Sonnet to Janina
By Luis G. Dato Janina, I’ve forgotten, What was it You wrote addendum on your X’mas Card? This business growing old is rather hard On memory and mind, on nerve, on wit, No walk-away from grandpa to stay fit And…
Luis G. Dato
Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
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THE LYRE (Translated from Jose Rizal)
by Luis G. Dato You bid me strike the lyre Long time since still and broken, When now it lies unspoken And Muses none inspire. The tuneless strings suspire For some forgotten strain, Their laughter I but feign, And feigned…
INVOCATION (Translated from Jose Rizal)
by Luis G. Dato Hold high your pensive brow, This day, O youth, and stand, Shine radiant now Your valor grand Hope of the Motherland. Awake, O genius, rise To youth your song outpour Which, bird-like, flies But swiftier more…
MARIA CLARA SONG
by Luis G. Dato Sweet are the hours in one’s own native land, Where all are friends who live beneath her skies, Life bring the winds that roam upon her strand, Death is a joy, and life a Paradise. Warm…
FROM NOLI’S DEDICATION
by Luis G. Dato A foul disease our nation’s body tears Apart, and from the torture wild with pain, The nation struggles utterly, in vain A curse on her has fallen unawares! The wound grows deeper, and no mortal dares…
MALAY (Translated from Claro M. Recto)
by Luis G. Dato My blood is Titanic in soul and in spirit, Rajah blood I inherit, Which tumultuous will down through my arteries beat, It is turbulence toned to hysterical war, It is flame from the fumes of volcanoes…
NOCTURNE TO ROSARIO (Translated from Mexican poet Manuel Acuña)
by Luis G. Dato Well, then, I must tell how much I adore you, And tell that I love you with all my heart, That much do I suffer, that much I deplore you And now I can’t bear it,…
PSYCHE (Translated from Ruben Dario)
by Luis G. Dato O Psyche immortal, fluttering unseen, Who hither from the dim abysses came To dower on my being what has been Of its statuary of flesh, the flame. I see you rise aglow with morning fire, And…
MY MELANCHOLY (Translated from Gustavo Adolfo Becquer)
by Luis G. Dato To see my feverish hours Pass by so slowly, Who would beside me sit, My bed so lowly? And when with tremulous hand, I’m nigh the end, O who would clasp it then, What kindly friend?…
SONNET FROM BAUDELAIRE
by Luis G. Dato “The Child shall be my own,” the moon in tender And venomous commiseration saith, “And she shall take the loveliness of death, Death’s countenance, her raiment of pale splendour; Body and soul to me she shall…
