Did Balagtasan lead to poetry slams and fliptop rap battles?
What’s the Balagtasan’s relevance to young Filipinos?
Consider that the spirited tradition, named after the Spanish colonial era’s great Filipino poet Francisco Balagtas, and pioneered by Jose Corazon de Jesus (who used his pen name, “Huseng Batute,” when writing nationalist Tagalog poems like the “Bayan Ko” lyrics in the American colonial era), was often used to champion Filipino independence and freedom.
De Jesus and Florentino Collantes (who went by the name “Kuntil Butil”) staged the first public poetry showdown on April 6, 1924 at Instituto de Mujeres in Tondo district of Manila City.
One wonders if FlipTop and modern rap battles are, in some ways, updated versions of Balagtasan?
On June 20, National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario (pen name “Rio Alma” and author of poetry collections such as Mga Retrato at Rekwerdo, Sentimental and Dust Devils), China Embassy Counsellor Zheng Junlyu, UP professor Dr. Vim Nadera, Ateneo de Manila University professor and Unyon Ng Mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) president Dr. Mike Coroza and this writer as moderator, held an advance celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival and also revived the Philippines’ Balagtasan tradition of poetic debate using verse and rhyming at our Kamuning Bakery Cafe in Quezon City.
Every year, the 2,300-year-old Dragon Boat Festival honors the great poet and idealistic statesman Qu Yuan of ancient China with colorful worldwide dragon boat races and eating of machang, or glutinous rice dumplings. Held on the fifth day and fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, this year’s fest invited the 79-year-old National Artist to speak on the importance of poetry, citing the Dragon Boat Festival tradition and commending Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte for declaring every Nov. 22 as “Araw ng Tula” (Day of Poetry) in Quezon City to mark the birthday of great Filipino poet and first “King of Balagtasan” Jose Corazon de Jesus, whose pen name was “Huseng Batute.” Almario also recited his Filipino poem entitled “Oda Para sa Pera” (Ode to Money).
China Embassy Counsellor Zheng Junlyu talked about the common love for poetry of two neighboring nations, China and the Philippines, extolling the contributions to the development of classical Chinese poetry and the selfless idealism of Qu Yuan, praising the beautiful Filipino tradition of Balagtasan. Noting that June 20, the day of the fast, was the Summer Solstice, a day most abundant in sunshine, she expounded on the Dragon Boat Festival, poetry, cultural heritage and language.
Counsellor Zheng recited three ancient Chinese poems, including excerpts from “Lisao” and “Tianwen” by Qu Yuan and the poem “Date with a Guest” by Song Dynasty poet Zhao Shixiu from the diplomat’s original hometown Wenzhou City. She recited the three poems in rhythmic Mandarin Chinese and explained them in eloquent English.
The diplomat explained that Qu Yuan’s poem “Tianwen,” which means “questions to heaven” or “quest for heavenly truth,” is also the name of China’s unmanned spacecraft sent to Mars in 2020.
All this heralded the start of the much-anticipated Balagtasan literary joust between professors Mike Coroza and Vim Nadera, actually the 99th anniversary of this time-honored Filipino pastime.
The two professors revived the spoken-word tradition with a lively, robust, theatrical, at-times-caustic, humorous and poetic Filipino-language debate on the topic about the true state of freedom in the Philippines today.
The impassioned Balagtasan, with its freelance examination of freedom, reminded me of this quote from the poetry-loving late US President John F. Kennedy: “When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.”
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