To The Man I Married by Angela Manalang-Gloria (Filipino Translation and Analysis )

Original:
TO THE MAN I MARRIED
I
You are my earth and all the earth implies:
The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries
For food and shelter against devouring days.
You are the earth whose orbit marks my way
And sets my north and south, my east and west,
You are the final, elemented clay
The driven heart must turn to for its rest.
If in your arms that hold me now so near
I lift my keening thoughts to Helicon
As trees long rooted to the earth uprear
Their quickening leaves and flowers to the sun,
You who are earth, O never doubt that I
Need you no less because I need the sky!

II
I can not love you with a love
That outcompares the boundless sea,
For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be.
But I can love you with a love
As finite as the wave that dies
And dying holds from crest to crest
 The blue of everlasting skies.

Filipino Translation:
SA LALAKING PINAKASALAN KO
I
Ikaw ang aking mundo at ang lahat nitong hinihiwatig:
Ang grabidad na nagpapapirmi sa akin sa kalawakan,
Ang hanging nilalanghap, ang lupang sa iyak ay nagpapatid
Para sa pagkai’t silong laban sa mga araw na sakmalan.
Ikaw ang mundo na ang daangtala’y takda sa aking daan
At nagtaktakda ng hilaga’t timog, silanga’t kanluran ko,
Ikaw ang elementadong luad na s’yang kahulihulihan
Kung saan lumiliko’t nagpapahinga ang pagod na puso.
Kung sa iyong mga bisig na hawak ako ngayong kay lapit
Sa Helicon itaas ko ang panaghoy ng saloobin ko
Tulad ng mga punong baon sa mundo’t patungo ay langit
At mga dahon at bulaklak nilang sa araw ang patungo,
Ikaw na siyang mundo, ay huwag pagdudahan na may patid
Ang hal’ga mo sa’kin ‘pagkat kailangan ko rin ang himpapawid!

II
‘Di kita kayang mahalin na may pag-ibig
Na hinihigit ang dagat na walang hanggan,
‘Pagkat huwad ito, waring walang pag-ibig
At walang gayong dagat na walang hangganan.
Ngunit ma’ring mahalin kitang may pag-ibig
Na kasing hanggan ng mga alo’ng namamatay
At abot-diling kapit sa galugod na higpit
Ang asul ng langit na ‘di mamamatay.

ANALYSIS:

To The Man I Married is not wholly a poem regarding the love of a wife to his husband. On
the contrary, it describes more in detail the limitations placed by the husband to his wife: the
domestication of women. He gives everything she needs and because of this, the wife became
dependent on the husband ("The air I breathe... whose orbit marks my way And sets my north
and south...").

Angela Manalang was a graduate of the University of the Philippines, an esteemed

university known for shaping strong, critical and ambitious men and women. As such, it is no
wonder that she would describe her love for her husband in a way that contradicts many
poems depicting love for a man as a perfect, everlasting concept; her love is imperfect and so
is her relationship with him ("I can not love you with a love That outcampares the boundless
sea... as no such love... can ever be."). Yes, she loves him, but as a woman and as a person, she
too has her own ambitions and dreams. However, she can no longer reach these dreams as
she is now committed and accustomed to her life as a wife and mother; she can only look on
and try to reach out ("If in your arms that hold me now so near... As trees long rooted to the
earth uprear..."). She speaks of her love as limited, only going as far as the earth may provide
("As finite as the wave that dies...") and tells the husband that his love is not the only one she
seeks but also her ambition for greater things, though it does not hinder her love for him
("Need you no less because I need the sky!").

The poem depicts a woman, now accustomed and limited to the reality of marriage, telling her
husband how she loves him in the most realistic description as possible: earthly and mortal.
She tells him how, even when he has provided everything for her, she still longs for the
ambitions she needed to abandon and how, even when she needs her dreams, this does not
lessen her love for him.
Commentary
This poem metaphorically portrays the love of the speaker for her husband by
comparing her need for him to her need for the earth.
Part I
Part I of Angela Manalang Gloria’s “To the Man I Married” follows the traditional
form of an English (also called, Elizabethan or Shakespearean) sonnet.
First Quatrain: He Means Everything to Her
You are my earth and all the earth implies:
The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries
For food and shelter against devouring days.
The speaker begins with a daring statement, as she addresses her husband
lovingly, telling him he is everything to her. With this claim, the speaker also
begins her metaphorical comparison of her need for both her husband and the
planet on which she lives. In the opening line, she has declared that her need for
the earth has implications.
As an inhabitant of the earth, she requires certain necessities to sustain life. The
earth’s gravity keeps the speaker's body from hurtling off into space. Its
atmosphere provides her lungs with air to breathe. The fertile soils place before
her the space to grow her food, while they also offers up building materials to
erect a dwelling that will shelter her from the elements. Just as the earth provides
these sustaining items, her husband also supports her by sharing his wealth, love,
and affection for her.
Second Quatrain: He Gives Her Direction
You are the earth whose orbit marks my way
And sets my north and south, my east and west,
You are the final, elemented clay
The driven heart must turn to for its rest.
In the second quatrain, the speaker avers that her husband gives her life direction.
As the earth alerts her to the four directions of north, south, east, and west, he
husband’s place in sharing her life serves to mark milestones as they reach them in
the marriage. The speaker then reveals a somewhat startling comparison: just as
the earth will offer her body a place to rest after the soul has left it, her husband
offers that soul rest while she is still in the body.
Third Quatrain: He Is Her Gravity
If in your arms that hold me now so near
I lift my keening thoughts to Helicon
As trees long rooted to the earth uprear
Their quickening leaves and flowers to the sun,
Even as the speaker needs her husband and the earth, there is also one other
entity that she must lovingly include in her basket of needs. Her husband holds her
close in a loving embrace as the earth’s gravity embraces and keeps her on the
planet. Still she admits that at times she may "lift [her] keening thoughts to
Helicon," the river that disappeared underground after the women with blood-
stained hands from killing Orpheus attempted to wash that blood away in its
innocent waters.
Acknowledging the nurturing, close relationship she has with her husband and the
earth, she knows that she also must pay tribute to other specific natural elements.
Thus she metaphorically asserts her relationship with the waters of earth as
flowers and leaves of trees upturn to the sky.
The Couplet: Necessity of the Sky
You who are earth, O never doubt that I
Need you no less because I need the sky!
The speaker avers that she needs the earth, but her needs also extend to the sky.
In that need, she becomes a child of the sky, just as the earth itself is, along with
the trees that require sunlight for existence. The necessity for the sky does not
diminish her love and appreciation for her husband and the earth. She avers that
she "need[s] [them] no less than [she] need[s] the sky."
Part II
The second part of Gloria’s “To the Man I Married” features two quatrains.
First Quatrain: No Desire to Exaggerate
I cannot love you with a love
That outcompares the boundless sea,
For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be.
The speaker reveals her desire not to exaggerate the status of her feelings for her
husband as she has metaphorically compared her love for him to be similar to the
affection she harbors for the earth.
In what might sound somewhat contradictory, the speaker asserts that she cannot
really compare her love for her husband to the ocean, because the ocean is too
expansive and such a comparison would be false.
Second Quatrain: The Earth and Beyond
But I can love you with a love
As finite as the wave that dies
And dying holds from crest to crest
The blue of everlasting skies.
Because the speaker has already compared him metaphorical to the earth, it might
seem somewhat confusing to find her claiming that the ocean is too large to make
a target of comparison work. Nevertheless, she does decide that she can compare
that love to the waves, which are part of the ocean. And those waves reflect the
blue of the skies.
To the Man I Married Analysis
In: English and Literature
Submitted By nailopez08
Words 450
Pages 2
Literary Piece #1

To the Man I Married

Angela Manalang Gloria

I You are my earth and all that earth implies: The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries For food and shelter against
devouring days. You are the earth whose orbit marks my way And sets my north
and south, my east and west, Your are the final, elemental clay The driven heart
must turn to for its rest. If in your arms that hold me now so near I lift my keening
thoughts to another one, As trees long rooted to the earth uprear Their quickening
leaves and flowers to the sun, You who are earth, O never doubt that I Need you
no less because I need the sky! II I can not love you with a love That outcompares
the boundless sea, For that were false, as no such love And no such ocean can ever
be. But I can love you with a love As finite as the wave that dies And dying holds
from crest to crest The blue of everlasting skies.

In this poem, a woman metaphorically compares her husband to the earth. She
considers the man she married as the “earth” that nourishes her and. Her husband
provides her all her needs. Her husband gives her all the means to live. In the
poem, she claims that the man she married is the reason why she survives. He is
also a sure shelter to protect her from harm. He is the direction of her life. He is
also the one whom she wants to be with until her life is gone. With much
acknowledgement to her love for her husband, she also mentions of “another
one” to whom she “lifts her keening thoughts”. She compares this “another one”
to the “sky”. I believe that the woman recognizes her Creator. This doesn’t mean
that she loves her husband less. But she compares this to the fact that like the
trees need the earth where it is rooted, it also needs the sky. She does not want to
compare her love for her husband to the ocean. Her love for him may be great, yet
nobody deserves much love than the Almighty. At the same time, nobody can give
the love as wide as the ocean except Him. Instead, she compares her love for her
husband to the “wave”. She is telling that human love dies. It will end when our
stay here on earth also ends. The last line of the poem is very meaningful. She
affirms her belief that dying is the only way in order for us to experience “eternal
life”.