poetry, like all forms of literature, is a means in which a writer expresses the thoughts and ideas of his era.

All writings, in one way or another, reflect the evolution and culture of a particular time or society.

Over the years, we have seen Filipino poems change with the passage of time. Gone are the days of formal, strict lines written with perfect meter. A lot of poets today have taken to writing free verse poetry without rhyme or meter.

In the Philippines, an interesting new kind of poetry emerged when Rolando Tinio, a Philippine National Artist, started writing taglish poems in the late 60s to the early 70s. Taglish, a mixture of Tagalog and English, emerged when school-aged children started combining their native dialect (Tagalog) with the school systems official medium of instruction (English). The following is an excerpt of one of Tinios taglish poems: Tinios taglish, and quite humorous, poems became a quick hit. A lot of people felt that he gave a voice to the generation one that was becoming increasingly global. Some purists, however, argued that Taglish was a form of bastardization of both languages Filipino and English. They worried that encouraging the young to read and write in Taglish would make them incompetent in both.

Personally, I think that both sides are right. Taglish poetry does give a voice to a rather big part of society the young, middle class Filipinos. After all, just like how no one speaks old English anymore, no one talks Balagtasan these days. Taglish, whether we like it or not, is the reality of today. And if poetry the main aim of poetry is to reflect society, then Taglish poetry is inevitable.

However, this does not mean that the young are excused from learning proper English and Filipino. After all, isnt it a well-known adage that you have to know the rules before you break them? Rolando Tinio, before he started writing Taglish poetry, wrote excellent poems in both Filipino and English, respectively.

So, If you are planning to take liberties with language, with poetrys form and measures, then you better be well-versed in its rules first. Do I make myself malinaw? this poem is really uniquE!!! a combination of Tagalog and English..at first, i was really confused of the meaning of the poem...it's saying goodbye to a place where you've been staying

for a long time...i so love the poem as it portrays the setting, the melting of snow as he cries..the dead winter..it was a great poem!

Rolando Tinio's Valediction sa Hillcrest

It's not exactly a hot topic on the Web (with only 134 entries on Google), but Rolando Tinio's poem "Valediction sa Hillcrest" (1958) has been baffling students when given as a standard text in literature classes in the Philippines. The poem is written in Taglish, the code-switching dialect of Tagalog that uses many words, phrases, and even sentences from English. (Taglish should not be confused with Philippine English, which is the object of much study by linguists). Most students find the work opaque because of (a) the situation, and (b) the language. The situation is easy to understand if you studied outside your home country and deluded yourself during those years of study that you are a native of the foreign country. When you are forced to return home by your student visa restrictions, you don't quite know where your home is. Once pointed out to students, this situation (which students can relate to, since many of them live away from home to go to university even in their own country) becomes easier to appreciate. The choice of language raises questions because hardly anyone wrote or writes poetry in Taglish. Considered subliterate by most university professors, Taglish (a pidgin, technically speaking) is used mostly in popular romance novels (which, btw, sells in the millions of copies in the Philippines) but not in Literature (with the capital L). Tinio (posthumously declared a National Artist of the Philippines), with unimpeachable credentials earned in the USA and the UK, made Taglish respectable as a literary language in this one poem. (He later moved away from pidgin and into classic literary Tagalog.) Taglish as a language neither here nor there is a perfect objective correlative or symbol of the identity crisis of the young man in the autobiographical poem. The shifts from English to Tagalog to something not quite English nor quite Tagalog mirror the conflict inside the young man as he easily recalls the happy recent moments spent in Iowa and tries valiantly to recall the happier earlier moments spent in his native Tondo (a district in the city of Manila in the Philippines). At the end of the poem, he sheds tears unabashedly, in a striking image of water falling from his eyes into snow melting on the ground as he walks towards the bus station. For non-Tagalog readers, here is a taste of the linguistic beauty of the poem: Theres a flurry, ang gentle-gentle. Pagwhoosh-whoosh ng paa ko, The snow melts right under.

Ang is a marker, like so; pag- is a marker for the onomatopeia; ng means of; paa means feet; ko means my. Posted by Isagani R. Cruz at 5:31 AM

ALBERT B. CASUGA said...

Rolando Tinio captured the peculiar nuance of Taglish, a dialect that might have sprung willy-nilly out of the various campuses of the Greater Manila Area. It is, indeed, how an erstwhile university habitue would banter while walking through the streets of Manila -- Azcarraga, Espana, going to Aleng Mameng in Dapitan... Indeed, the Iowa Writer's Workshop alumnus would find going home to the old Manila hometown rather "sentimental". Relationships developed among attendees in writers' workshops like this are particularly deep however briefly they last. From those no-holds-barred seminars to soirees at night which even breed romances, one wakes up to some jolting reality -- one must go home. One must now write the great Filipino Novel, the great poems inspired by the reputation of Iowa, the Engels, the Filipinos who have attended the world-class workshop ahead of one who would rather carouse in the halls of the great university of Iowa... Would Taglish have prospered as the Filipino English for poetry like Tinio's? It is still the lingua franca of the student districts of Manila and elsewhere. It is the virtual Pilipino now called the national language. Tinio and I graduated from the University of Santo Tomas. I admired his work in the Aquinas Dramatic Guild where he wrote, directed, and acted in his own plays. We met again at the Ateneo Graduate School where I enrolled in his Modern Poetry course some years later (we were "encouraged" to finish our Master of Arts degree in order to get promoted to professorship). I was annoyed about having to commute to Ateneo from my domicile; I dropped out, and last saw Tinio at a Poetry Award ceremony for "Parnaso Philippines" (sponsored by a company where poet Cesar Mella worked as a PR grunt). I won the Parnaso Poetry Award that year over Tinio and a second-placer Dumaguete poet, the late Artemio Tadena. I wonder now if Rolando Tinio might have won that national poetry award had he continued using his Taglish. I like his "Valediction..." Then again, the judges then like Godofredo Burce Bunao and Cirilo Bautista might not have considered Taglish worth the trouble. I did not quite have the same sentiment though after attending the vaunted Dumaguete Writers Workshop in the 70's. (But that was only for several weeks. I cherished the carousing and native-wine"tuba"-drinking I had with Poet Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez, now a US resident, and a Cebu priest, Rudy Villanueva (a.ka. Renato Madrid) whose fiction the late Nick Joaquin thought "marvelous, dahling." I

wrote a poem on the late gay poet Franklin Osorio ("Village Poet" in my "Theory of Echoes and Other Poems" (UST Publishing 2009) who was also at that workshop.

Literary Devices
Metaphor and simile. Comparisons. A simile uses the words as or like; a metaphor does not. Examples: Hes a pig is a metaphor. He looks like a pig and Hes as fat as a pig are similes.

Personification. Attributing human or other animate characteristics to an inanimate object. Example: Clouds cry.

Symbolism. Using one object to stand for something else or to mean something else. Actions can also be symbolic, such as washing hands to indicate non-involvement. Some symbols are universal, with generally accepted meanings, such as a crown to mean superiority or the color red to mean danger. Some are specific to a particular work of literature, such as the white whale in Moby Dick. Symbols, especially specific ones, often mean more than one thing.

Irony. Conveys the opposite of what is meant or what would be expected. Examples: Saying Youre so graceful! to someone who has just tripped is verbal irony. A lifeguard drowning in a bathtub is irony of situation. A special kind of literary irony is when the reader (or viewer) knows something the character doesnt. This is common in horror movies. An example of this is when the heroine runs to Jason for help, when we know hes the slasher. Sarcasm is verbal irony with attitude, with a mean edge.

Hyperbole. Literary exaggeration. Examples: Gilgamesh and Enkidu carried thirty score pounds of weaponry. Ill give you the moon and stars.

Rhythm and meter. Rhythm is the up & down, high & low series of emphases in speech. All speech has rhythm, and each language has its own particular rhythm. Meter is regular rhythm, as in poetry or music.

Rhyme. Sounding alike at the end. Examples: maysay, pattermatter.

Assonance. Sounding alike in the middle. Example: moody blues.

Alliteration. Sounding alike at the beginning. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Repetition. Saying the same thing over again. Seems obvious, but notice that the author has intended to do this, for emphasis.

Onomatopoeia. Words or phrases that sound like what they mean. Examples: pop, click. The pitterpatter of little feet is full of the T sound, which emphasizes the meaning.

Biography
Rolando Tinio was the Philippine National Artist for Theater and Literature. He was born in Gagalangin, Tondo, Manila on March 5, 1937.[5] As a child, Tinio was fond of organizing and directing his playmates for costumed celebrations. He was an active participant in the Filipino movie industry and enjoyed working with Philippine celebrities who he himself had admired in his childhood. Tinio himself became a film actor and scriptwriter. He is often described as a religious, well-behaved and gifted person. Tinio graduated with honors (a "magna cum laude" achiever) with a degree in Philosophy from the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas at age 18 in 1955 and an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing:Poetry from the State University of Iowa.[1][2][3][5] In Iowa, Tinio was known as a great writer that used English as the medium of the Filipino writer. He wrote his poetic collection: Rage and Ritual which won an award from the University of the Philippines. Bienvenido Lumbera, also an alumnus of the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, describes this collection as elegant and with a truly contemporary tone if taken from the European literary critical view. At this point in time, Tinio believed that only English can hone the themes that he wanted to communicate in his works. Once, in a conference, an author delivered his belief in the value of the Tagalog dialect in Creative Writing. In response to this, Tinio published an article in the scholarly journal Philippine Studies, which contained parts of English poems translated into Tagalog. The articles purpose was to prove the inadequacy of Tagalog as the writers medium. (Lumbera) In the mid-1960s, however, Tinio decided to try writing in Tagalog and the product of this trial was the collection of poems now called Bagay. Rolando Tinio was the sole inventor of Taglish in Philippine poetry. Through this, he gave an authentic tone to the poetry of the native middleclass Filipino. In 1972, Tinio wrote another poetry collection: Sitsit sa Kuliglig and this showed the great contrast between his old and new advocacy. If in Rage and Ritual, portrayals of art and the artist that are not closely associated with the Filipino lifestyle are communicated, Sitsit sa Kuliglig clearly portrays the everyday experiences of a Tondo-grown individual now living in Loyola heights. Heaven and earth; the gap between Tinios works in English and those in Tagalog.(Lumbera) Tinio was also an actor, director, and a set and costume designer. He served all these roles during his stay with the Ateneo Experimental Theater. Tinio chooses the plays, designs the stage, directs, creates the costumes and determines the musical score and other sounds. Productions of the Ateneo Experimental Theater are completely his vision. In his production of Oedipus Rex, he replaced the Greek costumes with modern renditions made primarily of metal pipes supposedly to express the thought of industrial 20th century. (Lumbera) His work with the Ateneo Experimental Theater expresses the concept of the actor being merely one of the directors tools in shaping the stage; communicate his vision through all aspects of the production. The last production of Tinios personal theater company was entitled ?. The production was performed in a classroom rather than an auditorium and Tinio made the actors mingle freely with the audience. There is no real meaning in the action and there is no definite

storyline. The meaning is hidden in the intentional actions of the actors and the unexpected reply of the audience (Lumbera) He published four seminal books of poems between 1972 and 1993, in which, along with his longtime friend, Bienvenido Lumbera, helped modernize the traditionally sentimental Filipino style. He had also worked on his own projects such as the Ateneo Experimental Theater productions and other serious dramas in Filipino. His contribution to Philippine literature and theater is immense.[1][2][3] Circa 1976, Tinio also wrote the lyrics for the six hymns of the "Misa ng Alay-Kapwa" the music for which was composed by Fr. Eduardo P. Hontiveros, SJ. (The most popular of these hymns still sung in Churches throughout the Philippines is "Buksan ang Aming Puso.) These hymns were published in the now out of print, -Mga Awiting Pansamba-. Rolando Santos Tinio was directing a musical when he suffered a heart attack in Manila on July 7, 1997. He died on July 8, 1997 at age 60. His wife, theatre and film actress, Ella Luansing had died some years before. He was survived by his two children, Antonio and Victoria.

Theme: A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
Valediction sa Hillcrest I am glad that our group got the chance to report on "Valediction sa Hillcrest" by Rolando S. Tinio. When I encountered this poem for the first time, it felt weird to me since it's in Taglish, which is a combination of two languages. I have never read a poem which consists of two languages, well, not until "Valediction sa Hillcrest" was assigned to us. When I read it for the first time, I could not grasp the content/ the whole meaning of the poem so I had to read it again and again. Because I kept on repeating it, it even came to a point when I could already memorize some lines. :) I could really say that this poem is a masterpiece. It is really quite unique and very creative. When I came to realize the content and the meaning of the poem, I was filled with awe. Because of the poet's creativity, I think I'll write my own poem using Filipino-English-Chinesehehe ;
Goodbye is tough. Goodbye is painful. Goodbye is forever. The poem, Valediction sa Hillcrest is very gloomy. Although the

language used is very unique, innovative and remarkable. Cheers to Sir Tinio. I really love the peom for the reason that it captures every feeling, every emotion and i was in one way or another, moved. I have experienced saying goodbye a lot of times and i can testify to the fact that goodbyes are yes, the hardest word one can utter. But everyone will go through this and it is something we humans share.(i mean the feeling-sadness) It is acceptable that people will be sad, teary and sentimental like what the peom said but after all that, we will eventually move on. We cannot hold ourselves back, thinking that if we linger longer, the sadness will fade. In reality, its just there and no matter how hard we try to mask it, it is still there. Goodbye is something we have to say in some point of our lives, may it be breaking up with a special someone, leaving a place, giving something we hold dear or even death, we have to face it. It's really hard to say goodbye. It's easier to say farewell to a something (such as the floor, the mat, or the place where you once lived in) but I bet it's gonna be harder to even bid farewell to a... someone. People are not like objects who'll stay put when you want them to stay put. They come and go and they have their own lives to worry about. We all have to move on. Saying goodbye is another way of saying hello again. Another hello to new place, a new place to start whatever you left back then. So, Goodbye and soon... a great hello to everyone!