The Life Of Lam-ang

Ilocano Epic 1 THE LIFE OF LAM-ANG This ebook is made available by Pantas Project Philippines www.pantas.ph 2 Ilocano Epic THE LIFE OF LAM-ANG (Ilocano Epic) The Ilocano Biag ni Lam-ang is the oldest recorded Philippine folk epic and the only complete epic to come down to us from the Christian Filipino groups. The earliest recording of the poem was given by Fr. Gerardo Blanco to Isabelo delos Reyes, who published it serially in El Ilocano from December 1889 to February 1890, with a Spanish translation in prose, and also reprinted it in his El Folklore Filipino, Vol. 2 (Manila: Imprenta de Santa Cruz, 1890), under the title “Vida de Lam-ang (antiguo poema popular de Ilocos)”, with the Ilocano texts and text translation in Spanish. Important subsequent editions of Lam-ang are those published by Canuto Medina in 1906; the one serialized in La Lucha from Feb. 20, 1926 to June 5, 1926; the Parayno version of 1927; and the composite version of L.Y. Yabes of 1935. Coming to light as it did just when the awits and corridos (metrical romances) were becoming very popular, the story of Lam-ang inevitably came to be retold also in awit form. As a matter of fact, it is the awit version of Lam-ang, published in 1927 by the Imprenta Parayno Hermanos (Calasiao, Pangasinan), which specialized in the printing of Iloko awits (or panagbiags), which became the most popular version of this folk epic. It carries the long title characteristic of awits, Historia a Pacasaritaan ti Panagbiag ni Lam-ang iti Ili a Nalbuan nga Asaoa ni Doña Ines Cannoyan iti Ili a Calanotian, and opens with a religious invocation, also characteristic of awits. According to Manuel, Yabes relied mainly on this Parayno version when he did the composite version of Lam-ang in 1935 and translated it into English. The Yabes English translation of Lam-ang, is, by the way, the most widely-known translation in the Philippines today. (Source: Damiana L. Eugenio, (ed.). Philippine Folk Literature: an Anthology, Philippines :Folklore Studies Program and The U.P. Folklorists, Inc. , 1982.) 3 THE LIFE OF LAM-ANG THE LIFE OF LAM-ANG Translated by Angelito L. Santos Listen then while I narrate at length The life of Lam-ang Because his mother conceived him that month. She did not abstain from any edible fruit; Tamarind fruits tender and thin as bamboo strings, Kamias, daldaligan Oranges and pomelos; Butcher fish, striped bass, fishes of all sorts; Clams and bivalves big as plates, Maratangtang and sea urchins; Sea algae, aragan and arosip; Shucked oysters, crayfish caught with net; Blue crabs baited with salelem, Deer tracked down and killed, boar trapped, All of these she tasted on her eating binge. Until Namongan, the woman Unnayan, Wife of Don Juan Panganiban, Was done conceiving. 4 Ilocano Epic And when they had made whole A new soul, Her womb grew bi