OSCAR DE ZUÑIGA

- Was born on June 29, 1912 in San Roque, Cavite but grew up in Tondo, Manila. - After graduating from Mapa High School, he attended college for only seven

months because of financial difficulties. - He got his first taste of newspaper work and literature by working for the Sunday

Tribune Magazine. - He wrote under the pseudonym Mariano Huertas.- His works include Love Song and Other Poems (1960) and The Arid Year: Prose

and Poems (1960).- “Although he has been writing for a long time, he claims he only really started

writing late in 1947The Fragrance of Summertime

Let His wounds heal with the fragrance ofsummertime;

His assassins have fled the countryside thatonce have felt

His loneliness – He who bore a dead tree uponHis back

On His way to the hills beyond the edge ofthe ruined city.

The nails have rusted with the centuries, butHis Name

Glows above the altars of candlelights and Hismemory

Burns the missal, and hostile mind; from withoutHis parables

Are windsongs rippling across the face of theevening sun.

The executioners are dead, their acts forgottenin the dust

Since that afternoon thunder split the heart ofdarkness in twain:

Their spears have been turned into crucifixeswhich dying men

Clutch from the sliding arches of their breasts.

Leave his scars alone, the split vinegar fromHis lips;

His broken grave, His garments streaked withdust and tears.

At the edge of the ruined city, the roses havebeen stripped

Of thorns and the fragrance of summer touchesour wounds.

References:

Abad, Gemino H. (1998). Likhaan Anthology of Philippine Literature in English. UP Press.Viray, Manuel. A. (Ed.). (1950). Philippine Poetry Annual: 1947 – 1949. Barangay Press.