BALIKBAYANG SINTA -- E. SAN JUAN, Jr.

Oral performance by Khvan de la Cruz of a poem on Filipino Overseas Workers by a Filipino writer, Sonny San Juan, based in the U.S., with accompanying photos and images of Filipinos in the struggle for justice, democracy, and national liberation. Here is an English version of "Balikbayang Sinta":

You've flown to Rome and London
Anxiously looking back to clouds loaded with dreams wandering
Sunk in memories of tomorrow slowly drowning

You've flown to Riyadh and Qatar
On waking up blinking in sleep the heart's constricting
vexed by a vow lost in the flotsam and jetsam of the journey

You've flown to Toronto and New York
Pursuing wild blessings plunged into the foreigner's trap
in a nest bereaved what tame hope has been driven wild

You've flown to Chicago and San Francisco
Waving afar trusting in a fulfillment that will greet you "Long Live...."
Tears unmoored swing from the rainbow of every embrace

You've flown to Hong Kong and Tokyo
"I'll never forget you"--the temptation of a farewell unclenched soars
Wings broken feathers smoking floating petals of stars gutted

You've flown to Sydney and Taipeh
Ay, alas, what danger of seduction from dreams encompassing
Bird struggling to escape offering the edge of liberty adored

You've flown, O beloved & desired, but on whose bosom will you land?
You return to the seashore yielded by your sharpened forbearance
My soul cut up and scattered to all the corners of the planet --##

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Philippines
• balikbayan
• exile
• returning
• home
• national
• liberation
• socialist
• revolution