Ang Isda (Halaw sa The Fish ni Elizabeth Bishop)

Ang Isda (Halaw sa The Fish ni Elizabeth Bishop)
ni Reya Bato

Ika-7 ng Agosto 2010
03:47 PM

Mula buntot hanggang ulo
nakadikit ang mahahaba’t
makikitid na piraso
ng kanyang kayumangging
katad, katulad
ng lipas na pilas
ng papel na pandingding,
ang dibuho sa papel
ay kulay San Antonio:
hugis ng madungis na rosas
na namumukadkad, makupad
na pinapawi ng mahabang
sandali. May batik-batik
na mga taliptip, pinong
sabog-sabog na apog,
at pinamumugaran
ng maliliit at puting
kutong-dagat.
May gayak pa itong
dalawa o tatlong
luntiang trapo ng damo.


Excerpt from “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop

… Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down…