By Telly G. Ocampo
Remembering the poem: The man with the Hoe
The Man with the Hoe
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this —
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed —
More filled with signs and portents for the soul —
More fraught with menace to the universe.
What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time’s tragedy is in the aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned, and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world.
A protest that is also a prophecy.
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream,
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands
How will the Future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings —
With those who shaped him to the thing he is —
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world.
After the silence of the centuries?
I just remember this poem in high school when farmers are most revered because what they were doing was the backbone of the economy. Nations become great because of their sustainable agriculture. I’ve thought because of the current issues on food importation for most of agricultural products: Onions sugar rice meat products ug uban pa. Prices have become so high. And until when will we be able to survive. Billions of budget was for agriculture. And how did it happen that there is a steady decline in agricultural produce.
Looking back I guess it’s the attitude of people when we had carp- comprehensive land reform program. It is supposed to be land for the landless. Most farmers after receiving the titles eventually sold the lot given to them.
I remember very well in the early 50’s that tenants deliver to or doorsteps sacks of palay supposedly our share of the harvest. No supervision from the landowners but they deliver.
Here comes the rental scheme. Dios ko tag 2 na laman ka sakong humay. Not even enough for the tax you are paying.. and sometimes wala na gyud.
I think it’s the mindset. The government extending credit facilities, but how much repayment is received?
People no. longer love to till. They want 15 and 30 salaries or be employed in malls or part of the export labor market abroad. Working abroad has become a status symbol. Building big houses with a car garage and all the hi-tech gadgets. But money is not everything. It has become a social problem.
When I was younger going to the market with 10pesos in my pocket was something I enjoy. Mapuno na imong basket. Baboy was P2.50 per kilo. Vegetables tag 5sentabos. Sus ang bago ikadena man to. Lima ka bugkos sa 5centabos. Kamatis nga lumboyon 5 pud tapok. Ang bugas 50sentabos ang gantang. And converted into today’s weighing system, 1 ganta is P2.20 kilos. Just imagine this. And yet we are able to save.
Let’s go back to the days of Pepe and Pilar our textbook then. That picture of a family is indelibly imprinted in my mind. Mother keeping the hearth burning, keeping the house clean and rearing the children with tender loving care.
Heres father coming home from work bringing food to cook for the day.
There’s pet bantay a friendly dog and giving security to the family. Children coming home from school helping mother for their dinner. And with the lamplight doing their homework. At bedtime, say a little prayer mostly: angel of god my guardian dear.
On Saturdays laundry day. No waterwork system yet. Go to the stream or to the river. And after laundry help in tending the little garden in the front yard for the flowers and vegetable garden in the backyard. Kamunggay, alugbati, ganas, tangad, luya kamatis ug suwa. You can find them all in the bahay kubo.
So dear friends, let’s go back to the time when food was a plenty and can be found right in our own yard. Let’s bring food to the table. And be sufficient.
