Answer:
As founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Sison was a very hot item on the military list even before martial law was declared in 1972. He would be captured by the military in 1977, imprisoned and subjected to a long ordeal of physical and psychological torture.
Behind bars
Prison was surely an unforgettable experience for Sison, and this is reflected in the title of the book itself as well as many of the poems in it.
In the 30-stanza “Fragments of a Nightmare,” which is written from a first-person perspective, the persona talks of being made by “demons” into a punching bag, of being threatened with death or more inhuman treatment, even of being cajoled into running “for an assembly/Of demons.” The persona does not identify himself and the poem has been the subject of dispute in certain literary circles, but one thing is clear: the “I” speaking in “Fragments of a Nightmare” is none other than Sison himself, as may be gleaned from the book The Philippine Revolution: The Leader’s View as well as Grace B. Salita’s interview with him last year for her masteral thesis at De La Salle University. The “demons” are his tormentors and others he considers the enemies of the Filipino people.
The author’s wife, Julieta de Lima, was captured with him in 1977, but for years they were kept in separate cells. In “You are My Wife and Comrade,” Sison speaks of the anguish from this experience thus:
But despair Sison does not here. There is determined defiance in the following stanzas:
(The poem was written in 1978. Eight years later, the Marcos dictatorship would be ousted through a popular uprising.)
The theme of prison serving to strengthen character instead of breaking it is a favorite of Sison. This is the theme behind his poems “A Furnace” and “In the Dark Depths.”
“In the Dark Depths” he describes his fellow political prisoners’ life thus:
In “Chemistry of Tears,” Sison goes beyond the prison imagery. He tackles the theme of injustice breeding revolutionary armed struggle, with touches of science:
If “Chemistry of Tears” contains allusions to chemistry and physics, the images in “From the Philippines to Vietnam: Birds of Prey”- written in 1967 at the height of the U.S. war against Vietnam – are biological:
But science is not the only field from which Sison draws allusions. He apparently shares the interest of fellow Ilocano and scholar-activist Isabelo de los Reyes in folklore, as shown in the poem “Angalo, O Angalo!” about a giant hero of Ilocano legend whom he describes as a “Timeless foe of the oppressor.”
Leafing through Sa Loob at Labas ng Piitan, one may notice that the poems written from 1962 onward – are more direct in their language than those created in 1958-1962 – the ones lifted from Brothers and Other Poems (“By Cokkis Lilly Woundis,” “Carnival,” “The Imperial Game,” “The Massacre,” “These Scavengers,” “Brothers,” “The Dark Spears of the Hours Point High,” and “Hawk of Gold”) – although by no means are they less poetic.
Explanation:
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