Waray-waray love poem

Small translation of my love poem in waray-waray, for a bit more than three million people.

The Waray-waray (alternatives : Winaray, Binisaya, Samarenyo, Waray, Leyteño, Leytean, Samar-Leyte, Samaran, Samareño, Haray, Northern Samar, Samaron), is a bisaya language of the Philippines. It is spoken in the regions of Samar, Biliran and Leyte.

We do not know the origin of the word Waray which means "nothing", and which designates both the language and the people of Leyte and Samar.

The Waray language has lexical and phonological variants, depending on the provinces where it is spoken. Let us quote the dialects: Waray (which is the standard: spoken north of Leyte), estehanon (eastern Samar), nortehanon (north of Samar), westehanon (west of Samar), Baybayon (in Babay ... which is different).

Long before the Spanish colonization, the Warays had a developed cultural system, with beliefs, and an elaborate social organization, with of course their language, and writing.

Waray-waray is a language with a significant number of speakers, it is a rich and active language, with newspapers, poetry and numerous publications. Committees to cultivate and enrich the Waray language have been created. Anthologies of Waray poems have been published.

The susumatons (from sumat = to tell), are stories in verse, which can be myths, legends, fables, fairy tales ... they are sung.

Traces of human existence in the Philippines date back to prehistoric times, and on the side of Samar we find traces of hunter-gatherers, until the 13th century.

Researchers agree that the first Visayans were Negritos (dark skinned, curly hair, Negroid stock), and Austronesians (Malaysian emigrants of southern Chinese origin who came 4,000 to 7,000 ago years, who settled in Southeast Asia, and even as far as New Zealand and Madagascar).

The chronicler of Magellan recounts the first contacts with Europeans, with the offerings of food (reception ritual), with the exchange of blood (sandugo). These gestures of welcome and friendship, of course, hid the goal of the Spaniards, which was to find spices.

After the death of Magellan, it is in Leyte that Villalobos, sent by Spain, will land. It is he who will give, in honor of the King of Spain, the name of Philippines, to all of these islands.

A legend : Long time ago, the universe was divided into two worlds. Each was ruled by a giant. Amihan governed the land in the northeast and Habagat took charge of the one in the southwest. Food became scarce in Amihan’s land that his children and kin went southward to fish in Habagat’s realm. Habagat was offended and in his anger, he challenged Amihan to a battle at sea. The two giants and their forces fought at the middle of the sea between their domains. They destroyed each other’s ships but these were too huge to completely sink into the depths of the sea. In time, these vessels formed into two masses of land which eventually became the islands of Samar and Leyte (Sugbo and Zafra 1994).

Samar is a large island in the Philippines, always wild is quite poor. It has all the assets, with its paradisiacal landscapes, to become a first order tourist destination.

Tourist ... she is 70 years old but remembers this young tourist 50 years ago. She remembers him perfectly. She remembers the slightest detail and the lightning that hit her the day his eyes crossed her. She was unable to say something, and him, who seemed seized in his thoughts, just did the cross a look.