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THEY come in well-pressed suits and ties. Their black oxfords shine and so does their thinning pompadour sculpted with pomade. For the young turks attending the convention, there is no trace that their senior colleagues used to be college bohemians like them.
Then the ?senyors,? as they are now fondly called by the new members, approach the podium and talk about poetry and how, as young writers back in the ?60s, they shared the joy of writing in their native tongue. They are, in fact, the original members of the Cebuano writers? group Bathalad (Bathalan-ong Halad sa Dagang/ Divine Gift of the Quill).
It?s been more than 40 years since they decided to formally establish the group devoted to the cause of literature in Cebuano. Because the founding members were young at the time, it was originally named Batan-ong Halad sa Dagang (Youthful Gift of the Quill). Of course, it had to be renamed as members became aware of their beer bellies and gray hair. Thus the change from Batan-on to Bathalan-on. That didn?t mean losing their youth. Members merely acknowledge that with wisdom comes the sense of the Spiritual.
So did the group itself which easily matured in those years of patriotism to become a national organization, with chapters around the Visayas and Mindanao. It is proof enough that the language itself is national in scope and should be recognized as such.
Bathalad was at the forefront of this advocacy. Though not intrinsically inclined at organizing, the poets successfully held literary workshops, sponsored language debates, and published anthologies.
Every year, they come together to a convention where they discuss the problems of literature and language. They aspire for the creation of an Akademiyang Bisaya, a linguistic magisterium similar to the French Academy, that would set the common ground in grammar and spelling, even as they recognize the fact that such standards cannot be fixed, as language itself is evolving.
As always, members young and old debate about the issue of tradition versus innovation in both writing style and grammar. They contend on the issue of raw talent versus academic canon, native sensibility versus foreign influence.
They can be fiery debates but as soon as the microphones were turned off, the members move to a more casual venue, to exchange tagay (drink) and garay (verses). They raise their glasses to friends who have gone away, and there have been some these past few years, and read odes to them.
That was how the last Bathalad convention went two Saturdays ago. The balikbayan members, two of them well-to-do doctors now living in the States, came to grace the occasion and to pledge financial support to the group?s future activities. It was their way of repaying the group that nurtured their literary talent.
Speaking in exquisite Cebuano, their wit belies the fact that they have stayed abroad for decades. It shows that, although they had to keep their day jobs, writing only during off hours, the poetic muse has not deserted them. In that foreign country, they continued to think in Cebuano.
Thus it must have been an inspiration, especially to younger members who work in call centers or in the academe, places where to speak or write in Cebuano is to risk being out of place. It is equally encouraging to see the old bards never actually losing their youthful spirit, their eagerness for the new, which as T.S. Elliot would say, was actually tradition reemerging in the present.
It is with this common respect for both the old and new art that makes it so easy for young members and the old guards to bond together. And if indeed a certain Spirit (zeitgeist or volksgeist, whatever) permeates literature, there is also what Bathalad poet Myke Obenieta calls ?the spirit of the glass? that keeps it alive.
Let me end with a quote from Myke?s paper ?Tradisyon sa Tagay, Tagay sa Tradisyon: Or, the Spirit of the Glass and its Impact on the Evolution of Cebuano Poetic Tradition)?: ?Sorry if I sound a bit tipsy, but I know the Bathalad writers and the ancestral voices that passed through them are pleased as punch, seeing we don?t cower at the table of tradition as they pass on the torch, so to speak, to us. Yes, along with the glass.?
