Mga Sugilanon ni Payo (Part 2)

Photo: “Spolarium” by Juan Luna
http://ajpoliquit.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/p1150413.jpg

“RO MGA TAE SA TINAPAY” 

(Dung on the Bread)

Pero bisan ano kaluko-luko si Payo indi man mabatas it gobernadorcillo nga imaw hay paeaason. May utak pa man kuno imaw nga nabilin. Isaeang adlaw, gindaea imaw it anang agaeon para mangayam. Owa pa man sanda nakapanaw it maeayo-eayo, ginpapundo it gobernadorcillo ro anang kabayo ag ginpangutana si Payo kon may napan-uhan imaw nga kwako, ag basi nawigit sa daean. “Huo, Señor,” sabat si Payo, “pero wa ko’t a ginpueot ay eaom ko’t a hay ginpilak mo ma’t a.” Bangud kara hinambaean lang imaw it gobernadorcillo nga “Sa sunod, kon may makita ka nga mahueog halin sa ang kabayo, pueota gid, ay kinahangean ta naton ron sa atong pamanawon.” “Huo, Senor,” sabat ni Payo. Owa nagbuhay hay tumae ro kabayo it gobernadorcillo, ag nagkaealat ra sa daean. Insigida man nga nanaog si Payo sa anang kabayo ag pinueot tanan nga tae ag sinueod sa anang bag. Kat truadlaw eon hay nagpuhaw anay sanda sa idaeop puno ay ginutom ro gobernadorcillo. “Abi, Payo, paguw-a eon ro atong mga tinapay una ag haron atong ilabson.” Dinawat ni Payo ro bag sa gobernadorcillo, ag kinuot it agaeon ro bag, ag kibot ta imaw ay tae ta’t kabayo ra hakuot. “Hay nano ta ra ag may tae ta?” Gulpi’t akig ro gobernadorcillo, pero gulpi ma’t sabat si Payo, “Hay nagbilin ka gid nga pueoton tanan nga mahueog sa ing kabayo ag.” Ag humipos eon lang ro gobernadorcillo.

(Foolish as Payo was, the gobernadorcillo could not dismiss him just like that. He has also some sense. One day, his master went on a hunting trip and brought him along with him. Before they had gone some way, the gobernadorcillo stopped his horse and asked Payo whether he saw the tobacco pipe which was lost in the way. Payo said he did but did not pick it up for he thought his master was throwing it away. So the gobernadorcillo told Payo, “Next time if you see that something drops from my horse, do pick it up for we shall need it later.” “Yes, Señor,” said Payo. Sometime after, the horse of the gobernadorcillo scattered its dung on the road. Hurriedly, Payo got off from his horse and gathered up all the dung that fell and dropped it into the bag. By noon, they rested under a tree. The gobernadorcillo became hungry and so asked Payo for their bread for they would eat their lunch there. When Payo brought the bag, his master dipped his hand into it but found the dung on the bread. He fumed and asked Payo why there was dung on the bread. Payo answered, “Did you not tell me to pick all that dropped from your horse because they will be of some use to you later?” Again, the gobernadorcillo kept quiet.)[English version by Beato A. de la Cruz, 1958]
ANALYSIS: The gobernadorcillo, commanding Payo to pick everything that fell from his horse, is symbolic of the colonizers’ imposition to Aklanons to follow everything they order them to do: from the hard and unjust labor on tobacco plantations as symbolized by the gobernadorcillo’s tobacco pipe, to the dirty habits, vices, abuses and atrocities. Payo’s putting the horse’s filth inside the bag with bread is symbolic of the Aklanons’ desire to show the colonial masters the “dirt” they scatter all over Aklan, and for them to eat their own filth.

(To be continued...)*Excerpts from De Juan, Alexander C. “The Tongue and the Pen versus the Spanish Rule in Aklan”. In Palayag: Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the 7th Conference on West Visayan History and Culture (pp. 80-95). Iloilo City: Center for West Visayan Studies, University of the Philippines in the Visayas, 1999.