Sain Hali An Diklom Kan Kahewasan? / Whence Come The Plain’s Darkling Cover? Poem by Jaime Jesus Borlagdan

Sain hali an diklom kan kahewasan?
Sa kawaran ki liwanag buda lawas
An buta kong kalag nakamaan duman.

Liwanag sa diklom, ihurma an bulan
Malipot na rarom an púro iluwas
Digdi hali an diklom kan kahewasan?

Sa isla kan itom mong alinawnawan
Mamundo sa tahaw kan dagat na gatas
An paha kong kalag minahigop duman.

Sa dungo mong duwang kuwebang istaran
Kan ermitanyong parong, hangos na halas
Minakamang an diklom kan kahewasan.

An ngirit kan yukyok mo an inarugan
Kan palatawan kaining planetang layas
An gadan kong kalag minaladop duman.

Digdi sa hapot ika an kasimbagan
Sa simbag iyo man an walat na ngalas
Simo hali an diklom kan kahewasan
Ilabto ko an bilog kong kalag duman.

(Abril 2,2007, Karanggahan)

Translation:

Whence come the plain’s darkling cover?
From the absence of flesh and light,
My blindness opens and sees everything there.

Light, reveal the moon-trails of water,
Out of the depths pour the chill, might
Darkness be born there, the plain to cover?

From the black isle of your eyes peer
Pain in an ocean of milk, sap of white,
My parched, starving soul drinks there.

In your thin, dainty nostrils where
Live the hermit smell, slink the slight
Snake of breath into the plain’s darkling cover.

In the soft beneath your arm gather
Stars and planets in this fugitive night,
My lifeless soul sings in the dark water.

To this riddle you are the answer,
Leaving wonder in instant flight;
From you comes the plain’s darkling cover,
My soul, dark and entire, plunges there.

(Translation: Marne L. Kilates)