An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled
I DO
By: Eileen Tabios
•Author's Background:
-Eileen R Tabios
She was born in Ilocos Sur Philippines and moved to the United State
when she was 10.
She
earned a B.A. in political science from Barnard College and an M.B.A. in
economics and international Business
from New York University Graduate School for Business.
AWARD/S
Other award-winning body of work includes invention of the hay(na)ku
poetic form as well as a first poetry book, Beyond Life Sentences (1998), which
received the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics
Circle). Tabios has received many awards and commendations for her work,
including the PEN Open Book Award, the Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, the PEN
Oakland–Josephine Miles National Literary Award, the Philippines’ Manila
Critics Circle National Book Award for Poetry, and a Witter Bynner Poetry
Grant.
Works
Poems (1998),
Ecstatic Mutations: Experiments in the Poetry Laboratory (2000), Reproductions
of the Empty Flagpole (2002), Footnotes to Algebra: Uncollected Poems 1995–2009
(2009), 5 Shades of Gray (2012), The Awakening (2013), Sun Stigmata (2014),
Invent(st)ory: Selected Catalog Poems and New 1996-2105 (2015), Love in a Time
of Belligerence (2017), Murder Death Resurrection: A Poetry Generator (2018),
and Hiraeth: Tercets from the Last Archipelago (2018), I Take Thee, English,
for My Beloved (2005) The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes: Our Autobiography
(2007) The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys: Her Biography through Your Poetics (2008)
Behind the Blue Canvas (2004) and works of fiction such as Novel Chatelaine
(2009) and Silk Egg: Collected Novels (2009). She co-edited the anthology
Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers (2000) with
the poet Nick Carbo
I Do
BY EILEEN R. TABIOS
“I do not know English”
—from “I Do Not” by Michael Palmer
“Marunong akong mag-ingles” (I do know English)
—any 21st-century Filipino poet
I do know English.
I do know English for I have something to say about
this latest peace stirring between a crack that’s split a sidewalk traversing a
dusty border melting at noon beneath an impassive sun.
I do know English and, therefore, when hungry, can ask
for more than minimum wage, pointing repeatedly at my mouth and yours.
Such a gesture can only mean what it means: I do not
want to remain hungry and I am looking at your mouth.
I do know English and still will not ask permission.
I shall call you “Master” with a lack of irony; lift
my cotton blouse; cup my breasts to offer them to your eyes, your lips, your
tongue; keen at the moon hiding at 11 a.m. to surface left tendon on my neck.
For your teeth. And so on.
No need to decipher your response—and if you wish, go
ahead: spank me.
I do know English. Therefore I can explain this
painting of a fractured grid as the persistent flux of our “selves” as time
unfolds.
There is a way to speak of our past or hopes for the
future, the hot-air balloon woven from a rainbow’s fragments now floating over
St. Helena; your glasses I nearly broke when, afterwards, you flung me to the
floor as violence is extreme and we demand the extreme from each other; your
three moans in a San Francisco hallway after I fell to my knees; your silence
in New York as I knocked on your door. There is a way to articulate your
silence—a limousine running over a child on the streets of Manila and Shanghai.
And Dubai.
There is a way to joke about full-haired actors
running for President and the birth of a new American portrait: “Tight as a
Florida election.”
I do know English and so cannot comprehend why you
write me no letters even as you unfailingly read mine.
Those where I write of the existence of a parallel
universe to create a haven when your silence persists in this world I was
forced to inherit.
Which does not mean I cannot differentiate between a
reflection and a shadow, a threnody and a hiccup, the untrimmed bougainvillea
bush mimicking a fire and the lawn lit by a burning cross.
I can prove Love exists by measuring increased blood
flow to the brain’s anterior cingulated cortex, the middle insula, the putamen
and the caudate nucleus.
Nor is “putamen” a pasta unless I confirm to you that
my weak eyesight misread “puttanesca” as the crimson moon began to rise, paling
as it ascends for fate often exacts a price.
I can see an almond eye peer behind the fracture on a
screen and know it is not you from the wafting scent of crushed encomiums.
I can remind you of the rose petals I mailed to you
after releasing them from the padded cell between my thighs.
I slipped the petals inside a cream envelope embossed
in gold with the seal of a midtown Manhattan hotel whose façade resembles a
seven-layered wedding cake. Which we shall share only through the happiness of
others. Which does not cancel Hope.
I can recite all of your poems as I memorized them
through concept as well as sound.
I speak of a country disappearing and the
impossibility of its replacement except within the tobacco-scented clench of
your embrace.
I can tell you I am weary of games, though they
continue. Manila’s streets are suffused with protesters clamoring for an
adulterer’s impeachment. Their t-shirts are white to symbolize their demand for
“purity.” Space contains all forms, which means it lack geometry. My lucid
tongue has tasted the dust from monuments crumbling simply because seasons
change.
Because I do know English, I have been variously
called Miss Slanted Vagina, The Mail Order Bride, The One With The Shoe Fetish,
The Squat Brunette Who Wears A Plaid Blazer Over A Polka-Dot Blouse, The Maid.
When I hear someone declare war while observing a
yacht race in San Diego, I understand how “currency” becomes “debased.”
They have named it The Tension Between The Popular
Vote And The Electoral College.
I do know English.
ANALYSIS
OUR LITERARY TEXT IS WRITTEN
IN POETRY FORM
Because she is narrating something or expressing a feeling and her ideas or thoughts by using a distinctive style and rhythm and also she is giving us ideas that we can relate by only reading and understanding to what she is pointing out and in that way we are learning on how we can expand our knowledge and learn on how and what is important in writing a literature
Analysis Guides
Reader Response
Our response in our poem “I Do” by Elane Tabios is the writer's
expression of his experience in pronouncing the English word in which he
implies that he is not proficient in the English no language
Tone
I Do” is written in a
serious tone as if wanting to convince the reader that the speaker does know
English. There is a strong and assertive tone accompanying the words of the
poem which allow us to think about the point the speaker wishes to prove. The
speaker asserts that despite what she has been variously called, she is able to
use English to speak on relevant matters
Point of View
The English language she uses was express because the speaker does know English and repeats it several times across the poem’s lines. The speaker knows English and asserts this by listing what she can do with it. She can “say something”, “ask”, “call”, “explain”, “prove”, “remind”, “recite”, “speak”, etc. The speaker is knowledgeable of the English language and can use the language to communicate and express herself. In fact, it is as if the speaker asserts that her knowledge of and ability to speak in English allow her to speak out on relevant matters such as those she describes in the poem.
Diction and Style
Eileen R tabios in his " I Do " , uses Colloquial diction to achieve
a certain effects . He says :I speak of a country disappearing and the
impossibility of its replacement except within the tobacco-scented clench of
your embrace .The poet speaks to the county in a informal way , using
Colloquial expression . he seems to be saying here that he is looking for a
place with the scent of a hug
Images and Symbols
Towards the end of the poem, the speaker says,“Because I do know English,
I have been variously called Miss Slanted Vagina, The Mail Order Bride, The One
With The Shoe Fetish, The names the speaker mentions are stereotypes or common
misconceptions of non-native English speakers, specifically Asians. These are
stereotypes attached to Asian women who marry Caucasian men. By saying that
because she is knowledgeable of the English language, hence she is called the
names above, the speaker points out the prejudice which exists against
non-native English speakers. No matter how well one can speak English, a gap
will always exist between native and non-native speakers.
SOUND EFFECTS
THE FRACTURE ON A SCREEN AND KNOW IT IS NOT YOU FROM THE WAFTING SCENT OF CRUSHED ENCOMIUMS.IN THIS EXAMPLE, THR SPEAKER USES ASSONANCE TO DESCRIBE A ALMOND.ASSONANCE OCCUR IN THE VOWEL SOUND REPEATED THROUGH SEEN, EYE, PEER, AND SCREE
CONTEXTUAL
ANALYSIS
Socio-cultural because she was referring to an idea that language is
linked to the culture and society which she is pointing in the poetry that she
wrote so that we can have more awareness and can analyze on what she was
pointing out so that we can also express and expand our knowledge on it.
According to the ‘I DO” Written by Aileen Tabios she can speak English in
any kind of situation even in pointing a
crack that splits in a sidewalk she can use an English so that she can
complain. Even in a situation where you are hungry or you asks for more minimum wage you can
speak it even in the way of protesting. The meaning of it is that she can’t
remain silent and speak what she wanted. In this literature the author is
pointing that no matter the situation is she can do and say whatever she wanted
because she know how she would talk or
how is she going to respond. So if you
have voice to speak and know what to do go on
and say you wanted as long as you know the consiquences of what will you
say. Speak when you are hungry, go complain, join a protest, you can do
whatever you want and you can prove
anything by speaking it in a way
everyone would understand even if its love you can express it in your
voice and even when you go to other country go speak English when you ask for a
direction because what she is painting is that everyone can be together and
understand together. English is a international language that no matter where
you are in the world
Maganda ang boses nya
ReplyDelete- dianne excelle
Her voice is like an angel..
ReplyDelete-jherdie villan