“Wisdom is the beginning of sadness.”

“Shit!" I shouted at him. "Now listen, my friend. The youth have no role. They have no jobs. They have no money. They are not in power and they do not make decisions.«

“But when will Filipinas ever be free from its leaders who are wealthy and crooked, in whom we have put so much trust?"

Of course, we are all egoists. Egoism is so much a part of our humanity.

 “The obscenities of this country are not girls like you. It is the poverty which is obscene, and the criminal irresponsibility of the leaders who make this poverty a deadening reality. The obscenities in this country are the places of the rich, the new hotels made at the expense of the people, the hospitals where the poor die when they get sick because they don't have the money either for medicines or services. It is only in this light that the real definition of obscenity should be made.”

 “Ubi boni, malum prosperat (Where good men are silent, evil prospers)”

 “You will find that our enemies are our own kin. It is they who betray us. So learn this most important lesson-in the end, our worst enemy is ourselves”

 “Life is always sad. That's what makes suicide so tempting because life is all that we really have and haven't. Death makes us equals, too, because the foul and the good all die.«

-  F. Sionil Jose v angleščini

 Letos januarja je preminul filipinski legendarni pisec novel, kratkih zgodb in otroških knjig ter novinar -  F. Sionil Jose. Avtorjevi zelo znani zgodbi iz sage o kateri je pisal sta: Drevo in Brat. Umrl je v visoki starosti in doživel veliko političnih tranzicij od japonske invazije leta 1941, do priznanja neodvisnosti države s strani ZDA leta 1954, ter  do televizijskih oddaj v osemdesetih, kjer je Imelda Marcos kazala javnosti svojo veliko zbirko dragih parov čevljev. Kljub temu, da je bil oče minister in mati šivilja, je v otroških letih moral pomagati pri oranju polja. Verjel je v poslanstvo učiteljskega, zdravniškega in pisateljskega poklica. Moral je obiskovati novinarsko fakulteto, ker zaradi  nizke ocene pri kemiji ni bil sprejet na medicinsko. Ustanovil je Filipinsko društvo PEN in skupaj z ženo založbo in knjigarno, ki je financirala mlade pisatelje brez finančnih sredstev. Bil je velik nacionalist, ki ni želel postati migrant za razliko mnogih drugih pisateljev. Morda, tega ni storil, ker mu je žena povila osem otrok. Sionil je preveden v veliko tujih jezikov in je prejel večinoma literarne nagrade in priznanj iz tujih držav. Pisatelj je trdil, da je najboljša oblika zgodovinskega zapisa literatura.

V sodobnem času je popularnih veliko filipinskih pisateljic, ki živijo izven Filipinov, vendar nosijo to deželo v krvi, srcu in svojih zapisih.

Vabljeni na predavanje v soboto 17. decembra ob 19 uri, o filipinskem klasiku književnosti F. Sionel Joseju, s pisateljico Nino Kosmač , ob 19. uri na Facebook Messenger – ( Facebook Nina Kosmac).

VIR: Nina Kosmač