Microsoft Word - Bobis edit MENAGE A TROIS OF TONGUES-Merlinda Bobis.docx Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 128 Ménage à Trois of Tongues (A Trilingual Homecoming) Merlinda Bobis Australian National University Merlinda.Bobis@anu.edu.au Copyright©2021 Merlinda Bobis. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the author and journal are properly cited and no fee is charged, in accordance with our Creative Commons Licence. The following brief essay and three versions of a poem are excerpts from Pag- uli, Pag-uwi, Homecoming. Poetry in Three Tongues. Merlinda Bobis, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Manila 2004. A few years ago, she returned to writing poetry after four novels. ‘Ménage à Trois of Tongues’ (Preface of Pag-uli Pag-uwi, Homecoming. Poetry in Three Tongues) Strange to resurrect old voices, old images. Strange to hear them with new ones. Even stranger to sing ‘old-new’ all at once. Is this possible? I stopped writing poetry in favour of prose. I stopped writing in Bikol and Filipino in favour of ‘just English’. I left more than a decade ago. Now I come home stuttering to my old loves that still give this heart an acheful turn. Ay, maduso! Laid out beside each other, these old and new loves (Bikol, Filipino and English) are contesting-romancing one other. And like in any romance, they surrender pieces of the self. Words, images and metaphors are sacrificed. Time and context are shaken; all must forego precious affinities. Some of the Bikol poems were completed as early as the late eighties. In Australia, I visited them countless times: Linakaw paduman-pabuwelta / paduman-pabuwelta / an sakuyang daghan — lest I got lost. I translated them into Filipino then English, in little bursts. Strange to grapple with biriran, tambis, milflores, kamya or pili in winter. The poverty of English! It can never sweat convincingly, not in the way we do among a field of naglalaad-laad na bandera española. Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 129 My newer poems are as new as 2004. There are also earlier poems written in English first then translated into Bikol and Filipino. I like to believe that most of them sound better in my first tongue, even Marilyn Monroe with her skirt flying and pale legs flashing. And she pales even more beside a banana heart just blooming: Nabalikasan / bako su saiyang mapuputi na tabay / kundi su guramoy na saraday-saday — ay, amarillo! Yes, I come home stuttering, but I try. I even try to evoke in English the lilt of the old voices, their taste on the tongue. But the timbre of old loves is elusive and nostalgia can be a curse. It is wiser to make the most of wintering with the new sweetheart. English prose. But I know, try as I do, this English that I need to love more because of the demand of domicile, this English that has opened secret doors for me can never begin to comprehend how, at times — napuputot an bayawas sa sakuyang puso. ———————————————————————— Translations of Bikol lines (as in the order above): 1. Ay, how it stings! 2. Paced back and forth / back and forth / this breast of mine 3. star fruit, Java rose apple, hydraenga, butterfly lily, Philippine almond (Canarium ovatum) 4. flaming cana lilies 5. … Unfurled / not pale legs / but tiny yellow fingers — ay, how golden! 6. the guava unripens in my heart 1. English Banana Heart right after my long flight, i wore it on a tree under a canopy of green flags, my banana heart magenta velveteen and just beginning to open. my petticoated flirt: Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 130 three layers of heartskin unfurled in the air, a la Monroe flashing not pale legs but tiny yellow fingers — ay, how golden! as if strung into a filigree of topazes. but yesterday, grandmother plucked it, stripped it to the core (desecrating aesthetics and romance), and cut it in two. one half she served fresh, dressed in vinegar; the other, she cooked in coconut milk and chilli while humming about young girls who eloped with an alien tongue. later, while filling my plate, in the dialect, she said, ‘here, two dishes from one heart.’ i could not eat, not on a hollow growing peculiar in my breast. 2. Filipino Puso ng Saging pagkatapos ng kaytagal na biyahe, isinuot ko sa isang puno itong aking puso ng saging — Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 131 sa lilim ng mga lunting bandera, heto ang biyoletang pelus namumukadkad pa lamang. ang aking naka-petticoat na kiri: tatlong suson na balat ng puso iwinawagayway sa ulap; a la monroe bagang naglalantad di ng kayputing mga hita, kundi ng maliliit na daliri — ay, amarillo! wari’y tinuhog na topasyo. ngunit kahapon, pinitas ni lola itong bunga, hinubdan pagkaraan hanggang kaibuturan (di man lang iginalang ang estetika at romansa) saka hinati sa dalawa ang kalahati’y ginawang ensalada sa asim ng suka; ang natira’y ginulay sa gata at labuyo, habang umaawit tungkol sa mga babaing nagtanan kasama ng banyagang dila. pagkatapos, habang sinasandukan ang aking pinggan, ako’y tinitigan, ‘heto, dalawang putahe mula sa isang puso.‘ di ako makakain — dama ko, walang kalaman-laman ang aking dibdib. Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 132 3. Bikol (My first tongue) Puso ki Batag pagkatapos kan haloy-haloy na biyahe, pigsulot ko sa sarong kahoy an sakong puso ki batag — sa lindong nin mga berdeng bandera, honi an biyoletang pelus na nagbubukad pa sana. an sakong naka-petticoat na duraton: tolong suon na kublit nin puso an pigwawagayway sa panganoron; a la monroe bagang nabalikasan bako su saiyang mapuputi na tabay, kundi su guramoy na saraday-saday — ay, amarillo! garo bagang tinuruhog na topasyo. pero kaso udma, pinudo ni lola ining bunga, tapos hinubaan hanggang sa kaubud-ubudan (dae man lamang ginalang an estetika asin romansa) tapos ginurot, pigduwa. an kabanga ginibong ensalada sa alsom kan suka; su iba, ginulay sa natok asin sanggariya, habang pakuru-kanta manongod sa mga babaying nagdulag kaiba kan estrangherong dila. pagkatapos, habang pigpapanuan su sakuyang pinggan, tolos akong pinutitukan, ‘honi, duwang putahe hale sa sarong puso.‘ Coolabah, Nr 30, 2021, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 133 dae ako nakakaon — mate ko, daeng kalaog-laog an sakuyang daghan. Merlinda Bobis is an award-winning Filipina-Australian writer who has published in three languages: English, Filipino, and her mother tongue Bikol. She has had 4 novels, 6 poetry books, 2 collections of short stories published, and 10 dramatic works performed for stage and radio. Her awards include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 3 Philippine National Book Awards, the Steele Rudd Award (Best Collection of Australian Short Stories), and the Australian Writers’ Guild Award (Radio Play). While most of her works are in English, they incorporate words and concepts (sometimes untranslateable to English) in her original languages. To evoke the landscape of her first home, she echoes the cadence, tone and orality of these languages. These features are evident in her new book of short stories The Kindness of Birds (Spinifex Australia, Anvil Philippines 2021). She has also returned to writing poetry. Her latest poetry book Accidents of Composition was Highly Commended for the 2018 ACT Book of the Year Award.