PROBLEMA NG MAKATA SA PANAHON NG TERRORISMO

PROBLEMA NG MAKATA SA PANAHON NG TERORISMO


ni E. San Juan, Jr.



Nangungulila Tila luho’t karangyaan

Habang patuloy ang kabuktutan kasamaan
Terorismo ng Estadong neokolonyal Dahas ng militar at pulis

Patuloy ang pandurukot pagpaslang
Ilan libong biktima ng Oplan Bantay Laya—di na mabilang

Kamakailan, 57 biktima ng masaker sa Maguindanao
Pinagbabaril ang mga mukha’t katawan
Nilapastangan pa ang maselang bahagi ng mga babaeng pinatay

Wala na bang hiya Wala na bang dignidad ang Pilipino?

Karumal-dumal Kahindik-hindik

Pagkatapos ng Auschwitz Buchenwald Intramuros
Barbaridad ng mga pasistang Aleman at Hapon
Sampu ng mga namatay sa Hiroshima at Nagasaki

Payo ni Theodore Adorno, pantas sa sining at pilosopiya,
Wala na’ng kabuluhan ang sining at tula—
Ang tutula pa, talagang tulala!

Ngunit lahat ba’y sakop na ng pulitika ng oportunismo’t dahas ng Estado?
Ng gahasa’t pangungulimbat?

Kasama, pwede ba’ng lumihis sa linyadong programa?
Pwede ba’ng ipakawalan ang isang buntong-hininga
Pagtutol sa kabuktutang umiiral?

Habang pinakikiramdaman ang ngiti sa matang pumilantik
Hinagka’t sumimsim
Saglit lamang

Luwalhating kay tamis sumisirit
Saglit lang

Nanuot sa bawat himaymay lubos labis
Saglit lang

Nangalisag sa bangis ng kalmot at kagat
Saglit lamang

Sagad-sagad sumisidhing labis lubos
Saglit lang

Umabot sa kasukdulang putok ng nasa sa laman
Lumbay ng paalam sa pagkaalam

Minsan lamang ang salagimsim

Kaluluwa’y nagkabuhol-buhol sa braso’t binti
Sa lalamunan anong hapdi’t pait

Kusang-loob na pagtatalik mula sa paraisong
Bagamat walang kamataya’y tinalikdan

Saglit lamang

Ay naku, muling hagkan
Apoy ng halik walang taros walang awa kung saan-saan
Walang katapusan



________


Mourning alone This looks like ostentatious luxury

While wickedness obscenities continue

Terrorism of the neocolonial Sate Violence by the police and military

Forced “disappearances” and extra-judicial murders continue
So many victims of the regime’s Oplan Bantay-Laya—impossible to count

Recently, 57 victims in the Maguindanao massacre
Their faces and bodies mutilated by gunfire
Even the genitals of the women slain were not spared

Do Filipinos still have any shame any dignity?

Terrible atrocities Horrendous

After Auschwitz Buchenwald Intramuros
Theodore Adorno, sage of art and philosophy, counseled us:
Poetry is useless, worthless—
He who dares to declaim an ode is an imbecile!

But is everything dominated by the politics of opportunism and the State’s barbarism?
By rape and plunder?

Comrade, may I be permitted to deviate from the party line?
May I release a sigh from the heart
In protest against the horrors prevailing?
----------

While intuiting the smile from eyes flicking
Embraced and sucked
For only an instant

Bliss so intense hissing
For only an instant

Penetrating to every fiber of the flesh to the bone reaching beyond
For only an instant

Hair bristling at ferocious scratch and bite
For only an instant

Up to the edge seething beyond over-reaching
For only an instant

Mounting to the climax flesh’s desire exploding
Grief at goodbye to our knowing each other

Once only this premonition

Souls knotted together limbs and arms entwining
In the throat how bitter and painful

Without any intent this coupling from a paradise
Refused despite intimations of immortality

Only for an instant

Ay god, embracing you again
Fire from kisses without pity without mercy everywhere
Seeking endless