The Tagalogs are known for “balagtasan” or the tradition of debating in verse. The Bikolanos, too, has a similar art and it is known as “Tigsikan”. Tigsikan is derived from “Tigsik” or the art of expressing a toast or an idea in the form similar to that of the Japanese “Haiku”.
Tigsikan is usually heard in drinking sprees (“turungaan” or “irinuman”) though this practice is not anymore common nowadays due to the invasion of “video-singko”. An example of Tigsikan goes:
Participant 1:
Tinigsik ko an Amerkano
Na amigo ni Mariano
Nag-sisid sa Santo Domingo
Kan magbutwa yaon na sa Manito.
Participant 2:
Tinigsik ko man si lolo
Siya mas maurag sa Amerkano
Nagsisid siya sa Manito
Nagbutwa na sa Rapu-rapu.
Participant 3:
Kung sa urag an lolo ko sakong tigsikon
Sa sisid siya dai pa puwedeng daogon
Kan siya nagsisid sa Sorsogon
Hanggang ngonyan dai nagbubutwa beinte ng taon.
But aside from Tigsikan, I also heard a radio program in DZRC-Legazpi a balagtasan-like exchanges of “rawit-dawits”. I was a kid then and I don’t know if it still exists. Can somebody from Legazpi verify this? I think they also called that portion “balagtasan”.
Which leads me to another point: M.I., our reader, came back and left us another piece. The title is “Sagkod Ngunian”, something like an answer to the earlier piece “Nuarin Pa” which was also a response to Nery Ronatay’s “Kung sabihon kong dae na ako namomoot“. I hope DTN can translate this again for us? 😉
Sagkod Ngunian
Sagkod ngunian
pighahalat ta ka pa man,
Dai mo sana naaraman
An sakong namamatean.
Kan ika binalikan
Iba na an saimong kaibanan
Bako na ako an saimong pig-iingatan,
Bako na ako an saimong kaipuhan,
Bako na ako an saimong pig-aapudan,
Bako na ako an kamot na saimong pigkakaputan,
Bako na ngabil ko an saimong pighahadukan,
Bako na ako an saimong pinapangaturugan,
Bako na ako an saimong namomotan.
Nagduman ako sa lain na lugar, tanganing ika malingawan
Pigpapasakitan ko lamang an sakong daghan.
Igwa man ki mga namidbidan
Pero dai ko masabotan
Ta sakong pighahanap an sakong namomotan
Sagkod ngunian.
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