Laygay Samarnon Series, No. 6 - "BATO NGA PAMUNAKAN"

The song "Bato nga Pamunakan" vividly describes the ways back then, when the Samarnon women, heavily-laden with a basin-full of soiled clothes goes for the nearest river, brook or stream for laundry. It is in this set-up that news and gossips about the town's prominent and the common folks' lives are unintentionally subjected under scrutiny and deliberation. It is in such gossip-mongering situation that the persona of the song laments.

The song is actually sung in the common dodecasyllabic lines of the Visayan balitaw or more specifically, the ismayling or amoral of Samar. This version of the song was notated by Mr. Irasga as sung by an unidentified staff of the Division Office of Borongan City in Eastern Samar sometime in 2014. Further research on the song yielded more versions from Tacloban City and Western Samar. The longest version so far is the one found in the unpublished manuscript Antolohiya han mga Tradisyonal ng Porma. Nevertheless, the song text below is common to all versions;

Buhi pa an bato nga pinamunakan

Ngan didto la pagtikang an karukayakan

May-ada ko singsing, singsing nga bulawan

Pinurot ni Inday, ngan pagtinangisan.

The big rock still stands

Where those gossips first came about

I once have a ring, a golden ring

Which Inday picked up, only to weep on it.

[Literal translation by the blogger.]

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