Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion: Silent Trails

Silent Trails
Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion

Silent Trails
Silent are the trails of Benguet hills,
When the mist veils the sun –
Even the wind stirs the ferns
And the bamboo brakes sing
Their echoey murmurs.
And the laden Benguet women pass,

Beating their pakkongs*
In cadenced monotones.
Even so,
These trails are lonely
And deep are the ravines.
And higher still the skies.
* A bamboo percussion instrument used by the Benguets to accompany their chants.
It tells about the silent atmosphere in Benguet hills, because of the silent atmosphere there you can only hear the sound or music that
made from the beautiful nature in benguet hills. Like the movement of ferns because of the breeze and the echoey coming from
Colliding bamboo. Also the pakkongs that serves the guidance of the feet of women there that makes sound every tread of feet.
But before that, may first meet the author who

is Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion. Marcelo deGracia Concepcion is recognized as one ofthe finest poets and he
was the first Asianpoet to win recognition in American literarycircles.His poem “Silent Trails” was written
duringthe reign of American or AmericanOccupation, wherein during this timeAmerican forces overpowered
the Spanishfleet, public schools in the country were set
M. de Gracia Concepcion was listed on the staff of the Three Stars as an editor in 1931. He was the first Filipino
poet to have his collected poems published as a book in the U.S. Published in 1925 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, the
book was entitled Azucena, named after a lily found in the Philippines. He was a romantic poet whose greatest
influences, he wrote, were Edgar Allan Poe, Rabindranath Tagore, and Lafcadio Hearn. De Gracia Concepcion
returned to the Philippines shortly after an episode of what appeared to be harassment by Los Angeles police
officers.
SETTING: BENGUET HILLS (BANAUE RICE TERRACES)
POINT OF VIEW: THIRD PERSON
It describes the lonely silent trails. There, you can only hear the sounds of music that are made by the
beautiful nature of Benguet Hills.
Personification
Mist veils,
wind stirs
bamboo brakes
echoed murmurs
Murmur low, indistinct voices
Ifugao (Ilocano: Probinsia ti Ifugao; Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Ifugao) is a landlocked province of the Philippines in
the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the west,
Mountain Province to the north, Isabela to the east, and Nueva Vizcaya to the south.
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras and Banaue Rice Terraces are the main tourist attractions in the
province. These terraces are believed to have been hand-carved into the mountains 2,000 years ago to plant
rice. However, recent research by carbon dating suggests that they were built much later.[3] In 1995, the Rice
Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras were declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[4] In 2008 and 2015,
the Hudhud chants of the Ifugao and the Punnuk (Tugging rituals and games) were inscribed in the UNESCO
Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.[5][6]
Etymology
Ifugao is named after the term i-pugo ("i" [from/people] and pugo [hill]), which translates to people of the hill.
[7] Alternatively, the province's name may have come from the word pugaw, which means "the cosmic earth",
[8] ipugaw then referring to "mortals". Finally, the name may have been derived from ipugo, a type of grain in
local mythology given to the people by Matungulan, the god of grains.[8]
"The Hudhud consists of narrative chants traditionally performed by the Ifugao community, which is well
known for its rice terraces extending over the highlands of the northern island of the Philippine archipelago. It
is practised during the rice sowing season, at harvest time and at funeral wakes and rituals. Thought to have
originated before the seventh century, the Hudhud comprises more than 200 chants, each divided into 40
episodes. A complete recitation may last several days. Since the Ifugao’s culture is matrilineal, the wife
generally takes the main part in the chants, and her brother occupies a higher position than her husband. The
language of the stories abounds in figurative expressions and repetitions and employs metonymy, metaphor
and onomatopoeia, rendering transcription very difficult. Thus, there are very few written expressions of this
tradition. The chant tells about ancestral heroes, customary law, religious beliefs and traditional practices, and
reflects the importance of rice cultivation. The narrators, mainly elderly women, hold a key position in the
community, both as historians and preachers. The Hudhud epic is chanted alternately by the first narrator and
a choir, employing a single melody for all the verses. Furthermore, the Hudhud is linked to the manual
harvesting of rice, which is now mechanized.

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Silent Trails

Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion

And the laden Benguet women pass,

* A bamboo percussion instrument used by the Benguets to accompany their chants.

But before that, may first meet the author who

Murmur low, indistinct voices

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