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FRANCISCO BALAGTAS

Excerpts from my UP Centennial Edition
of Francisco Balagtas' Florante at Laura,
with English translation by Marne Kilates

University of the Philippines Centennial Edition of 'Florante at Laura'

"Within and without my country of grief"

To Celia

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If I recall and read again                                                                 1

love’s long-faded script,

would there be not a mark or trace but Celia’s,

imprinted on my breast?

 

The Celia whom I’ve always                                                           2

feared might forget our love,

who took me down the depths

of this hapless fate.

 

Again would I neglect to read                                                         3

the pages of our tenderness,

or call to mind the love she poured,

the bitter struggle I gave for it?

 

Our sweet days gone,                                                                      4

my love is all that’s left;

ever it shall dwell within

till I’m laid down in my grave.

 

Now as I lie in loneliness,                                                               5

behold wherein I seek relief:

each bygone day I revisit, I find

joy in the likeness of your face.

 

This likeness painted with love                                                      6                and longing has lodged within

my heart, sole token left with me

not even death can steal.

'Celia' by Jonathan Rañola

My soul haunts the paths                                                         7

and fields you blessed with your footsteps;

and to Beata River and shallow Hilom stream

my heart never fails to wander.

 

Not rarely now my vagrant grief                                               8

sits under the mango tree we passed,

and looking at the dainty fruits

you wanted picked I forget my ache.

 

The whole of me could only                                                       9

be intimate with sighs when you were ill;

for I knew as Eden kept a room us,

my hidden hurt was heaven still.

 

I woo your image that resides                                                  10

in the Makati river we frequented;

to the happy berth of boats I trace your steps,

among the stones that touched your feet.

 

All these return before me now,                                               11

the joy of years, the blissful past,

where I would soak and steep myself

before I’m caught in brackish neap.

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NatLitMonth.jpg

Francisco Baltazar Balagtas, the premier Tagalog poet, authored the epic metrical romance, Florante at Laura, an allegorical indictment of colonial oppression, which became the primary source of nationalist pride and reformist, later, revolutionary sentiment of the heroes, Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Andres Bonifacio, and Emilio Jacinto. He is considered to be the first Filipino poet-hero.

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Sculpture by Julie Lluch

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