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…
Luis G. Dato
Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
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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…
BESIDE A JEWESS’ COUCH (Translated from Baudelaire)
by Luis G. Dato Upon a Jewess’ couch an evening once, A ghost beseeming by the side of one Thought wandered from that flesh whence soul had flown, To one who might have on me brought romance. And then her…
THE ALBATROSS (Translated from Charles Baudelaire)
by Luis G. Dato Quite often sailors shoot the albatross, And bring them down with infidel delight, Huge birds that trail the ships the sea across, With cloud-like pinions quivering in flight, Fallen on deck, and barely left alone, They…
CAPRICE (Translated from Paul Verlaine)
by Luis G. Dato I have a dream too sharp and strange for name, Of one who loves me and for whom I yearn, A changing dream, yet somehow still the same, Companion to my fancy’s every turn. She understands…
DEL PILAR
By Luis G. Dato Up north beside Lepanto wild and far, By high Kabakan’s slopes a trail zigzags Its way across a wilderness and drags A weight of stones and memories of war. No forest creeping out shall hide of…
TO LUNA
By Luis G. Dato Austere commander of the iron hand, Who marshalled men to trample fields of war, Who wielded well both pen and scimitar, Each word a call, each sword flash a command. Who stood as guard to Aguinaldo’s…
TO BONIFACIO
By Luis G. Dato Plebian Sire, who Freedom’s bolo drew, Whose cry to battle death to tyrant’s told, Whose hero soul can still our conscience hold With the same power that Tondo’s rebels knew. Who rose compelling high among the…
