Merlie Alunan is Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines Visayas, Tacloban. Her poetry books include Hearthstone, Sacred Tree (Anvil, 1993), Amihan among the Angels (UP, 1997), Tales of the Spider Woman (UST, 2011), Pagdakop sa Bulalakaw ug uban pang mga balak (Ateneo, 2012), among others. Her book Sa Atong Dila: Introduction to Visayan Literature (UP Press, 2015) won the 2015 National Book Award for Best Translation given by the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board. Her honors and awards include Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas from UMPIL (Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas), and the Lilian Jerome Thornton Award for Nonfiction.
The Haiyan dead Merlie Alunan do not sleep. They walk the streets with us climb stairs of roofless houses latchless windows blown-off doors they’re looking for the bed by the window cocks crowing at dawn lizards in the eaves they’re looking for the men who loved them at night the women they crawled to like puppies to the teats the babe they held in arms the boy who climbed trees the Haiyan dead are looking in the rubble for the child they had been the youth they once were the bride with flowers in her hair perfumed red-lipped women white-haired father gap-toothed crone selling peanuts by the church door the drunk by a street lamp waiting for his house to come by the dreaming girl under the moon the Haiyan dead are looking for the moon washed out in a tumult of water that melted their bodies they're looking for their bodies that once moved to the dance to play to the rhythms of love moved in the simple ways—before wind lifted sea and smashed it on the land—of breath talk words shaping in their throats lips tongues the Haiyan dead are looking for a song they used to love a poem a prayer they'd raised that the sea had swallowed before it could be said the Haiyan dead are looking for the eyes of God gone suddenly blind in the sudden murk white wind seething water salt sand black silt— and that is why the Haiyan dead will walk among us endlessly sleepless… An mga naanaw han Haiyan diri nangangaturog. naglalaroy-laroy ha kakalsadahan nasaka ha hagdanan han mga balay waray atop mga bintana waray trangka mga purtahan nga ginpalid an sada ginbibiling nira an higdaan ha may dungawan an sunoy nga nanunugaok ha umagahon tuko ha may sandayong nagbibiling hira han kalalakin-an nga kadirig ha kagab-ihon an kababayin-an nga napakamang ha ira baga’n katiyoan ngadto ha ira dughan mga bata nga nagsaklang han kakahoyan ginbibiling nira ha mga sighot an ira hadto pagkabata an mga naanaw han Haiyan namimiling han karaslon nga may bukad ha iya buhok an babayi nga mapula an im-im ngan nakarigo hin pahumot an tatay nga ubanon an langday nga lagas nga namamaligya hin mani ha may portahan han simbahan daros nga nasandig ha poste han suga naghuhulat nga umagi an iya balay an daragita nga nagtitinanga ngadto han bulan an mga naanaw han Haiyan nagbibiling liwat han bulan nga gindaganas han daralwa nga tumunaw han ira mga lawas nga hadto anay nasayaw nakigmulay nakisabay ha ritmo han gugma nalihok ha mga kinaadlaw nga buruhaton—ha pagginhawa pagmugna han pulong dida ha ira but-ol im-im dila an mga naanaw han Haiyan nagbibiling liwat han awit nga ira hadto ginhigugma siday pangadi nga ginlam-oy han dagat san-o ini mayakan ginbibiling han mga naanaw ni Haiyan an mata han Diyos kay tigda nabuta ha nakurahab makusog mabusag-busag nga hangin tubig asin baras lutak nga maitom—asya nga an mga naanaw han Haiyan maglilinakat upod ha aton magpapadayon waray kataposan diri kahingaturog…. Paghubad ha Waray ni Voltaire Q. Oyzon
AB LITERATURE, PHILIPPINES 