"Pag nasagahay ka tiral sa yadag, nainot-inot ka pasahe payawor sa mahabang biyahe pa-Mindoro."
Kali ay usoy sa ako ni Tatay Meming it kag sida ay buhi pa, ag pag ako narurumruman ay naparada nak pay eksena sa sine ka memorya it kag mga panahong buko kinahangyan, tuyar ngasing, ka diesel ag jet fuel para umandar ag makaraginot ka tawo sa panahon it Space Age.
Ka mga terminong Asi nak pampanahon ay lengguwaheng ka balor sa ato kultura ay indi madinigaran, dahil reli gi lilibor ka adlaw-adlaw nak pagpapangabuhi it ka-tribuhang Asi, ka mga Sibalenhon lalo ey.
Ka pagmasir ag pagkanuynoy sa panahon o klima ay usa sa ato cultural pastimes. Imaw kali it basehan it desisyon kung sauno na pugas, na kopras, na paragat, na biyahe, na pamalaye, napuyor it kuwadan, na lilik, na ganot, ag iba pang kasablagang Asi.
Ka hitsura ag korte it buyan, halimbawa, ay marako ka impluwensiya sa mga desisyong pang-trabaho it Asi. Pag primerong ruyom o pag sayor nak pay baroto ka korte it buyan ay maisra, makuli pag kabilugan. Pag mababa ka rampog ay mayungot ka uyan, mayado pag limpiyo ka kalalawran it karampugan. Pag siniling nak kiwit ka adlaw ay sa kaiinit.
It is these terms for the various seasons that remind me of the current crisis on global climate change. Climate change has become quirky, and so does the Asi’s take on the daily weather. Before, we seemed to be so accurate at forecasting the changing seasons. Today, we are baffled.
Filipinos have since the coming of the Americans dreamed of white Christmases. Which brings me to ask if there is such a thing as a red or blue Christmas or are these just conjured up or perceived by the colonial and colonized mind?
Nio ka kolor it Paskwa? And what exactly is tiral?
White Christmas is the color of snow, which occur in winter and which we do not have in Romblon. We only have the dry and the wet seasons. Rainy and sunny. Hot and cold. We don’t have hail here, so we don’t have freezing weather. Neither have we spring nor fall. What we have are kuwaresma ag mauyanon. El Nino and La Nina are late climate phenomena, courtesy of the abuse by mankind of the environment.
So we have tiral, the sudden gust of wind—call it breeze—coming from the mountains that slowly and gracefully descends upon the sea. Our ancestors had observed—seen—the tiral in the sway of the bamboo and in the dance of the cogon grass. For years, they relied on the tiral to push, push, the single-masted pasaje to distant destinations—distant being Mindoro when motorized travel—air and sea—had not yet given birth to sleek airports and containerized ports. The absence or weakness of tiral forces the pasaje passengers to gaor and bugsay, strenuous manual steering activities that can sap the strength of the uninitiated. If there is strong tiral, travel to Mindoro was a breeze.
My grandfather, Tatay Meming, had traded tobacco, mano-manoso and ali-alikir, and chickens stuffed in a tigad, with Mindorenos. He knew when to launch the pasaje and this was the time when the tiral is strong and aplenty, usually in the months of April through June.
July to September is habagat season. Habagat is Tagalog and its Asi equivalent, though mild, is ma-it.
Ma-it itself has an interesting historical reference. It is also called ma-yi and exists as a place-name in Chinese historical texts. Filipino historians to this day debate what ma-yi is or where ma-yi lies. Some point it to Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro. Some say it refers to the whole country. The debate, or rather, the confusion, lies in ma-yi being referred to by the ancient Chinese as the place where they traded their porcelain and silk for spices and gold.
To me, an Asi, however, ma-yi or ma-it is simply the eastern wind. Chinese vessels during the early 14th to 16th century were, indeed, already trading with the Philippines, long before Magellan came only to die in a honasan—low tide. They sailed only during the monsoon season, when the tiral had progressed into the habagat or ma-it.
They sail back to China when the season of the nordiste commences, usually in November and December. Nordiste is the corrupted Asi for the northeast wind. The ocean waves during this season races north-eastward, gale force strong, and very dangerous. Nagpapamuti ka nordiste is Asi metaphor for the rolling waves of the northeast wind that poses danger to small vessels.
What if you hear an Asi say, "Nagpupusa-pusa ka habagat."? It simply means the waves are breaking in a crazy, unpredictable pattern—sideward, forward or backward—that makes the sea even more difficult to navigate.
My late writer friend, Manuel Festin Martinez, himself a keen observer of the seasons, used to tell me that he didn’t travel by sea pag nagririlam-rilam ka ragat. That’s Asi description for the waves produced by another wind, the solang, which is an extreme wind pattern coming from the south. Its opposite is kanaway, which comes from the northwest and is also very dangerous. The solang and kanaway closely follow each other after the habagat and the nordiste.
In between these seasons is the subasko, an anomalous weather that develops in short notice as a result of a thunderstorm and could occur even during summer. A subasko can give birth to a hurricane, similar but smaller in magnitude to the ones that perennially pay destructive visits to the US Midwest. Only a year ago, Sibale was devastated unbelievably by a hurricane and its effects are still felt today. The seasons are quick to destroy while we are slow to rebuild.
After a subasko is a perfect calm. The sea returns to normal as if nothing happened. The only proof that it occurred is the destruction that it may wrought upon its victims, perhaps a wayward boat sunk, a boya or bouy uprooted, or a bobo (bamboo fish trap) lost.
Underwater current, the suyog, is severely affected by any of these weather patterns. The drift and strength of the suyog follows the direction of the wind. This is why Asi fishermen always watch for tell-tale signs of the weather before they launch their boats or even before they cast their fishing nets. Any miscalculation or rash forecast of the weather could have a dire impact on their livelihood.
One cannot go fishing or enjoy swimming in a harsh weather. It is wise to wait for calm, or better still, wait for honas—low tide—to pick shells or to sikop it palata sa tubog.
So the next time you travel to Sibale, observe the weather. You may discover in the wind some hidden aspect of the Asi culture, wafting in the fresh air, or floating sa bayor nak tuwasan.
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