UP Ibalon Bicol: When friends will sing no more

When friends will sing no more

11/13/2008 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Whether one gets killed in a battle, perishes at sea, or dies by natural causes, a common thread exists because of the loss. Not a day after I tell Ibalonians of my “maudlin” reaction to the empty chairs and tables pictured in Myty’s blog of the Princess of Stars ship tragedy where more than 800 innocent passengers drowned, I learned with sadness that there was a fine human being who died in the foothills of Albay during a military skirmish some eight years ago.

Maria Graziella Miranda, a brave and idealistic UP Ibalon member of Daraga, Albay was lost in that encounter in Bicol. The details of her demise had been sketchy, making this remembrance even more important.

She joined the ranks of Ibalonian Bantayog ng Bayani hero Floro E. Balce and Ibalon friend Naga-native Alexander Belone II. To memorialize Maria Graziella and her dreams, I post Les Miserable’s Empty Chairs at Empty Tables in her honor. She studied at the College of Music. I enjoin the readers to remember her in prayers. Requiescat in Pace (Photo Credits: Bloomsdayflowers; twol942) =0=

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
---Marius, Les Miserables (by Victor Hugo)

There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about `tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me

(The ghosts of those who died on the barricade appear)

That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.

Phantom faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.

(The ghosts fade away)

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.