Soulprints - Amyline Quien Ching

DALITEXT: Reawakening the Phoenix Within

Haiku… tanka… Any self-respecting devotee of literature will probably have these words stored up somewhere in their gray matter. If you have no idea what they mean or worse, haven’t even come across them some time or the other, brush up on your literature 101 or better yet, abandon ship right now (like everybody else!) for your loyalties lay elsewhere.

But while haiku and tanka, both Japanese verses, are already clichéd terms in the Filipino art world, our very own Tagalog verses, dalit, dyona and tanaga are… Rewind. Rewind. Rewind. Dalit, dyona, tanaga, what???????????

Need I say more?


Merging Time Zones

In an effort to introduce pre-hispanic Tagalog verses into the world of Filipino poets, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in cooperation with the Filipinas Institute of Translation, Inc. (FIT), Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL), and the UP Institute of Creative Writing (UP-ICW), came up with DALITEXT. By simply texting a dalit, which is an eight-syllabic quatrain, poets will have the chance to get their works published— with a capital P. Designed by Fidel Rillo with original artworks by Egai Fernandez, the folio containing all the winners, could even become a collector’s item in the future. Not bad for a measly peso!

The product of the fertile mind of ICW director Vim Nadera, the contest aims to reconnect us to the Philippines’ oldest forms of poetry. “It’s really a shame that we can recognize foreign forms of poetry and yet we do not even know our own,” he says. True enough, while haiku and tanka are already taught in most high school lit classes, the same could not be said of the dalit. “Most of our teachers are not even aware of our literary traditions. Isn’t it about time that we show them that these are not the only forms of poetry?” Even National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario acknowledged that even the most literate have not had a brush with these terms. “Not many people know about these native poetic forms. Yet, this is our own. It should be something that we should be proud of and something that our writers should use.”

Winning the War

The war may not be over yet but each battle is most definitely won. “By using modern day technology like texting, we hope to reach as many people as we can and encourage them to use these Tagalog poetic forms,” Nadera stresses. And with the Filipinos’ unceasing love affair with “text,” this should be a match made in literary heaven. “With this project, we are not only merging the past and the present… the poetic forms of the east and the technology of the west but we are also marrying the Arts and the Sciences,” he continues. “It was so easy to join. It’s just a text away. That actually encouraged me more than anything else,” comments 2nd week winner Desiree Lustre, a student taking up Araling Filipino in UP. Centering on the subject of social crisis, politics and love of country, the timing of the Oakwood mutiny could not have been more perfect. “Awareness of contemporary events remained high among the poets,” Almario observes.

From virtual found-only-in-moldy-textbooks obscurity, dalit has finally been able to see the “sunlight,” so to speak. Though it might not be part of most people’s vocabulary but at least it has found its place in some. Slowly but surely, the awareness campaign for these “indigenous” literary verses is gaining ground. “When we had the TEXTANAGA last February, we received about 3000 entries per week, now we are getting 4000,” he shares, bursting with pride. And he has the right to be! For not only were they able to get entries from the provinces, they were also able to penetrate the international market. “It really came as a surprise… a welcome surprise. We received entries from as far as Qatar and Korea. Somebody from Saudi Arabia even won,” he excitedly mentions. TEXTANAGA, for the benefit of those who are shaking their heads in confusion, is another contest that NCCA has organized in celebration of the National Arts Month. It basically has the same contest format as DALITEXT except that contestants have to text in a tanaga, which is a seven syllabic quatrain. “It actually started it all. When they saw how successful it became, NCCA gave us a bigger budget,” Nadera relates, enthusiastically showing the shirts, stickers and mugs that they were able to produce for the winners. Seeing how people responded to DALITEXT and TEXTANAGA, some members of his colleagues are actually thinking of doing similar contests in Visayas and Mindanao, this time popularizing Visayan and Muslim poetic forms through text messaging. As another testament of its success, NCCA will be launching another contest in November or December- TEXTDIONA.

A Trip Down Literary Lane

While a four line poem may seem undaunting at first, when you actually write the poem and pour hour after hour of unproductive creative effort the truth will just hit you in the face— writing a dalit is not as easy as one would think. “We are very strict in judging. We look at the form and the content,” Nadera discloses. Before actually reaching the final judging, the “dalits” are screened. Syllables of each line are carefully checked. Those that did not follow the prescribed number of syllables were deleted. Composing a dalit, however, is mincemeat compared to actually making one that would stand out among the rest— 4000 entries to be precise. “Competing against all the entries every week, winning even a consolation prize is already quite an achievement,” exclaims Desiree. Well… with such literary greats as Virgilio Almario, Vim Nadera, Romulo Baquiran, Lamberto Antonio, Mike Corroza and Rebecca Anonuevo, wielding the poetic hatchet, this might as well be the Palanca. (So, I’m exaggerating…) Surprisingly, not all of the winners were “pros” in their field. A lot are into professions that are not “artsy”, so to speak. Some are engineers, scientists, and even businessmen. A few did not even have any previous experience in poetry. “This was actually my first time to write a poem. I wasn’t expecting to win, to even be the only woman to win first place, because katuwaan lang siya,” relates 4th week first prize winner Myra Praxidio, a nursing student at World City College in Cainta, Rizal. For others, DALITEXT became the key that reopened the door to writing. “When I was young, I used to join writing contests. I wasn’t that serious about writing though. This is actually my first time to write after a long period of not writing,” reveals second year Psychology student Karina Montesines, one of the consolation prize winners. “Because of this, I am actually thinking of going back into writing. I am planning to attend some workshops.”

Not only did DALITEXT succeed in reviving our country’s dying poetic forms but like the phoenix, it also managed to resurrect the waning spirits of our writers from the ashes of disillusionment.

posted by Amyline Quien Ching @ 12:31 AM