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Come! Bring forth the jar that for months had stood
Patiently undisturbed in the shadow!
Lift its lid, remove the leaves that serve as hood
And help age the wine that’s about to flow.
Catch a whiff of its sweet smell long detained
That now perfumes the air around us here.
Take some of the liquid with a bowl unstained
And--wait! Before we all have a good cheer,
Pour some libation to Kabunian’s name
From whom this wine and other favors came.

Fill the bowl fashioned from coconut shell
Blackened by time and from its constant use;
Pass the tapuy while the elders retell
The story of how this fermented juice
Has come down to us in its present form,
In much the same way that our forebears
Crafted it from rice, and then to transform
The grains into this divine drink we share,
Mixed it with bubod in order to mature
And ripen the liquor that now is pure.

Ah, how sweet the taste! How smoothly it goes
And warms the tongue that now tingles for more!
And the unique fragrance that from it grows
Reminds one of fields and of the outdoor.
How the liquid shines as clear as a spring--
Or a brook--that sprung from a mountain side!
Come, partake of this drink fit for a king
And speaks so well of the Igorots’ pride--
A toast to us here gathered of one mind,
And may the anitos be ever kind!

*Tapuy is rice wine from the Igorots of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines.

October 27-29, 2024

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