I just received an email today from a friend suggesting that by making a translation of my poems in either or both Filipino and English, would make the possibility of the publication by UP Press more likely. And even those who may not speak Pangasinan can study the literature.

I thought of writing those poems in Pangasinan and at the same time translating it in English. But I had second thoughts. I could do it but it would surely take me some time now to do the translations since I am already in the process of writing my second book.

One thing more, I am after the promotion of the Pangasinan language. A book written in a less known language such as Pangasinan is a valuable material for translation and even scholarly research later on.

Pangasinan writers before me preferred to write in Filipino and/or English and this is the reason why there are only more or less than 100 titles written in Pangasinan language today. Most of these writings were written during the Spanish era and before the second world war. A literary genocide that is!

UP Press might question the literary merit of my writings but Pangasinan has no literary traditions unlike the Tagalog, Bicolano, Ilocano, Visaya and Hiligaynon. I am starting a new one where my predecessors have failed.

I hope UP Press will consider the fact that once this book is translated, "those who may not speak Pangasinan" will weigh it based on the literary standards of Filipino and/or English language.

invocation to the mantra of aquarius

i am
the two rivers
of life and love

the ichor
nourishing
the thirst of men

flowing
touching the veins
of the mother earth

i am
the water bearer
standing before the sun

i am life shining
i am love consuming
the atoms of the fire divine

and with this
i sing my universal song
om om om

peace be
peace be unto all hearts and minds
peace be unto mankind


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