirus, on the banks of the river called Cocytus.

 

[2] Phoebus, the sun, as it was called by the Latin and Greek poets.

 

[3] The cypress is a mountain tree, commonly tall and straight, the branches all growing upwards, so the whole takes the shape of a heart; in older times its branches were planted beside gravestones, so that its spreading branches gave a dark and fearful shade.

 

[4] Hades, according to the poets, was Hell.

 

[5] Pluto is one of the pagan gods who, according to the poets, ruled over Hell.

 

[6] Cocytus, a river in Epirus, in the region of Albania, which the poets say is one of the four rivers of Hell, thus its poisonous waters.

 

[7] Narcissus was a beautiful youth, son of Cephisus and Leirope; he was courted by nymphs Narcissus spurned all of them.

 

[8] Adonis, a young man of extraordinary beauty, son from a deception of Cyniras, king of Cyprus, by his daughter Mirrha; seduced by Venus, and killed by a wild boar.

 

[9] Oread Nymphs, wood goddesses worshopped by Pagans of old: beautiful beings with soothing voices, say the poets.

 

[10] Harpies were fierce pagan goddesses who dwelt on an island called Strophades, and in the forest on the bank of Cocytus; with a bird’s body, a beautiful maiden’s face, bent hands and sharp claws, batwings, and a halitosis that could kill.

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[FOOTNOTES by Carlos Ronquillo, September, 1921]

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'Florante' by Neil Doloricon

'Florante at Laura' by Marc Cosico

ARTWORKS are from the UP Centennial Edition. They formed  part of the Art Exhibit at Vargas Museum that accompanied the launch. 

Translation is based on the text of Florante at Laura

as reprinted in Manila by

Imprénta de Ramirez y Giraudíer

1 8 6 1

"Within and without my country of grief"

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