GUMIL Metro Manila

Ni Honor Blanco Cabie

kehre wider, holde nacht!

holde traume, kehret wider!*

   — mattahus von collin**

most anxious, so it seems, the whiff that blows 

reluctantly through structures stripped of might –

the shielding sheets and walls destroyed by claws

that now have swept the prime lot caused a blight.

its pace and manner through the structures here

suggest, most strongly, there’s a certain grief

that chokes the dimly lighted lot, a tear,

protesting, aching for some quick relief.

here, as i sense the evening’s whisp’ring whiff,

return, i ask the nights of old times, those

that checked my feet and held me off a cliff,

the nights that always gave me a pleasant dose.

i thank them, all the nights that gave me gold

and dreams here — luggage mine i’ll always hold.

*(english translation by siegbert prawer, born in cologne

 in 1925, editor of the penguin book of lieder; c. 1964)

 ’return, sweet night!/ return, o you sweet dreams!’

 (hbc’s loose iluko translation from prawer’s english

 translation) ‘agsublika, makapabang-ar a rabii!/

 agsublikayo, dakayo arapaap a nasudi!’

**born in vienna on march 3, 1779 and died there on nov

 23, 1824 at the age of 45. trained as a lawyer, he obtained

 a university chair of aesthetics and philosophy at vienna

 in 1812. an industrious journalist, he acted as  private

 tutor to the son of the austrian emperor and the duke of reichstadt.

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