The Stars Of Yesterday
by Luis G. Dato To us at lo, those were the halcyon years,The Golden Age which Memory endears,Of titans clashing in the wild uproar,Where be they now, the Bikol Meets of yore? With pouch and flabby, diabetic arm,We now no…
Luis G. Dato
Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
Luis Dato
Luis G. Dato (July 4, 1906 - January 29, 1985) was a poet, writer and educator from Sta. Cruz, Baao, Camarines Sur. He published books in English including Manila A Collection of verse (1926), My Book of Verses (1936) and the Land of Mai in 1975. He also wrote several books and text in Bikol such as, Vocabulario Bikol-Ingles-Kastila (1963), Cantahon na Bikol (1969), Morfologia kan Tataramon na Bikol (serialized in Naga Times), Patotodon sa Bikol (Bikol Mail) and Sarabihon sa Bikol.
HAIL, PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC!
by Luis G. Dato Hail, Philippine, O my dear native land,Where sampaguitas, ylang-ylang bloom,Let thy sweet music sound from every strand,Which knew for centuries the tyrant’s doom;As pearl of orient seas the bards have sungThy beauty rare, thy scenic charm…
NAGA: IN RETROSPECT
by Luis G. Dato How like Elysium were the prewar times,When Freedom reigned and life seemed free from care,Then was our Naga gay, with houses filledHer nights turned day, her flowers suffused the air. Where’er went, turn wheresoe’er our eyesWere…
CAMARINES SUR MARCH
Words by: Luis G. DatoMusic by: Jose V. Relativo Thou motherland of Bikol dear,With love we sing today of theeFair land of skies azure and clear,Girt by a sunkist, sapphire sea. Dear land of rolling plain and hill,To us forever…
REST IN PEACE
By Luis G. Dato (Dedicated to the memory of Baao’s war dead, especially those who perished in the massacre of Agdangan, (San Cayetano), Baao, Camarines Sur, October 17, 1944). Blessed are the souls that have gone by,By Japanese monsters crushed…
VIGNETTES OF BAAO HISTORY
VIGNETTES OF BAAO HISTORY first appeared in the Baao Town Fiesta 1962 Souvenir Program. by Luis G. Dato and Rev. Andres Mariano There are still many gaps and mooted questions in Baao’s long and chequered history awaiting the assiduity of…
Happy
by Luis G. Dato A wood-thrush perches on a banana leaf.Breathing, living, resting, with one wing stretched;It has no thought to destroy, the configuration of itsIt does not know if a star in its travel peace,Pauses in its orbit, stands…
Sonnet on Death
by Luis G. Dato Death, inevitable hour that e’er will holdFor us a stretch of pained anxiety.Whose gates wide open we can never see,Nor these to close suffice the dead man’s gold —Within our beings is it hourly toldThat we…
The Sea
by Luis G. Dato Bright wisps of sea careering as I dreamAnd sit beside my sorrow in the shore,In wakeful slumber must you bide no moreBut rise beneath my feet and in a streamOf silver in the fading twilight seemTo…
My Philippines
(Words for our National Anthem) by Luis G. Dato Land of the thunderTorn into isles asunderWhere winds beat underHeaven’s blue-vaulted skies,Land where the MalaysReared the Oriental palaceBy sweeping valleysWhere the blue mountains rise. Land of the ocean,We in the war’s…
