Balagtas, Beyond The Language Issue By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA

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Balagtas, Beyond The Language Issue

By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA

April 4, 2012, 5:38pm

MANILA, Philippines — Finally, the celebration of Balagtas Day went beyond the language issue, thanks to Virgilio Almario, National Artist for Literature, and the LIRA ( Linangan sa Imahe, Retorika, at Anyo) a movement of “poet-volunteers for the nation” which he himself established and continues to mentor. Mr. Almario and members of the LIRA enhanced the City of Manila’s yearly flower-offering ceremony at the Liwasang Balagtas in Pandacan.

When “Florante at Laura,” the most famous work of Francisco Baltazar, was taught to us in the 1960’s, it was presented as a kind of epic poem in metric romance style situated in the faraway kingdom of Albania, a convoluted story of love, a clash of cultures colored with political rivalry. The Tagalog of Balagtas was a tongue twister with archaic punctuation but some of us did commit to memory the poignant stanza we did not fully comprehend:.... MORE

Source:  MB.com

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/356305/balagtas-beyond-the-language-issue