Mga Papel (Papers) | Poetry

Filipino Version:

Malinis, lukot, dilaw, puti,
may guhit, walang guhit;
kahit anong uring maaaring bakasan
ng itim, bughaw, o pulang panulat ay
mamarkahan ng bawat kumpas ng kamay
kasabay ng paghila mula sa hanging ng lakas
galing sa pinaghalong usok ng yosi
at pawis ng kape
papikit-pikit, pahikab-hikab;
tiniis, nag-titiis, magtitiis hanggang
sikatan ng araw ang hatol ng eskwela
bago tutungtong sa harap ng hurado:
saligutgot ng karera

English Version:

New or scratch;
bordered or not;
I will use any paper
to ink my thoughts
in black, blue, or red
I will mark on them
with each stroke of my hand
while I energize through the smoke of nicotine
and vapor of coffee
Yawning and drowsing off,
I will endure as I have endured until light
shines upon my grades
so I can perform before the the real judge:
the chaos of careers

I wrote this post one night while I was doing my calculations of my thesis. I suddenly realized how important papers are to college students even at the advent of typesetting technologies. I originally wrote this in Filipino, then translated it to English for a bigger audience. However, as always, some of the meaning was lost due to translation.

If you have thoughts and comments, please feel free to comment them.
Thank you for dropping by :D