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PANTAW A MAREG: Inged aken a Pilombayan / My beloved Homeland

elin

(This poem written on 17 October 2017 is in Meranaw and English). 

Inged aken a Pilombayan

Miyaka maradika ka kon.
Anda ka miyaka maradika?
Antawa-a bes i titho kiyatimpoan?
Na antawa-a mambo i miyabaloy saya
A mga timpo a dato?

Inged aken a mataya
Minirampay ka bo sa da matolabos
A kiyapaka rondan ka ago
Kiyapakamboko ka.
Minsan so lawas ka na lagid
O miyatapong na so puso ka
Na aden pen a ipeg tek iyan.

Inged aken,
Perala-i ako ngka
Di ako kha-alegan a kala
Ka di aken khatoon sa baraybon
Aken o ba aden a ipakasinga aken
Sa miyambetad ka apiya pen
Miyamaradika ka kon imanto.

Naino, seka i lebi a mata-o
Minsan pen ako kawawatanan
Na da a miyatharo a khapakay
A i-anggan aken a ogop reka
O ba aken reka piyagikoti.

17sleeping
Sleeping Lady. The view fom MSU (MIndanao State University) in Marawi City. Photo by ELIN ANISHA GURO

My beloved homeland

I heard you were liberated,
From whom?
Tell me, who are really in chains?
And who among the men
Have unstrung themselves
To become noblemen for your sake?

Dearest homeland
You survived without completely
Losing all to suffering and shame
Though your body may have been
Ripped asunder, but your heart
Remained beating, though very faintly.

My birthplace,
Forgive me
I could not even fake a wry smile
In agony of your deplorable state
Though they said you have been freed.

None, but you, know
In spite of my absence in faraway land
There is nothing that I could offer
Which I did not sacrifice to ease your pain
And I left myself with nothing.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Elin Anisha Guro of Marawi City is Director of  Mindanao State University Press and Information Office, on study leave to finish her PhD at the School of Culture and Communication at the  University of Melbourne in Australia. She finished her MA Media Studies at the New School, New York City as a Fulbright Scholar)

 

 

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