SYNOPSIS

THE Traditional Legend of Daragang Magayon, as most Bikolanos know it, goes this way:

Long ago, there lived the tribal chief Makusog (strong), who had an only daughter, Daragang Magayon (beautiful maiden). Magayon grew up to be so beautiful and sweet that love-struck swains from far away tribes vied for her affection. But not one of the young men captivated the heart of the lovely maiden, not even the handsome and haughty Datu Pagtuga (eruption), a great hunter and a powerful chief, who showered Magayons’s father with gifts of gold, pearls, and trophies of the hunt.

Daragang Magayon was indifferent to all her suitors, until the arrival of Ulap (cloud). Ulap was the gentle, but brave, son of a Chief from another region. He had come a long way on foot to see for himself the celbrated beauty of Daragang Magayon. But unlike the other suitors, Ulap bided his time. For many days, he simply stole admiring glances, from a distance, at Daragang Magayon as the lovely maiden bathed in the river.

It did not take long for an opportunity to present itself. After an unusually rainy night, Magayon goes for her usual daily bath, but a swift current dislodges her foot from a slippery rock and plunges her into the chilly waters. In a flash, Ulap is at her side. He brings the trembling maiden safely back to dry land.

Love soon blossoms between Daragang Magayon and Ulap. And after a few more trysts with her, Ulap, in the old tribal tradition, signifies his intention of marriage by thrusting his spear at the stairs of Magayon’s father’s house. Magayon could only blush and coyly cast her eyes downwards.

Sensing that Magayon was in love, Makusog offers no objection to the betrothal. So, Ulap returns home to ask his people to gather provisions for the wedding feast.

But the news reaches Pagtuga, the rival suitor, who becomes furious. He suprises Makusog in one of his hunts, takes him captive, and sends word to Magayon that unless he marries him, her father must die and that a war would be waged against their tribe.

Magayon, who loved her father so much, could do nothing but give in to Pagtuga’s demand. Ulap learns of this unhappy turn of events. So, along with his brave warriors, he hastily returns to Magayon’s tribe just in time for the wedding ceremonies. In the skirmish that follows, Pagtuga is slain by Ulap. But the joyous Magayon, rushing to embrace her lover Ulap, is hit by a stray arrow. As Ulap holds the dying Magayon in his arms, a henchman of Pagtuga hurls his spear at Ulap’s back, killing him instantly.

The tragic lovers are buried in one grave which, with the passing of days, rises higher and higher, attended by thunderous rumblings and earthquakes, with huge boulders sprouting from the crater. The grave actually grows into a volcano. This is what we call Mt. Mayon, or Daragang Magayon, the perfectly shaped and beautiful volcano in the world.

Thus ends the old legend of Daragang Magayon, the beautiful but submissive maiden who is accidentally slain by a stray arrow, while her lover is treacherously killed, not even by his rival, but by a mere underling.

In “Kantada ng Babaeng Mandirigma Daragang Magayon,” the epic poem originally written in Filipino and English, written by Bikol poet Merlinda C. Bobis, the award winning poet from Albay chooses to rewrite and to re-invent the traditional myth. In Bobis’ story, Daragang Magayon dies to her name with which she was oppressed, she becomes the “Nameless One” who can assume all names of her choice, or the “Nameless One who Owns All Names.”

In the re-invented story, Daragang Magayon ceases to be the victim. She is no longer the game in the hunt, but the warrior woman in the hunt against oppression. She wages war against Pagtuga, the evil hunter in the old legend, not necessarily the male adversary, but as the symbol of oppression. Daragang Magayon transforms into the “amazona” of Philippine Politics – the female guerilla. The rebel. And armed.

Bobis clarifies: “I do not intend to kill the nurturing mother in subverting the old order by creating this arrior image. Neither do I consider destroying the concept of physical beauty. I only wish to see these two images unfetishized beside the other rich and significant aspects of her being. More importantly, I do not wish to leave out the value of honor in this new ideal of the Catholic Patriarchy, where honor equals chastity, and transforms it into her personal honor which is synonymous with dignity and freedom from being the oppressed or the oppressor.”

The epic, Bobis goes on, does not aim to disempower the man, least of all emasculate him. Daragang Magayon, in this case, is life-giving and death dealing in her power. She is the womb and spirit come full-circle.