Manila Envelope

Manila Envelope (1989) by James Fenton is a limited edition collection printed in the Philippines. It has thirteen poems, ending with the Tagalog "Maski Papaano" above. Fenton explains: When I lived in Manila, I knew several aspiring poets who felt some frustration at the lack of any outlets for their work. I suggested self-publishing as the answer. This is what I had done over the years with John Fuller and with my brother. Poetry publishing is anyway a small-scale operation. In Manila, where the situation was ideal for the small press, such ventures were not well known.

[audio] 'The Milkfish Gatherers' cleverly translates two naughty Tagalog names of fish ('tampal-puki' and 'tarugo') into English [detail pointed out by J Neil C Garcia]:

Rummagers of inlets, scourers of the deep,
Dynamite men, their bottles crammed with wicks,
They named the sea's inhabitants with style--
The Slapped Vagina Fish, the Horse's Dick.

Polillo 'mets' means it is far away--
The smoking island plumed from slash and burn.
And from its shore, busy with hermit crabs,
Look to Luzon. Infanta melts in turn.

The collection begins with Blood and Lead:

Listen to what they did.
Don't listen to what they said.
What was written in blood
Has been set up in lead.

Lead tears the heart.
Lead tears the brain.
What was written in blood
Has been set up again.

The heart is a drum.
The drum has a snare.
The snare is in the blood.
The blood is in the air.

Listen to what they did.
Listen to what's to come.
Listen to the blood.
Listen to the drum.