poetry of hilario zoilo

7/27/2019 Poetry of Hilario Zoilo

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O’ Neill / A Chronicle of the Philippines 232

Kritika Kultura 20 (2013): –258 © Ateneo de Manila University

<http://kritikakultura.ateneo.net>

Keywords

Nationalism, Modernism, epic poetry, W. E. Retana, loa, Spanish literary inuence

Abot The AthorIsaac Donoso is currently proessor at the University o Alicante (Spain), having taughtpreviously or three years at the Philippine Normal University. He graduated rom theUniversity o Alicante with degrees in Hispanic Philology (2003) and Humanities (2003),rom the University o the Philippines with a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies (2008),and rom the University o Alicante with a doctorate in Arab and Islamic Studies (2011).He is presently nishing a doctorate in Literary Teory at the University o Alicante witha thesis about Filipino literature in Spanish. He has won twice the Ibn al-Abbar Prizeor Research (2004-2008) and also, with Andrea Gallo, the First Juan Andrés Prize orWriting and Research in Human Sciences (2010) or the work Literatura hispanolipinaactual (Contemporary Hispanolipino Literature). He has produced critical editions o

the principal works o José Rizal (Noli Me angere, El Filibusterismo, and Selected

Prose) and great novels o Filipino literature in Spanish: Los pájaros de uego (Te Birdso Fire) by Jesús Balmori and Nathan’s Sheep by Antonio Abad. Finally, he has edited the

volumes More Hispanic Tan We Admit. Insights into Philippine Cultural History andHistoria cultural de la lengua española en Filipinas. Ayer y hoy (Cultural History o theSpanish Language in the Philippines. Yesterday and oday).

Abot The Translator

Porter O’Neill is a graduate student in the Department o Spanish and Portuguese at

Georgetown University in Washington, DC . She is interested in critical theory and 20thcentury Spanish literature and culture, especially the ormation o a Catalan nationalidentity.

Isaac Donoso

Universidad de Alicante

English translation by Porter O’Neill

Form Kritika: Philippine Literature in Spanish

A CHRONICLE OF THE PHILIPPINES IN

THE POETRY OF ZOILO HILARIO






Oedipus, Generations, and Antiques

THE HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE LITERATuRE nds itsel consistently burdenedby a undamental problem: the linguistic ragmentation that divides authors

and periods and impedes the creation o an overall critical paradigm. Te leastinteresting and most politically-minded literary criticism has employed thislinguistic ragmentation to integrate a body o pre-Hispanic oral tradition and, later,North American imitation into Filipino literary production. With a population o one hundred million inhabitants and one o the world’s most singular cultures,it is outrageous that criticism in the Philippines continues to view the country’sliterary history as a ragmented and splintered entity, incapable o uniting theentire historical development o Filipino literature into one cohesive vision.1 Tisis detrimental to the cultural sel-worth that the Philippines has intrinsically—according to the Filipinos themselves—and extrinsically—in the eyes o the world—since an undervalued literature, an intellectual tradition consigned to oblivion,

ends up demolishing the oundation on which the present rests and nulliying any uture projects. o be rank, the Philippines cannot compete culturally in Asiabecause it lacks the tools possessed by China, Japan, Korea, or even Malaysia: aconsciousness o its own historical development. Te Philippines has suered agenerational racture so severe that its children ignore, are unamiliar with, ordisregard the works o their own parents.2 No one says it better than Nick Joaquín(1917-2004), the Philippines’ best English-language writer: “A people that had gotas ar as Baudelaire in one language was being returned to the ABC’s o anotherlanguage.” 3

1 Reormulating the concept o “archipelagic consciousness” used by one o the primary English-language Filipinoauthors, Cirilo Bautista, Wystan de la Peña explained the ailings o any current initiative that does not take seriously

the multilingualism o Filipino literary creation: “What is necessary is an ‘archipelagic’ reading—to use a metaphorbased on the country’s geography—where the dierent Filipino literatures, including the one that is written in Spanish,are read as part o a great body o work connected with a common history, although articulated in dierent languages,”in Wystan de la Peña, “¿Dónde se encuentran las Letras Fil-Hispánicas en el canon de los estudios literarios lipinos,” inPerro Berde: Revista Cultural Hispano-Filipina, Manila, Embajada de España , 2009, num. 00, p. 79. Te problematicso Filipino literary historiography has been analyzed in depth in several publications: “La ormación de la historiogra íaliteraria lipina,” in Perro Berde: Revista Cultural Hispano-Filipina, Manila, Embajada de España, 2010, num. 1, pp. 107-111; “Intracomparatismo archipelágico: El sino de las letras en Filipinas,” in Pedro Aullón de Haro (ed.), El Comparatismo Literario, Madrid, Verbum (currently in printing); and in the rst chapters o I. Donoso & Andrea Gallo, Literaturahispanoflipina actual , Madrid, Verbum, 2011.

2 “English displaced both Spanish and the vernaculars as the primary symbolic system through which Filipinosrepresented themselves, that is, constituted themselves as colonial subjects with specic positions or unctions in thegiven social order […] English become the wedge that separated the Filipinos rom their past and later was to separateeducated Filipinos rom the masses o their countrymen,” in E. San Juan Jr., Writing and National Liberation: Essays onCritical Practice, Quezon City, University o the Philippines Press, 1991, p. 96.

“But our distorted attitude to oreign languages is amply demonstrated in the cavalier attitude with which educators

regarded and nally got rid o required Spanish learning. Part o the prejudice against Spanish is, o course, due to thegreat American-induced prejudice against the Spanish part o our history. But the prejudice has been counterproductivebecause illiteracy in Spanish has disabled millions o Filipinos rom reading into the archives o their past as wellas linking with Spanish-using countries at the present without American English intervention,” in Rolando inio, A

Matter o Language: Where English Fails, Quezon City, University o the Philippines Press, 1990, p. 96.3 Nick Joaquín, Te Woman Who Had wo Navels, Manila, Bookmark, 2005, pp. 170-171. Te entire problematics o

the Hispanic tradition in the Philippines is to be ound in this point : the Hispanic does not reer to the Spanish, but ratherthe Hispanic is the oundation o Filipino nationalism. For this reason there arose a conict o identity surrounding the






Tere are amous cases o contemporary and present-day Filipino writers andintellectuals who are recognized or their writing in English. What is curious is thatin some cases their parents were celebrated Spanish-language writers, and theirchildren are capable o casting them into oblivion, either simply through ignorance

and the passage o time or through the violent upheaval o the generational conict.In eect, the importance o the Oedipus complex in the history o contemporary Filipino literature (as much in the works as in the people) still remains to be seen,which Nick Joaquín so masterully described in Te Woman Who Had woNavels. But beyond these illustrious names that everyone knows, our interest now is to present one specic case as an example o how Filipino literature has beenabandoned, and how the thinkers who in days past built the nation are today lostin orgotten libraries and antique shops. We are going to create a “Chronicle o thePhilippines” by means o the poetry o an author who passed through all o thetranscendental stages o Filipino modernity and ultimately elt the weight o thepassage o time on his own shoulders: Zoilo José Hilario y Sangalang (1892-1963)

(Fig. 1 and 2).4Posthumously, and at the late date o 1968, the Hilario amily was able to give

a splendid homage to the memory o Zoilo by publishing a volume with his last,unpublished poems: Hymns and Harangues ( Himnos y Arengas) (Fig. 3), Manila,Nueva Era Press, 1968. In a note in English, the amily thanked and recognizedthe collaboration o Joaquín P. Jaramillo as editor o the book and Francisco G.onogbanua or its publication. Te act that this note is in English already apprisesus o the linguistic change in the amily, which is conrmed in the “Foreword”written in perect English by Zoilo’s daughter, Evangelina V. Hilario-Lacson. Teseare her words:

As a child, I paid no special attention to ather’s being a poet. All that I remember in

connection with his works was seeing them published in the magazine sections o the

then Spanish dailies. And, o course, I heard his riends discuss his works and comment

on their beauty. But I do not all remember his bragging about any o them, nor o his

having mentioned anything about the superiority o his works over another poet’s. Father,

even acclaimed as Pampanga’s poet laureate in Spanish and in Pampanga, remained a

humble man.5

political use o the concept o “civilization,” a conict that will never be resolved but that was reormulated throughoutthe 20th century: “I wonder i in the debate over the Filipino’s original identity there is not an unexpressed desire toreturn to the oetal position―a desire, one might say, to de-circumcise ourselves and reassume the simpler identity o the child. Te pagan tribesman would call such a desire shameul; the Christian would call it the sin against the Holy Ghost; but certain militants o today would call it nationalism when it’s the exact opposite o nationalism. Nationalism

is a very complex and advanced stage o political development, something that occurs late in history, and only ater clanand tribe have been outgrown. So how can we say we are being nationalist when we advocate a return to our pre-1521identity when that was a clan identity, a tribal identity? o recapture our pre-1521 identity, we would rst have to abolishthis nation called the Philippines,” in Nick Joaquín, Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process o Philippine

Becoming, Manila, Solar Publishing Corporation, 1989, p. 245.4 For a detailed biography, see his entry in E. Arsenio Manuel, Dictionary o Philippine Biography, Quezon City,

Filipiniana Publications, 1955-70, vol. III , pp. 327-328.5 Zoilo Hilario, Himnos y Arengas, Manila, Nueva Era Press, 1968, p. 2.






Praiseworthy and born rom indisputable lial love, Evangelina Hilario’s textshows us a child’s aection or her ather’s literature and her determination andhard work to ensure that it stood the test o time through the publication o thisbook. However, it also demonstrates a ailure to understand her ather’s work,

which is written in a language unknown or barely known to her and, above all, whoseunction—the unction o literary creation as an instrument o nation-building—she is unable to comprehend. Tat is to say, the loty, erudite poetry written by Zoilo Hilario (and so many other poets) in the rst hal o the 20th century, whichhelped shape the nation, has become domesticated: a amily keepsake, a smalltreasure that came to be because “our ather was a poet.” While in his time Zoilo’spoetry had inuenced thousands o Filipinos, Hymns and Harangues is presentedwith a “Foreword” in English as a amily project.

Tis point bears urther mention: the book was published not as an initiative by a literary critic or institution but rather as a amily undertaking in memory o theirather. Tus, it is the amilies themselves who, with the best o intentions, end up

taking the initiative to publish the works that remain unpublished and gatheringdust. Te argument is a convincing one: literature written in Spanish, which hadbeen the Filipino national literature, within a generation became a amily heirloom.o restate, within a generation, the linguistic racture in the Philippines hasturned works previously o national importance into amily keepsakes. And whathappens to the unpublished works? Te answer seems clear: they are stored asamily treasures, or they are sold. Tis is why many o the unpublished works o great Filipino authors in Spanish are only to be ound in orgotten libraries, privatecollections, or simply, antique shops.

Tis is the manner in which we nd the volume o Zoilo Hilario’s unpublishedpoetry that, upon publishing, would constitute Hymns and Harangues. It is a 17 by 22 centimeter volume with 134 pages numbered by hand in green ink, typewrittenwith corrections (by the author, we may suppose) made in the same ink, with thetitle Poetry Collection (Colección de Poesías) and the headword “Nectar” (“Néctar”)on the cover, while on the title page, over the crossed-out title Little Wings (Alitas) there is written by hand another title, Little Flowers (Florecitas) (Fig. 4 and 5). It isobviously a volume that was submitted to a literary competition that somehow ended up in an antique shop. What is surprising is that had it not been or theamily’s decision to publish Hymns and Harangues, this volume would haveremained unpublished, and the works would have been lost orever to Filipinoliterary history. In this case, as luck would have it, the texts have been given eternal

lie through publishing, but how many works have been lost already? Tereore,while literary criticism looks away and avoids its responsibilities, and the amiliesdo not publish the works that lie stored away and orgotten, a undamental part o Filipino literature—the literature written in Spanish—is succumbing to starvation,the worst o cultural inrmities.






However, not all is tragedy, and the splendid initiative taken by the Hilario amily,along with the intrinsic value o Zoilo’s poetry, provides us with some answers tothe dilemma. Tus, we will embark on a journey through contemporary Filipinohistory by means o his poetry, and in recovering the text o his work we will restore

the value o an extraordinarily original literary world in Asia.

Modernism as a Nationalist Instrument

In the manuals o Filipino literature, Zoilo Hilario is ound in second place, aterthe catalogue o great poets o the rst hal o the 20th century: Apóstol, Guerrero,Recto, Balmori, and Bernabé. From there onward, a long list o “secondary” authorstypically lls the pages, Zoilo Hilario among them. I there is little written aboutthose considered “great authors,” there is even less about the rest. Who is this poet,and what is his real literary importance?

Te inormation ound in the manuals is terse and oten erroneous. Luis Mariñas

points out that “in his younger era he was a distinguished lyric poet, uniting lyricismwith patriotism in his second volume.”6 He is cited as an author o secondary importance in Estanislao B. Alínea’s hierarchical list.7 Finally, eólo del Castilloand Buenaventura S. Medina, Jr. opine about his books o poems, “the rst one( Adelas) is made up o patriotic verses and love lyrics […] Hilario was principally a lyricist.”8 For some his rst book is more patriotic than the second, while orothers the reverse is the case. Everyone seems to be in agreement, however, thatZoilo was a “lyric poet.” And what is a “lyric poet”? Perhaps what is meant is that hewas a “modernist poet,” and a modernist poet in the Philippines, which is anothermatter altogether. It is dierent because Modernism in the Philippines possessesa complex problematics that began with the devastating criticism made by W.E.Retana:

Tis inequality in the production o Filipino poets must be attributed to the jumbled

mess that they have made o the models, wanting to share all at once in the traditions

o poets as disparate as Rueda, Rubén Darío, Andrade, Santos Chocano, Espronceda,

Núñez de Arce, and naturally, the unavoidable Verlaine (absinthe and all). Verlaine most

o all has provoked and disturbed them, and deeply—so much so that they do not choose

to savor Verlaine in the original French but rather to search or him in the sediment

that the celebrated symbolist poet precipitated among a certain segment o degenerated

Hispanic-American literature in Paris, which is what the adelos o the Manilan ‘Euterpe

Club’ so enjoyed.9

6 Luis Mariñas, La literatura lipina en castellano, Madrid, Editora Nacional, 1974, p. 67.7 Historia Analítica de la Literatura Filipinohispana (desde 1566 hasta mediados de 1964), Quezon City, Imprenta

Los Filipinos, 1964, p. 86.8 Philippine Literature: From Ancient imes to the Present, Quezon City, Philippine Graphic Arts, 1974, p. 217.99 W. E. Retana, De la evolución de la literatura castellana en Filipinas: los poetas, apuntes críticos, Madrid, Lib.

General de Victoriano Suárez, 1909, p. 28. Te impact o this text is such that when Julio Cejador y Frauca describedModernism in the Philippines, he used it exclusively. Historia de la Lengua y Literatura Castellana, Madrid, ipograía






In this text there are three acts o utmost importance: 1) Filipino authors,i they used to imitate the Romantic Spanish classics, now imitate the Hispano-American modernists; 2) there exists a “Euterpe Club” in Manila in the style o the

modernist literary caés; and 3) the poets in this club employ a modernist languagerepresented by the word “adela.”

Te rst printed work by Zoilo Hilario was Adelas (O the Filipino Lyre) (Fig.

6). With Lyrical Courtesy o Don Antonio Clímaco, Poet o Te Revolution [(De La Lira Filipina) Con Cortesía Lírica de Don Antonio Clímaco, Poeta de La Revolución],1913.10 Given the date, it was published ater Retana’s criticism, which did not citeHilario. o entitle the book Adelas ater Retana’s work seems audacious, exceptthat Retana’s text was not widely known. It is possible that it was a coincidence, andit is possible that many Filipino authors did not pay heed to the critiques o thistext. Was Retana mistaken, and Modernism in the Philippines was something morethan the escapism o Bohemians and dilettantes that undermined the nationalist

interests o the youth under “the North American yoke,” 11 or was Modernism ratheremployed by poets to create a nationalist, politically committed poetry? ReadingDalmacio Balagtás’s notes on the book Adelas, the rst option seems to be theanswer:

And meanwhile, with the golden key I will open the doors o its mystic garden, where

the Eucharistic sampaguitas [jasmine owers native to the Philippines], timid violets,

and prudish champakas [owers o a native tree] that open their petals to the kiss o the

dawn triumph.12

Retana himsel criticizes this empty verbal exercise—useless, “art or art’s sake”in a moment when the Philippines needed not Parnassian intellectuals but ratherpolitically committed men who would use the pen as a sword. But was Hilario anescapist poet, or did Dalmacio Balagtás overstate his Parnassian enthusiasm? Letus consider:

de la Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 1919, tomo X, pp. 68-69. Tus, beginning with Retana’s text, Hispanicistcriticism initiated a negative vision o Filipino Modernism. Te primary texts o Retana’s controversy are these: “Retana y la crítica al Modernismo: De la evolución de la literatura castellana en Filipinas [1909],” in Revista Filipina, tomo XII ,núm. 1, primavera 2008, http://revista.carayanpress.com/retana.html; and “Wenceslao Emilio Retana: Del porvenir delcastellano en Filipinas (arranged and readied or printing by Isaac Donoso Jiménez),” in Analecta Malacitana: Revista

de la sección de Filología de la Facultad de Filosoía y Letras, Málaga, Universidad de Málaga, vol. XXX , núm. 1, 2007,pp. 219-230. For an analysis o this controversy and the true unction o Modernism in the Philippines, see the article

“El Islam en las Letras Filipinas,” en Studi Ispanici, Roma & Pisa, Istituti Editoriali e Poligraci Internazionali, vol. XXXII,2007, pp. 291-313.

10 Bacolor, printing by Cornelio A. Pabalán Byron.11 Using Isidro Marori’s concept, Bajo el yugo del dólar, Manila, printing by L. R. Morales, 1933.12 Dalmacio Balagtás , “Al margen de un libro, ‘Adelas.’ Líneas breves,” in Zoilo Hilario, Patria y Redención: Poesías,

Manila, printing and lithiography by Juan Fajardo, 1914, p. 58.






In the Fashion o a Portico o the Small Garden13

PRAYER OF HE DAY

o Mrs. North America on Her Glorious Fourth o July

Allow to sing at the oot o your Trone o gold and owersTe plea o these brown-skinned people who do not like masters.

It is sublime and amorous

And they send it to you ull o smiling hopes

Dreaming o prosperity

And o a beautiul uture.

It is a heartelt request encapsulated in these phrases:

ake o rom us that which you hated under the control o England!14

Adelas is a book o poems organized as a journey through a garden, with eachpoem introduced by some general ideas written in prose. “Prayer o the Day”

(“Oración del día”) marks the entryway to the garden, and although its aestheticis indeed modernist, its content is not Parnassian. It is ollowed by the sections

“Vacation in the Garden o the Chimeras” (“Vacación en el jardín de las quimeras”),as an invocation o the muses, and “riumphant Parade o the Great Figures o Our History” (“Desle triunal de grandes guras de nuestra historia”), whichbegins with an equally enlightening poem, “Commanders o the race. Don EmilioAguinaldo y Famy” (“Caudillos de la raza. Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy”):

Commander o those warring revolutionary armies

August shadow you who surged orth in our night without light

Preaching combats and doctrines o liberation

o raise the albescent, red and blue ag;

[…]

You are the incarnation o the warrior spirit

O the brave Solimans o the times o the rajah!

You are the legitimate proo, the eternal hallmark,

Te shining symbol o national courage!15

In the last verse we see an indication o the poem’s purpose: Aguinaldo as anational “symbol.” And i the historical gure o Aguinaldo is already a nationalistsymbol, what are the “Sulaymans” and the “rajahs,” and the “colors albescent, red,

and blue”? Te poem does not make use o the words or the words themselves;rather, the chosen words are loaded with meaning. It is not escapist, owery Parnassian art, but instead the creation o an aesthetic that symbolizes the Filipino

13 Te poetry cited in this essay has been translated rom the Spanish by Adam Lishey. Tese translations do notattempt to retain the meter and rhyme o the original verses.

14 Adelas, op. cit., p. 7.15 Ibid., p. 15.






ideology. As was proved by the work o Jesús Balmori, Filipino Modernism is not anexercise o “orientalism rom the Orient,” but rather the creation o a catalogue o symbols that will dene the Filipino national aesthetic, an aesthetic characterizedby aestheticist orm and nationalist content.16 Can this be called “lyric poetry”? It

would seem that it cannot. In eect, it seems that there were Parnassian poets whowrote solely o sampaguitas and dalagas [virgins], and other poets who employedModernism to create politically committed works. Tus continues Adelas, with

“Book o Verses—Te Passage o the Tree Silhouettes o the Day—Te yrant, TeSlave, and Te Queen Without a Trone” (“Libro de versos―Paso de tres siluetasdel día―El irano, el Esclavo y la Reina sin rono”):

Te Slave

Te yrant is dea. In vain the poor ser claims

His stolen independence, rom the high Trone to his eet . . .

His voice dies in the emptiness, his heart no longer calls or

Imperial compassion. Te yrant is dea! . . .Instead in his mind the dream o vengeance is adorned with owers

As are his intense desires to be able to vindicate his honor,

Already via the war in which shine a Filipino-style knie and lance,

Rising up like a iger and roaring like a sea!

Queen Without Trone

See her in her grie. See her in her silent

Dungeon. Poor Queen o the Orient!

Great is her afiction!

Standing, sad like the pale airies,

She raises her enchained hands

o the Trone o God! . . . 17

I the symbolism o these two poems is completely transparent, they are ollowedby “Lost Paradise” (“Paraíso perdido”) and “Social Harmony. Te Dreamed Century.Equality and Brotherhood. Universal Peace” (“Armonía social. El siglo soñado.Igualdad y raternidad. La paz universal”). “Social Harmony” ceases to mask itswords with the symbolism and beauty o Modernism; it is truly a poem o socialrealism. I any lingering suspicion o a “lyrical” style remained in Zoilo Hilario’spoetry, this poem puts an end to it by denitively demonstrating his poetry’s role in

the ormation o a symbolic aesthetic that tends toward social realism and politicaldenunciation:

16 See “Los pájaros de uego. Japón y el holocausto lipino en la obra de Jesús Balmori,” in Studi Ispanici, Roma &Pisa, Istituti Editoriali e Poligraci Internazionali, vol. XXXIII, 2008, pp. 217-235, and especially the introduction to theInstituto Cervantes’ critical edition, Los pájaros de uego, Manila, Instituto Cervantes, 2010.

17 Adelas, op. cit., pp. 24-25.






Social Harmony.

Te Dreamed Century. Equality and Fraternity. Universal Peace.

I dream in this militant epoch o ideas

that they spoke o embers o re or red torches,a century o prosperity, peace and harmony,

with holy Justice not in disharmony;

a viable century when like gods o mud

the conquerors all rom the high carriage;

when crowns and thrones are toppled,

and Caesars and laborers are equals.18

Tis is ollowed by a series o poems that, although unknown, are surprising. Itis surprising that Zoilo Hilario’s poetry is largely unknown and that it is consideredby the manuals (those that mention him at all, which many do not) as a “lyricist.” It is

also surprising that the signicance o Filipino Modernism has never been studiedexhaustively, and even now Retana’s hundred-year-old criticism endures. Retanawas right regarding the ew Parnassian poets who enthusiastically imitated thatstyle, but not about those whose creation went beyond the Parisian archetypes—nor about Zoilo Hilario’s symbolism that began in 1904 with Malay Rhymes (Rimas

Malayas) and culminated masterully in 1941 with My House o Nipa [a palm treenative to the Philippines] (Mi casa de nipa), both by Jesús Balmori. Te ollowingare reproductions o the most signicant parts o the poems:

Meeting on a errace Roo

―Aectionate virgin, sad is your claim,

aching your accent, sublime your pain…

I too love another like I love you, I love you…

My Patria, the brown-skinned woman prisoner!

Te Liberated Birds

She has a cage with bars all o gold,

that the nighttime breezes that I so, so adore

move in the window with sotness and love.

Enclosed in that beautiul and precious cage

are three blue birds that my beautiul bride has,birds that always versiy a sad song.

18 Ibid., p. 35.






“Like Romeo and Juliet”

―Both die!, Sweet death! A nest o loves

we will make in a single tomb with owers,

like that Romeo and his bewitching Juliet,

together, together, wrapped in our ag.

Nationalist Love

I eel that in the bottom o my soul there pierces

the sharp dart o an inmense pain

upon seeing that, like our Patria, she is a slave,

she is not happy, she is not ree, my beloved brown-skinned girl.

Tereore, I dream to see realized the holy desire

o my Patria, beore she rolls into the abyss:

(imperialist, restrain your right)

her desired Liberty…but…right now! 19

At the beginning o our investigation we saw that Zoilo Hilario’s own daughterclassied him as a humble man. Perhaps this is one o the reasons that he tendsto be let o o the list o great Filipino poets. While other authors lived activelives o public unctions and publishing, Zoilo withdrew to the judicial lie. Hehimsel apologizes or his compositions, and at the end o the book he explains hisundamental shit rom the idealism o nationalist poetry to public unction:

Te poems contained in this book are, then, like those timid virgins who—nding

themselves the subject o a curious, penetrating gaze—seem to grow ashamed! I will not

put my thoughts into verses any longer. It has been a year since the divine muses drove

me out o paradise or enjoying, like Adam, the orbidden ruit o the ree o ruth and

o Positivism.20

It seems, thereore, that the state o aairs prevailed on him, and ater thecountry’s deeat in the Philippine-American War (1899-1906), Zoilo had to becomepart o the new colonial system o administration. What else was there to do aterthe military deeat? Fight with the pen, exalt liberty, and denounce oppression:

In general, a current o patriotism is evident throughout the book, a aithul echo o

the voice o the people. Tis is precisely the value that the works o this period hold or

uture generations, and this is the value that we nd in Adelas.21

19 Ibid., p. 67.20 Ibid., p. 70.21 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, “Notas Bibliográcas,” in Zoilo Hilario, Patria y Redención, op. cit., p. 63.






The Unrepentant Queen of the Orient

aking into account what we have learned, Zoilo Hilario is not a lyric poet atall; rather, he employs elements o Modernism to create an aesthetic that exalts

nationalism. Te title o his next book o poems could not be more explicit: Patriaand Redemption. Poems (Patria y Redención. Poesías), 1914 (Fig. 7).22 Although therst work came into being in his birthplace o Pampanga, he then began to publishin Manila, and his next work was entirely an apologia or the Philippines—publishedin the very seat o colonial power, with one o the most singular covers in thehistory o Filipino literature. On it, the shackled Philippines begs the United States,depicted on a throne, to liberate her rom her slavery, while in the background arising sun (in the Japanese style) asks or redemption. Te image immediately callsto mind Luna’s painting “Spain and the Philippines” (“España y Filipinas”) (Fig. 8), inwhich Spain shows the Philippines the path to emancipation. Te symbolism couldnot be greater. Te amous Manuel Bernabé wrote the prelude to the book. In light

o these acts, it seems inexplicable that Patria and Redemption is not consideredone o the great Filipino poetry books and that Zoilo Hilario’s poetry is basically unknown. Perhaps the Parnassian enthusiasm, including Bernabé’s own, has hadthe unortunate eect o obscuring the book’s purpose as expressed in its title:

Prelude

Poet: in your song o spring

utters a morning breeze,

the birds marry the owers,

and in the middle o the rural scene,

you come out with, troubador, your sonatina,

with the blue prelude o loves . . . 23

Te work is divided into our sections: “Heroes and Laurels” (“Héroes y Lauros”),“Slave Songs” (“Cantos del esclavo”), “Delights o the Homeland” (“Glorias delterruño), and “Lover’s Dreams” (“Sueños del amante”). Te content is thus anexaltation o a list o heroes that will shape the nationalist ideology, a denouncemento political subjugation, an apologia o the patria, and nally, dreams o redemption.It all begins with the rst o the heroes, Rajah Sulayman, whom the poets call

“Solimán”:

22 Manila, printing and lithiography by Juan Fajardo.23 Poem by Manuel Bernabé in Patria y Redención, op. cit., p. 57. I we consider the political commitment o

Hilario’s book o poems, it is clear that Bernabé was mistaken in his approach to this Prelude and its empty words. Inthis case, one must acknowledge that Retana is correct: Bernabé’s Prelude is dilettantish when the book called or apolitically committed, denunciatory piece.






Solimán

And being you that warrior who to save our Race

made himsel into a amous hero by warding o a threat

I swear by your high memory in this humble song:that today when the patria cries or its misortune

under the strange tutelage o an enormous and strong country

there abound Filipino lips that curse Oppression! 24

I in Adelas we nd the denition o nationalist sentiment, the title o Zoilo’ssecond book o poems perectly describes its objective: patriotism as an exacerbatedeeling and the imploration o the ideal. Beyond the reason o the colonizer, thecolonized begs or redemption, redemption that becomes more irrational as itbecomes more justied:

Dream

I.Last night I saw you in my dreams, beloved Philippines,

Enchanting sultana o the Far Orient;

You were ound in the orest o divine ragrances

In the resplendence o the stars o the nighttime mantle.

[…]

VII .

Drunk with happiness, with love you told me:

I am no longer unredeemed! Already my ideal has triumphed!

Aterwards, always aectionate, in my ace you imprinted

A very sweet kiss, a maternal kiss…25

Te next poem was submitted to the poetry contest o the Spanish Day celebrated in Manila in 1913. Te text was included in Patria and Redemption,and it reveals that Zoilo Hilario was active in literary contests. Let us rememberthe volume Poetry Collection, an entire unpublished volume that only saw thelight o day posthumously in the orm o Hymns and Harangues. “Song to My Patria” (“Canto a mi Patria”), then, contains one o the primary themes o Filipinoliterature in the rst hal o the 20th century: the exaltation o Hispanic culture.Te reason or this theme is clear: i the United States aborted the Republic o

the Philippines and imposed a colonial regimen modeled ater its own image andlikeness, the Filipino intellectual rebelled, invoking his civilization and the origin o his nationality. Spain, the Spanish language, and the Hispanic culture are constantthemes that exalt a Filipino identity in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon imposition.

24 Ibid., p. 6.25 Ibid., pp. 18-19.






I the United States can restrain itsel rom crushing the spirit o the Philippines, itwill come to understand this complex national identity. Te poem brings togetherall o the modernist symbols in modied ottava rima, demonstrating the richnesso a Modernism in Asia with its own personality:

Song to my Patria

Cradle o the primitive warrior rajah,

sweet spouse o the archer Prince Sun,

sultana o the Orient, riend o the Moon,

patria o the heart, patria without ortune;

dream o heroes, suering mother o mine

you who awaits the dawn o your new day,

orchard o roses, glory o Magellan,

dethroned empress, ower o desires,

oriental senate o white jasmine owers,nymph whose eet the Pacic bathes,

emancipated daughter o old Spain:

[. . .]

And when this day arrives, drawing a veil over

the sad past, acing your sky,

and with love, nothing more than proound love

which will be the base o peace in the World,

send rom your summit, and beneath

your Sun, or its examples o Work,

to America, unading memory,

i it does not ruin your aith and beautiul hope,

and or the idiom that she gave you, and like a verse

ows, or as rom the crystal smooth Amazon

cast too, oh my Patria, which the Sun bathes!

innite gaze o love to Spain.26

Tis is ollowed by poems whose titles show an interest in creating anautochthonous style: “Sinukuan,” “Te Dalaga o the Homeland” (“La dalaga delterruño”), “Anahaw,” “Sampaguitas”, and “Ilang-Ilangs…” And thus we arrive at anepisode that has gone completely unnoticed in the literary history o the Philippines:

the existence o literary meetings styled ater the caés o Paris. Nothing reectsthe modernist spirit more than the literary caé, the Bohemian club where youngartists look or inspiration rom the muses. Here we must return to Retana’s textin which he mentions a “Euterpe Club” where the Manilan adelos meet. O this

“Euterpe Club” we know nothing, but perhaps it reers to the “Garden o Epicurus”26 Ibid., pp. 20-23.






(“Jardín de Epicuro”), a literary group ounded by Fernando M. Guerrero. Ineect, this organization has gone practically unnoticed, but its importance seemsundamental to the invigoration o the modernist style under Guerrero, the Filipinopoet who most inuenced the young provincials who arrived in Manila. In the

lie o the city between the two World Wars, the literary circle was ound in theoutskirts o Ermita, a Bohemian district par excellence in the Filipino capital andthe birthplace o the Guerrero, Balmori, and other important amilies in the literary panorama o the period. Because o his insistence on the concept o “adelas” andthe tone o his poetry, Zoilo Hilario would play a prominent role in the group. Tiscan be inerred rom the poem “ristan and Isolde” (“ristán e Isolda”), included inhis second book o poems, where it is written: “Poem recited by the author at therst dinner o the revived ‘Garden o Epicurus,’ celebrated in the Hotel Metropolede Manila”:

What will the ury matter to you, what will the jealousy matter to you

O the husband who already begins to see clouded his skiesO the monarch o Cornwall, o the old and poor king?

Teir undaunted love passes among spellbound sweets,

Among caresses adulterous, among kisses delinquent,

Because overowing love has no law. 27

We will conclude this analysis o Patria and Redemption with a poem thatprovides a perect coda. Ater a series o poems more romantic than modernist(“ribute” (“Orenda”), “Absence” (“Ausencia”), “Te roubadour” (“El rovador”),

“Intimate” (“Íntima”), “Romantic” (“Romántica”), the poet turns to an oneiric stateto appeal to the dream o redemption through a symbolist invocation. “Dreamo Love” (“Sueño del Amor”) is a short poem in Italian octave, showing thatModernism (in the case o the Philippines) does not break radically with the classicmeter but rather explores, innovates, and enriches it with new possibilities. Tis isanother matter that has yet to be discussed: changes in the meter o Filipino poetry.

“Dream o Love” expresses with words what the cover o the book reects with theimage o Luna’s painting o the Philippines redeemed:

27 Ibid., p. 47.






Heaven! You symbolized

to the Queen o the Orient,

—I still kiss the sacred dust

o your luminous traces―

and you told me o hopeso an independent lie,

shining oriental dress

o a sun and three stars! 28

The Structure of the Filipino Epic Poem

As we have mentioned, Zoilo Hilario’s third book o poems in Spanish did notsee the light o day until his amily decided to publish Hymns and Harangues in1968, edited by Joaquín P. Jaramillo. Several o the poems do appear, however, ina volume without a publication date or editor entitled Illustrious Filipinos: Poetry

Collection (Ilustres Varones Filipinos: Colección de Poesías) 29 (Fig. 9). Likewise,almost the same text that appeared in Hymns and Harangues was already availableor printing in the volume that we ound in the antique shop under the headword

“Nectar.” Hymns and Harangues contains numerous important compositions, and it is

the culmination o the Filipino chronicle o the 20th century that began in theGarden o Epicurus among adelas, leading to the demands o political redemptionand ending with a military conict on a worldwide scale. But beore that, ZoiloHilario dealt a rst blow that incited an oratory war. In addition to the well-knownbalagtasan [debate in poetic verse] between Jesús Balmori and Manuel Bernabé,there has been word o other disputes in verse, and not only in Manila.30 In thiscase, Hymns and Harangues comprises Zoilo Hilario’s side o the debate withManuel Bernabé, “Deense o Love” (“Deensa del Amor”), “spoken by the authorin the poetic joust between him and the Honorable Manuel Bernabé, called thepanegyrist o ‘Hatred,’ in the Excelsior Cinema in the capital o Pampanga, thenight o the 27th o April 1932” (“hecha por el autor en la justa poética habida entreél y el Hon. Manuel Bernabé, designado como panegirista del ‘Odio,’ en el CineExcelsior de la capital de Pampanga, el 27 de Abril de 1932, por la noche”).31 We willcite as an example the last replies given by Hilario, who seems to be the winner o the debate between Love and Hatred. Once again our author insists on liberty asthe most valuable thing, and love as its path to redemption:

28 Ibid., p. 54.29 A copy may be ound in the Main Library o the University o the Philippines [call number: PQ 8897 H64 I48].30 J. Balmori & M. Bernabé, Balagtasan (Justa poética), Manila, Gráca, 1927. Te balagtasan in agalog was

extremely prevalent, as demonstrated in Galileo S. Zara, Balagtasan: Kasaysayan at Antolohiya, Quezon City, Ateneode Manila University Press, 1999. Te balagtasan in Spanish, however, has yet to be studied intensively. C. MaríaDolores Pita, Balagtasan: La Poesía de Jesús Balmori y Manuel Bernabé y Otras Cosas Más. Siendo lo mejor de loescrito por Filipinos de Rizal a Nick Joaquín, Manila, Historical Conservation Society, 1992.

31 Himnos y Arengas, Manila, Nueva Era Press, 1968, p. 6.






XVII

Final replies

Our martyrs triumphed, brother;they did not go to spill their blood in vein,

or, in exchange or their immortal deed,

without dams is patriotic sentiment,

without chains is noble thought

and the word without iron muzzle!...

Singing rancor against yrants,

so gave the very verses o Bernabé

an argument in avor o holy Love!

Shake the vile yoke o despotism

all people who esteem themselvesand love their Libery, their History and Honor!...32

Along with the literary competitions and contests, circles, chats, and caés, andnewspapers and magazines, the balagtasan can be added to the long list o literary events that invigorated the Philippines during the rst hal o the 20th century. WithFrench Modernism, Parnassianism, and Symbolism arriving rom the Hispanicinuence, and the Belle Époque and the North American literary inuence, thePhilippines exhibits an originality unprecedented on the Asian stage that has beenconsciously undervalued by both natives and oreigners.

But there was no time let or righting past errors; Asia asserted itsel on behal o the true “Asians” (that is to say, the Japanese), and the war cast into oblivion all o the literary exercises that the Filipino cultural world had so extraordinarily created.Faced with war, only tragedy remained. And like so many other Filipino authors,the World War dramatically marked the lie o Zoilo Hilario. I we imagine himin his youth, holding court in the Garden o Epicurus, talking about adelas anddalagas, his daughter later describes the personality o a sensitive man who seeshimsel as destined or the cruelty o the world:

It is my sincere belie that Father’s love o country was more sacred than his love o woman

[. . .] Father’s burning ambition was to raise the social, economic, and, more specially, the

civic and cultural standards o the common man [. . .] Father was not demonstrative inhis aections. He seldom kissed us children [. . .] But though undemonstrative, he elt

deeply. Read “Una tragedia” and be convinced o his deep human emotions.33

32 Ibid., p. 18-19.33 Ibid., p. 2.






Zoilo Hilario had ve children: Raaelita, Evangelina, iburcio, Ulises and Eraín.His youngest son joined the guerrilla movement that ought against the Japaneseinvasion in Pampanga. In an ambush, the guerrilla ghters themselves attacked

Zoilo and Eraín by mistake, and Eraín died six days later. Not the Japanesebut rather the very Filipinos perpetrated this tragedy in a wartime maelstromwith neither victors nor vanquished. Te generational tragedy reached its worstconsequences, the death o a child beore his ather:

Te th son o the author o this work. He was born in San Fernando, Pampanga,

January 28th, 1925. July 6th, 1943, ater helping, as a guerrilla ghter, an old woman

and a young boy who were bringing munitions to a guerrilla group in Zambales, Eraín

accompanied his ather on a planned trip to Magalang. In a wagon in a deserted spot

near Sapac Mainsac, he, his ather, and Mr. José Morales were victims o an ambush—by

mistake, according to the miscreants who shot at them with pistols when the wagoner

did not want to stop his vehicle. Mr. Morales died in the act. Te bandits broughtEraín and his ather, along with the body, to a thicket. Ater being abandoned by the

delinquents, Eraín and his ather, although hurt, walked to the provincial road, where

they came upon a kind-hearted man that drove them to the town hall in Ángeles, where

Dr. Gregorio Valdés gave them their rst medical attention. Eraín died in the Provincial

Hospital o Pampanga, whose director is the good Dr. Raael eopaco, on July 12, 1943, in

spite o medical eorts to save his lie.34

Now we will consider the most expressive stanzas o the poem in memory o Eraín Hilario y Velásquez (1925-1943), killed at the age o eighteen, whosetombstone must be somewhere in the cemetery o San Fernando Pampanga:

Te memory of a tragedy

Eraín, deceased enchantment

o my paternal love:

I dedicate to you this my song

made with teardrops

and heart blood.

[…]

I have returned to plucking my lyre,

to orget my grie,

but in vain, or it is inspiredin my pain, and sighs

equal to my heart.

[…]

34 Ibid., p. 82.






In my tormented whiles,

to ease my grie,

I think that, in painul times

o war, ortunate

so are the dead!35

Given that Hymns and Harangues gathers together Zoilo Hilario’s poetry that waslet unpublished, above all rom his second period ater the books o poetry o the1910s, there are numerous sections that contain: “Patriotic Harangues” (“Arrengaspatrióticas”), “O the Christian Helicon” (“Del helicón cristiano”), “In the Gardeno Idealism” (“En el jardín del idealismo”), “Song to wo Provinces” (“Canto a dosprovincias”), “Eulogy o a City” (“Elogio de una ciudad”), “Verses in Admiration o Manuel A. Roxas” (“Versos de admiración a Manuel A. Roxas”), “A Daring Insect”(“Un insecto audaz”), and “o the Memory o Four Good Friends” (“A la memoria decuatro buenos amigos”). In act, on page 52 o the volume called “Nectar”, there is a

bit o paper that covers the rst paragraph o the poem “Poetic Arch in Honor o H.E. Manuel A. Roxas” (“Arco poético en honor de S. E. Manuel A. Roxas”). Te textis not reproduced on the corresponding page, page 62, o Hymns and Harangues.Held up to the light, the covered text reads: “Inspired poetry dedicated to H. E.the President Manuel A. Roxas by one o our laureates and most distinguishedbards—JUSO FIEL—or the birthday o our rst magistrate o the nation that hecelebrated the 1st o February, 1948” (“Inspirada poesía dedicada a S. E el PresidenteManuel A. Roxas por uno de nuestros laureados y más distinguidos bardos ―JUSO FIEL―con motivo del cumpleaños de nuestro primer magistrado de la nación quecelebró el 1º de Enero de 1948”). Te author’s name was obviously exposed, whichwe may suppose was against the rules o the literary contest or which the volume

“Nectar” was destined. But what this reveals is that Zoilo Hilario’s pseudonym was“Justo Fiel” (“Just” and “Faithul”). Considering that much o the poetry o the timeappeared in periodical publications under pseudonyms, it is possible that poems o his are still scattered to the winds (as occurs with so many authors).

Te most important part o the volume, and the one that concludesHilario’s work, is the section “Illustrious Filipinos.” Tis section does not allow oran argument o lyricism; it constitutes epic poetry in the most classic Filipino style:the loa.36 Its series o authors and poems gives us a precise idea o how nationalistsymbolism has brought Modernism to the epic and the most classicist poetry:37

“José Rizal,” “Manuel L. Quezon,” “Manuel A. Roxas,” “Ramón Magsaysay,” “Elpidio

35 Ibid., pp. 78-81.36 For more about the loa in Filipino literature, see the introduction o the book o poems by Guillermo Gómez

Rivera, Con címbalos de caña, Sevilla, Moreno Mejías, 2011.37 In this post-World War II context, works like that o Gómez Rivera were totally justied as a return to a more

restrained and apologetic poetry. In a postwar context in which the generational racture is already irreparable andthe Spanish language is relegated to the domestic sphere, there is no longer any possibility o a nationwide poetry thatollows international aesthetic examples; the only means o escape is simple, classic poetry. On the current aesthetic o Filipino literature in Spanish, see Literatura hispanolipina actual, op. cit.






Quirino,” “Sergio Osmeña,” “José Laurel,” “Emilio Aguinaldo,” “General MaximinoHizon,” “General Pantaleón García,” “General José Alejandrino,” “General Carlos P.Rómulo,” “José Abad Santos,” “Illmo. Santiago Sancho,” “Runo J. Santos,” “eodoroM. Kalaw,” “Jesús Balmori,” “Manuel Bernabé,” “Claro M. Recto,” “José Corazón de

Jesús,” “Patricio Mariano,” “Senador José Clarín,” “Hon. Marcelo Boncán,” “HonorioVentura,” “Macario Arnedo,” “Mariano Lim,” and “Román Ozaeta” As its coda,“wo Great North American Figures” (“Dos grandes guras norte-americanas”):“Franklin D. Roosevelt,” “General Douglas MacArthur.”

Tis last poem is relevant, seeing as it testies to the consummation o a clearact: the United States has passed rom being a “tyrant” to a “liberator.” I in ZoiloHilario’s rst two books o poems he explicitly and implicitly denounces NorthAmerican colonialism or putting an end to the Republic o the Philippines andorcing the Filipino people to beg or their independence, the poem “GeneralDouglas MacArthur,” a loa in sextain orm, destroys the idealism. Said anotherway: the long-awaited redemption has not come to pass, notwithstanding a bloody

war in which thousands o Filipino civilians lost their lives. However, the UnitedStates still deserves thanks. Te death o Eraín symbolically represents the Filipinogenerational racture, the death o the past, while a new generation o Filipinosraise their eyes with admiration toward General Douglas MacArthur. Te UnitedStates has triumphed:

For you Manila returns

to tranquil existence,

radiant with gratitude.

o see anew your gure,

swarms through the street

the multicolored multitude.

“Lit me up more, mother o mine,

(a little one said

among the spectator public)

or upon the invincible warrior

General MacArthur I want

o be able to gaze better!”38

However, and in spite o the act that Zoilo Hilario’s poetry is revealed to be

enormously pragmatic and capable o adapting itsel to the reality o its environment,it also remains constant in its idealistic desire or redemption—not in Christianterms, but rather cultural redemption: the liberation o an oppressed nation.Tus, unlike other authors who have already started the eulogy or the Spanishlanguage and have an inkling o the generational tragedy that approaches, Zoilo

38 Ibid., p. 103.






Hilario is one o the ew who seems to remain optimistic. Te section “Spanishness”(“Españolismo”) in his last work includes a number o poems: “Spanish Soul”(“Alma Española”) (which won First Place in the Literary Contest held by the IloíloSocial Club in 1917), “Hispanist Muse” (“Musa Hispanista”), “o the Intellectual

Emissary o Spain” (“Al emisario intellectual de España”) (which Zoilo recited at thehome o the national poet, Jesús Balmori), “Spanish Heart” (“Corazón español”),and “Hymn to the Cervantine Language” (“Himno al idioma cervantino”). Wewill conclude with a quotation rom this last composition, a truly visionary poemwritten about the Spanish language in the Philippines, in which two themes standout: 1) to invoke Spanish is to invoke the patriots who ought or the nation, and 2)the more the Philippines progresses, the more necessary the Spanish language willbe as a oundational language o the nation:

Te indigenous troubador who today sings,

upon using you, his honored Spanishness

no precept—in his judgment—breaksrom the eternal code o patriotim,

or here you are o such roots.

With centuries-old ties united

she has you to her culture, aith and history

this recently emancipated country.

How, then, without diminishing her own glory

could she bury you in orgetulness!

Whoever created you like a perishing swan

in this country that ghts and advances

will have to be surprised when, to the exigent

demands o Progress, more strength

you gain in the Republic o the Orient.39

Zoilo Hilario composed several works in the Pampangan language, both poetry and theater, and he was crowned one o the most important authors in Pampanga.Te study o his complete works, his impact in the judicial sphere, and his memory as a Pampangan intellectual should be conducted in uture investigations. Likemany o the orgotten Filipino authors, their work was so important that each

one deserves his own volume. In this brie article we only attempt to exhibit therichness o his Spanish language poetry and the necessity o valuing Zoilo Hilarioas one o the most signicant Filipino poets o the 20th century.

39 Ibid., p. 33.



Fig. 1

Fig. 2




Image Appendix



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Fig. 7






Fig. 8: Juan Luna, “España y Filipinas.” Lopez

Museum, Manila.



poetry of hilario zoilo

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