Questions

O what is your wonder
        that will remind us
                of our ancestors?
the topographic name of Pangasinan
        or the so-called kingdoms
                of Layug na Caboloan?

what is there to reclaim
O what is there to protect?
the great oaks who stood as pillars
in the golden age of our literature
        and forgotten past?

what epic?
        what mythos?
                what legends?

O what is there to preserve?
the language of the sumisigay°
        and dumaralos°
the lexicon and the man songs
        of an unknown umaanlong°?

come and listen O kaluyagan°
come and listen to your children
        in the streets
they speak in tongue
they speak in tongue
        forced into their throats
                and gagged with the words:

        one nation. one race. one language.

one nation?
        one race?
                one language?

oh to the lost generations of Pangasinenses
oh to them who have forgotten their mother tongue

mother tongue na ina yo!

° sumisigay - fisherman
° dumaralos - farmer
° umaanlong - poet
° kaluyagan - province-mates