OSCAR DE ZUÑIGA - The Fragrance of Summertime
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OSCAR DE ZUÑIGA - Was born on June 29, 1912 in San Roque, Cavite but grew up in Tondo, Manila. - After graduating from Mapa High School, he attended college for only seven months because of financial difficulties. - He got his first taste of newspaper work and literature by working for the Sunday Tribune Magazine. - He wrote under the pseudonym Mariano Huertas. - His works include Love Song and Other Poems (1960) and The Arid Year: Prose and Poems (1960). - “Although he has been writing for a long time, he claims he only really started writing late in 1947 The Fragrance of Summertime Let His wounds heal with the fragrance of summertime; His assassins have fled the countryside that once have felt His loneliness – He who bore a dead tree upon His back On His way to the hills beyond the edge of the ruined city. The nails have rusted with the centuries, but His Name Glows above the altars of candlelights and His memory Burns the missal, and hostile mind; from without His parables Are windsongs rippling across the face of the evening sun. The executioners are dead, their acts forgotten in the dust Since that afternoon thunder split the heart of darkness in twain: Their spears have been turned into crucifixes which dying men Clutch from the sliding arches of their breasts.
description
A short biography of Filipino poet, Oscar de Zuñiga, and his poem, The Fragrance of Summertime
Transcript of OSCAR DE ZUÑIGA - The Fragrance of Summertime
OSCAR DE ZUÑIGA
- Was born on June 29, 1912 in San Roque, Cavite but grew up in Tondo, Manila. - After graduating from Mapa High School, he attended college for only seven
months because of financial difficulties. - He got his first taste of newspaper work and literature by working for the Sunday
Tribune Magazine. - He wrote under the pseudonym Mariano Huertas.- His works include Love Song and Other Poems (1960) and The Arid Year: Prose
and Poems (1960).- “Although he has been writing for a long time, he claims he only really started
writing late in 1947The Fragrance of Summertime
Let His wounds heal with the fragrance ofsummertime;
His assassins have fled the countryside thatonce have felt
His loneliness – He who bore a dead tree uponHis back
On His way to the hills beyond the edge ofthe ruined city.
The nails have rusted with the centuries, butHis Name
Glows above the altars of candlelights and Hismemory
Burns the missal, and hostile mind; from withoutHis parables
Are windsongs rippling across the face of theevening sun.
The executioners are dead, their acts forgottenin the dust
Since that afternoon thunder split the heart ofdarkness in twain:
Their spears have been turned into crucifixeswhich dying men
Clutch from the sliding arches of their breasts.
Leave his scars alone, the split vinegar fromHis lips;
His broken grave, His garments streaked withdust and tears.
At the edge of the ruined city, the roses havebeen stripped
Of thorns and the fragrance of summer touchesour wounds.
References:
Abad, Gemino H. (1998). Likhaan Anthology of Philippine Literature in English. UP Press.Viray, Manuel. A. (Ed.). (1950). Philippine Poetry Annual: 1947 – 1949. Barangay Press.
