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Love in the Rice Fields and Other Short Stories
The twelve stories in this anthology are some of the most riveting narratives penned by Macario Pineda in a writing career that lasted for less than two decades.
Retold in English by Ms. Soledad S. Reyes, Macario Pineda’s Love in the Rice Fields and Other Short Stories offer readers a series of scenes in which various characters come alive in their respective journeys through life’s various stages—the idyllic innocence of youth, the pleasure and agony of young love, the disillusionment of old age, and the experience of death. Each story slowly leads its characters to an epiphany, for example, of the unconditional nature of a mother’s love, of war and its evils, of death and what possibly transpires after.
In this collection of short stories, Pineda is the consummate chronicler of the barrio, a gentle historian, a masterful painter, a great Filipino artist who painstakingly depicted the varied aspects of the past he loved—an age slowly disappearing from the consciousness of most Filipinos in a world slowly deteriorating due to colonialism and its aftermath.
Retold in English by Ms. Soledad S. Reyes, Macario Pineda’s Love in the Rice Fields and Other Short Stories offer readers a series of scenes in which various characters come alive in their respective journeys through life’s various stages—the idyllic innocence of youth, the pleasure and agony of young love, the disillusionment of old age, and the experience of death. Each story slowly leads its characters to an epiphany, for example, of the unconditional nature of a mother’s love, of war and its evils, of death and what possibly transpires after.
In this collection of short stories, Pineda is the consummate chronicler of the barrio, a gentle historian, a masterful painter, a great Filipino artist who painstakingly depicted the varied aspects of the past he loved—an age slowly disappearing from the consciousness of most Filipinos in a world slowly deteriorating due to colonialism and its aftermath.
- GenresShort Stories
139 pages
First published January 1, 2016
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March 6, 2017
LOVE IN THE RICE FIELDS (Suyuan sa Tubigan) AND OTHER STORIES, written in Filipino by Macario Pineda, translated into English by Soledad Reyes, should not be confined within the identity of a short story collection reflecting local color. It is, with utmost regard to the pain of translation, a patchwork of colors, both vibrant and insipid. It is a repertoire of wordless lamentations and stutteringsupplications, noble callings and teleserye-esque helplessness, inundating fields and uncanny funerals, incurable heartbreaks and astounding miracles.
In 'Dawn Breaking', you will find yourself between the parallel narratives of a quotidian life and a disturbing rebellion, with the writer's technique of infusing nightmares and bleak imagery of the protagonist's present situation. The vehemence of passion is articulated in 'My Country is a Filipina', a story of conflicting passions: the desire for a lifetime lover versus the necessity to save the oppressed homeland. 'Each Withered Flower' does not provide, at the end of the story, consolation to the wailing characters but invites the readers to dwell in their temporal grieving, until such time readers could not get out of the realm. The most touching of the twelve tales is 'Why the Angels Are Sad', presenting to us the innocence of youth capable of outdoing the doubts of a bereaved husband and father.
"Mas-ramdam-kung-Filipino" judgment is quite acceptable, and reading stories of village life in the English language obviously challenges the readers. Nevertheless, through Soledad Reyes's aesthetic sensitivity, a beautiful and faithful translation came into existence. Fusing the drama of Pineda's fiction and the eloquence of Reyes's translation, these stories have become witnesses to the truth that "the heroic greatness of a few appeared as a small wick lamp barely visible in the darkness of indifference and treachery of many."
In 'Dawn Breaking', you will find yourself between the parallel narratives of a quotidian life and a disturbing rebellion, with the writer's technique of infusing nightmares and bleak imagery of the protagonist's present situation. The vehemence of passion is articulated in 'My Country is a Filipina', a story of conflicting passions: the desire for a lifetime lover versus the necessity to save the oppressed homeland. 'Each Withered Flower' does not provide, at the end of the story, consolation to the wailing characters but invites the readers to dwell in their temporal grieving, until such time readers could not get out of the realm. The most touching of the twelve tales is 'Why the Angels Are Sad', presenting to us the innocence of youth capable of outdoing the doubts of a bereaved husband and father.
"Mas-ramdam-kung-Filipino" judgment is quite acceptable, and reading stories of village life in the English language obviously challenges the readers. Nevertheless, through Soledad Reyes's aesthetic sensitivity, a beautiful and faithful translation came into existence. Fusing the drama of Pineda's fiction and the eloquence of Reyes's translation, these stories have become witnesses to the truth that "the heroic greatness of a few appeared as a small wick lamp barely visible in the darkness of indifference and treachery of many."
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