©2009 by Antonio Enriquez

All rights reserved.

Tumaga Folk Songs

Edited by a.r.enriquez
Recorded by Joy Enriquez

Already the old people are sitting in the corner sari-sari store in Tumaga, Zamboanga City, waiting for us—
my wife Joy and me—with anxious, creased faces. It is a pleasant Sunday afternoon, and the 2:00 o’clock sun is cool
on the nipa-thatched roof of the store. Señor Cristobal Manuel, 71, a retired teacher, smiles at us and right away
recalls seeing me some six months ago. Bueno gayot el memoria –The old man still has a good memory, I think. The
others, Señores Ramon Jalon, 52, stocky, owner of the store, and Clem Bascar, a research assistant from Zamboanga
State College—sit on long wooden benches.
We have come to Tumaga on a tricycle to listen to old folk (maga ancianos, says Manuel) sing folk songs.
While the ancianos, with short-sighted vision looking down at their notebook, sing and Jalon strums a guitar, I notice
the pure Spanish lyrics (surprising even to me whose mother-tongue is Chabacano) in the serenades, sentimental songs
and despididas.
NOTE: Tumaga folk songs were translated into English by author’s father, Isidro Enriquez.

“This is Melanio’s (Rebel Major Melanio Calixto*) song,” says Ramon Jalon. “Who told us?
Gavino Alfredo said this song belonged to Melanio, who composed this while hiding in the swamps
from the American invaders.”

Chabacano

Orilla En Zamboanga

Orilla en Zamboanga
Se ven los manglares
Con robusto tronco
Explendida sombra
Con sus verdes hojas
Color de ojete
Prestando el espiritu
Y dulsura sin par.

Que triste la vida

 Lejos de tu seno
Cual mi amor existe
Fuera de tus campos
El cielo entristese
Y luz no purgosa.
O! este es mi patria,
Mi patria de amor.

Enlish

The Shores of Zamboanga

The shores of Zamboanga

Abound with swamps
With sturdy trunks
Majestic shadows
With verdant leaves
The color of green
Lend the spirit
Sweetness uncompared.

How sorrowful is life

Far away from you.
The existence of my life
Away from your fields
The sky becomes gloomy
And light does not shine.
O! this is my country,
My beloved country.

*Melanio Calixto was the most trusted officer of Gen. Vicente Alvarez,the latter had led
the Philippine revolution in Zamboanga Peninsula against the Spanish colonizers. Calixto was
assassinated by Mayor Midel of Tetuan district, a traitor, who turned over the rebels’ rifles and
guns to the American naval commander, waiting along Zamboanga’s shores, to invade
Zamboanga.
__________

“When I got married, I gave up all vices. Except serenading. I love to sing, and even now
I still sing,” says Cristobal Manuel, as we prepared our recording contraption for “taping.”

Chabacano

Huerfano Soy
 Huerfano soy de un amor
Que perdi.
Que hace tiempo amaba yo
Y que nunca pence
Que me has de olvidar
Por otro amor, mujer.
Y que he de hacer si mi
Sueño fatal asi me
Persigue?
Tu ingrata ay de me;
Despreciado mi amor
Sin su causa mi bien.
O! que crueldad y sin
Piedad me has arropado.
Compacion te pido, para
Este desdichado
No se la causa por que tu
Me has despreciado.
Ven, que te quiero yo,
Y no seas cruel a este
Pobre amador.

English

I am an orphan of love
Which I lost.
Love that long I cherished
And never thought
That you would forget me
For another love, woman.
And what shall I do if such
Is the cruel fate that
Has befallen on me?
You, ungrateful! Pity me,
You rejected my love
Without cause, my dear.
O! with what cruelty and
Without pity you have
Bewitched me.
Compassion I asked of thee;
To this wretched that is
Not the cause why you should scorn me.
Come, for I love you! and
 Do ot be cruel to this
Forlorn lover.

_________
“Let us sing a despedida cancion before we all go. We have songs for all occasions,”
suggested Ramon Jalon.

Chabacano

Cancion de Despedida

Creis mujer que no amabas

con dulce siento tu
tierno amor.
Duerme, mujer en su
cama
Creyendo y juro por tu
amor
Al dispertar que estabas
ya enbrazo de otro
amador.

English

Farewell Song

Darling, I thought you

loved me,
with sweet feelings I
felt your tender love.
Everything has been an illusion
on your promises of love.
Sleep, darling in your bed
while I swear my true
love to you.
But I woke up to find you
in the arms of another lover.

In vain has been my love

in vain has been then my desire.
Everything was lost; my illusion,
 that promise of your love.
Ungrateful woman, tell me
if I am bitter to you
then I shall go far
away from you.
Farewell forever! Farewell!

It is now late afternoon. The sun is gone from the nipa-thatched roof of the sari-sari store. If we do leave now,
twilight will catch u with us in Tumaga. Not that we wish to leave mi ilucion of the past. Tut we have a five-year-old
daughter who is likely waiting for us at home, eager to see our faces.

End

Digitally signed by

Antonio Antonio Enriquez

DN: o=are ruby books,
ou=publishing,

Enriquez cn=Antonio Enriquez

Date: 2009.08.30 22:10:25
+08'00'