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Monday, November 18, 2013

When Disaster Strikes* and the Original Ilokano Poem

*This is a raw and unedited English translation of my original Ilokano (a language used extensively by Ilokanos in northern Philippines and elsewhere...) poem "No Sumangbay ti Didigra" that I wrote and was published in www.iluko.com in December 2004, in connection with the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami that yielded hundreds of thousands of people dead and thousands of victims displaced.

This time, this year, I got inspired to translate it into English for our English-speaking readers, in the wake of the recent Typhoon Haiyan that devastated the central part of the Philippines, November 8, 2013. Just yesterday, another natural disaster, tornadoes, struck the mid-western part of the US, particularly in Washington, IL. Casualties were, of course, reported and hundreds of people displaced and devastated. I pray, God bless and keep US safe from harm, always!

Here's sharing with you my simple poem:

When Disaster Strikes

When disaster strikes
It chooses not any place and time
Thus, material possessions destroyed
All accumulated here on Earth.

Lives are lost and gone
Men, women, and/or children
But others are saved-spared and left behind
Wandering, wondering...suffering.

Those survivors start again
Building-creating their life anew
Amidst their angst and agony
They flourish and shine, eventually.

As fleeting moments pass
And golden opportunities arise
Those left behind rally in unity
Grateful for their new life from Above!

(c) 2013 by Chris A. Quilpa 

Here's the original Ilokano poem I've composed and published in (www.iluko.com) in December 2004:  

No Sumangbay ti Didigra

No sumangbay ti didgra
Awan a pulos pilpilienna
Ket madadael dagiti sanikua
Nga inurnong ditoy Daga.

Maungaw dagiti pinarsua
Lakay, baket, ken/wenno maladaga
Ket matda dagiti dadduma
Nga agkatangkatang, agsagsagaba.

Mangruginto manen dagiti natda
Nga agputar panagbiagda
Iti baet leddaang-pannakaulila
Rumusingdanto manen ken rumangpaya.

Iti panaglabas dagiti kanito
Ken dagiti nabalitokan a tiempo 
Dagiti nabati agkaykaysada nga agrag-o
Ken agyaman baro a biagda manipud Ngato!

(c) 2013 by Chris A. Quilpa


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