Planting Rice Is Never Fun
Because my mother was born in Manila and her mother moved from Spain to the Philippines when she was a young girl I was raised with a Filipino heritage for most of my life. One very particularly fond memory was watching my grandmother dance to the lyrics below with other Filipino wearing while wearing those conical rice planting hats.
Rice Planting
Planting rice is never fun
Bent from morn till the set of sun,
Cannot stand and cannot sit,
Cannot rest for a little bit.
Planting rice is no fun
Bent from morn till set of sun,
Cannot stand, cannot sit,
Cannot rest a little bit.
Oh, come friends and let us homeward take our way,
Now we rest until the dawn is gray,
Sleep, welcome sleep, we need to keep us strong
Morn brings another workday long.
Oh, my back is like to break,
Oh, my bones with the damp still ache,
And my legs are numb and set
For their long soaking on the wet.
It is hard to be so poor
And such sorrow and pain endure,
You must move your arms about,
Or you’ll find you must go without.
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
