Escribe, José-Manuel, Escribe!

Escribe, José-Manuel, Escribe!

by the ancestors of José-Manuel Navarro

written in response to Miedo a Escribir published by José-Manuel

in the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 issue of the PhilWP Journal

Dices que no escribiras

Nos desanimas

Sin ti, ningun bardo nos mantendra vivos en tu mundo

Tienes que contar nuestras historias

Alabanos con tu lira

Entona la salmodia de nuestra elegante vida campesina

Canta la diginidad de nuestra labores manuales

Honra el orgulla de nuestros logros

Logramos que cada generacion de nuestra familia fuera mejor mejor que la previa

Nuestros sacrificios de generaciones culminan en tus logros

Tu madre te enseno tus primera letras

Sento las bases para tus estudios avanzados

Tus estudios pulieron tu capacidad de moldear de letras palabras

Ahora, esculpe de palabras oraciones

Fragua de oraciones parrafos

Forja de parrafos ensayos, cuentos poemoas y novelas

Hijo querido: atiendenos bien

Tienes que escribir

Necesitamos que escribas

Insistimos que escribas

Contamos con que escribas

Demandamos que escribas

Te ordenamos a escribir

Escribe, José-Manuel, Escribe!

Dear son: heed us well

You must write

You say that you won't write

You disappoint us

Without you, no bard will keep us alive in your world

You must tell our stories

Sing our praises with your lyre

Intone our psalmody as elegant country folk

Hail the dignity of our manual labor

Honor the pride of our achievement

We made each succeeding generation of ours better than the preceding one

Our sacrifices over generations culminate in your achievements

Your mother taught you your first letters

She laid the base that led to your advanced studies

Your studies honed your ability to mold letters into words

Now, sculpt words into sentences

Craft sentences into paragraphs

Assemble paragraphs into essay, short stories, poem, and novels

Dear son: heed us well

You must write

We need you to write

We insist that you write

We expect you to write

We demand that you write

We command you to write

Write, José-Manuel, Write!