Domingo Goan Landicho PhD

By Shi Tao
As translated by Chip Rolley, Sydney PEN

My whole life

Will never get past “June”
June, when my heart died
When my poetry died
When my lover
Died in romance’s pool of blood

June, the scorching sun burns open my skin
Revealing the true nature of my wound
June, the fish swims out of the blood-red sea
Toward another place to hibernate
June, the earth shifts, the rivers fall silent
Piled up letters unable to be delivered to the dead

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Hunyo
By Shi Tao

Translated into Tagalog by Domingo G. Landicho,
Philippine PEN

Buo kong buhay
Lalaging bahagi ng “Hunyo”
Hunyo, nang pumanaw ang aking puso
Nang pumanaw ang aking tula
Nang ang aking talisuyo
Ay pumanaw sa pakikipagtalik sa paliguang dugo

Hunyo, nang ang silab ng araw
Ay buksan ang aking balat
Ibilad ang kalikasang ganap ng aking sugat
Hunyo, nang ang isda ay pumalaot
Sa dagat ng pulang dugo
Patugpa sa ibang lugal para magbanyuhay
Hunyo, nang ang lupa ay yumanig,
Ang mga ilog ay tumahimik
Nagtimbon ng mga pahina
Na hindi maihatid sa mga pumanaw

Domingo G. Landicho’s book of poems, Suob: Kalipunan ng mga Tulang Batangan, is off the press before Valentine’s Day.

The multiawarded writer and poet pay homage to Batangueños and his home province.

The book consists of 140 poems all about Batangas and its towns, especially the poet’s hometown of Taal. Crowned in poetic corona-tion are the heroes of Batangas, and its culture and religious icons like Virgin of Caysasay and San Martin de Tours were hailed in tradi-tional rhymed loa.

Landicho pays tribute to Apolnario Mabini, Miguel Malvar, Claro M. Recto, Jose W. Diokno, Teodoro Kalaw, Jose P. Laurel, Marcela Agoncillo and all people and institutions intertwined in his rich 67 years of poetic existence from his teachers, his amangbinyag, amangkumpil and amangkasal, to schools he attended in his hometown and in Batangas High School, where he graduated in 1957. The book is a poetic journey the poet took from his native barrio to a heroic nurturing of Batangas culture and history. Discussed in poetry are the culture of rice and sugar planting and the intertwining of nature like Taal Volcano and balisong and panutsa with the Batangueño character. Read more from The Manila Times site.