Editor’s Note:This piece is just so expressive and too emotional. While we do not vouch we made the perfect translation, there is the open and close opinion that correct translation and interpretation relies only on the reader first. We translate so readers who are not familiar with the Bicol language can at least appreciate homegrown poets are as prolific and comparable to English writers as to the depth and meaning of their work. But reading the poem and dropping a comment to check our translation is welcome. We can even incorporate the suggestion on the lines below. So, here it is:

Where is the Heart

Don’t (Do not) ask me now / Where my heart is / Don’t look at me (Don’t stare at me) as if insisting (or, force or intimidate) / To answer you. Where was it really? /

Before it was in the brightest / Star at break of dawn, hiding, / Playing with other stars / In the sky; sometimes cavorting / With the bright full moon (The bright moon in full) /

Happy (Happily) racing here as if / It will be left behind (or, Someone will be first) in search of you / In a place in the sky not even the thought (mind) may (can) fathom /

This really tired heart, (that) departed from the star, / Searched for a cover in the dark, transformed into a shadow / Fearless for it can (may) not be seen, (feeling) happy(ily) (being) engulfed or happiness being engulfed /

By your shadow. (How to break free from one (or, How can I break free from one) / Shadow while (even if) constantly roaming, yet always (following) behind / Guarding, intently staring, observing? /

(There are) When times sky (heaven) peeks out (outward) / Searching for the heart that left (deserted) the star /

No more (Or, There is none) / No chance to get back (to reclaim) for it is under the embrace of the shadow / That the heart seeks (long for). Not anymore can it be free. / Now you will ask where is my heart? /