“HAVE YOU EVER been lonely? Have you ever been blue? Go the lines consecutive of a song I used to hear in earlier years. In what stanza – or stanzas, these lines are said.. and oh, the title too (!).. These elude me honestly at present. Then, there came
“I’M JUST A lonely boy; lonely and blue; I’m all alone, with nothing to do!” I’m almost sure these lines ‘captivated’ my heart and consciousness in the Undergrad years of my University life. And these were followed closely by the rendition of a local/national star: was it Victor Wood? The song and the beginning lines of:
“LONELY, I’M MR. Lonely; I got nobody to call on the phone; Letters, I got no letters.. etc., [and finishes with] I wish that I could go back home!”
OF RECENT, I’VE heard [and listened too! – three times I’d say] that program/drama) in one radio station, in ‘these Heights’ bearing the title (series) of: Dear, Mr. Lonely.
THE BACKGROUND SONG is “Mr. Lonely” –as above-described; the same song by Victor Wood – at least the first stanza which is repeatedly aired per resumption of the said program series/segments.
AS FOR US and for everyone, we feel lonely when we lack of – or missing: friends, relatives, companions, et cetera, and often, it is this which makes us blue, despondent, or unhappy. But again, have you ever been.. never? [or, ‘never again!’?].
BUT CANDIDLY SO – or in your particular area of domicile, how do people look at – or handle, or regard, let’s say, the loneliness and blues that come unto them, now and then?
WHEN YOU COME up to Baguio – or to the Cordilleras, what shall immediately seize your interest on the matter is the unusual nominalization – or turning-into-noun, of the adjectives (or adjectival string) lonely-and-blue. To illustrate:
GENERATIONS YOUNGER IN these days tend to mix English – the learned language in School, with their original or ‘native or village language(s), thus we hear references e.g. of Taglish (Tagalog mixed with English), Engkali (English with Kankana-ey language or kali), Engbaloi (English with Ibaloi), et cetera. So,
IF THEY WANT to express the statement: ‘He (or she) is lonely-and (so)-blue!’ you’d expect them producing (in Engbaloi) for instance. Etan dis Lonely-and-blue! But no! they won’t say that! They’d instead say ‘Mr. (or Ms.) Lonely-and-blue, i.e. with a proper noun ring; so, akin but not the same, as English “the lonely-and-blue one”. Note that the nominalized adjectival-string used will depend on why the lonely person feels, acts, thinks, etc. ‘blue’, in most occasions. Now, the said strings:
DINMESSIN = INT: if the individual(s), family members, etc. prefer to be secluded – by himself, herself, themselves – isolated or far from the city, urban, or village. This reference also implies: no happiness in them may fructify if they co-mingle with others. Mighty ‘queer’ to you? And then, the
BINMAGUS = INT: if the person (or persons) had had traumatic, or painful past experiences; that now he trusts almost ‘no one’, in circles and in gatherings; even with ‘nexts-of-kin’. He is really that lonely because of those ‘blues’.
SIMMAHEY = INT if the individual just lost a spouse – a wife, a partner. The term is derived from saxei/sahey, “one or alone”; so, the translatable to: “has become [and], is now living: alone-and-blue”. A closely-related term or reference is:
DASANG = INT if it’s a wife losing her husband. Originally, the term could have been the participial adjective dinmasang, “has become empty, or emptied”; ergo, implying: “that’s why she’s empty, alone-and-blue”. Finally, the seemingly humorous but logical reference of:
MASIKKAL = INT if a person never married – e.g. a spinster or a confirmed bachelor? He/she is alone, lonely; and thus feels ‘blue’ – for these? We can never tell.
BUT SIXAL or sihal is the term-origin; and it comes close to Stoicism, or Endurance. Therefore, the Masikkal is “the Enduring one” – and his/her unwillful (or otherwise) decisions to remain alone or single flood him often as his insistent ‘blues’! Ayuhh!
