Lingården Äldreboende Lenhovda
translated from the Tagalog by Luisa A. Igloria
(home for the elderly, Lenhovda)
My sister Mimi tells me,
many of the elderly she cares for
often get dressed and pack
as if they are about to go on a journey.
One of them wears his sandals backwards.
Another has put on her make-up, but unevenly.
When asked what they are planning to do,
they say they are going to Järnvägen Station
and are in a great hurry
so they won’t be left behind by the train.
But that train station at Lenhovda
has been closed for almost half a century.
Even the train tracks are gone.
Back then, this was where you could get a ride
to the cities of Växjö or Kalmar.
The train station they see in their minds
is now just one wide parking lot
for the workers in a factory
where expensive windows are made.
Lingården Äldreboende Lenhovda
Kinuwento sa akin ng kapatid kong si Mimi,
marami sa matatandang inaalagaan nila
ay maaabutan na lamang nilang
nakabihis at nakapag-empake na.
Yung isa nga raw baligtad pa ang sandals.
Mayroon ding hindi pantay ang meyk-ap.
Kapag tinanong kung ano ang gagawin nila,
sasagot silang pupunta raw ng Järnvägen Station
at kailangang magmadali
dahil baka maiwanan sila ng tren.
Ngunit mahigit kalahating siglo na nagsara
ang estasyon ng tren sa Lenhovda.
Kahit nga ang riles wala na rin.
Dito maaaring sumakay noon
patungo sa mga lungsod ng Växjö o Kalmar.
Ang nakikita nilang estasyon sa kanilang isipan,
isa nang malawak na parkingan ngayon
ng mga nagtatrabaho sa pagawaan
ng mga mamahaling bintana.
Copyright © 2025 by John Iremil Teodoro. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 20, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Given that the Philippines is an archipelago, its artists and writers have long pondered flux and change alongside the meanings of home and belonging. I’ve known John Iremil Teodoro for more than thirty years now. A multilingual poet, critic, educator, and translator, he manifests in his own life and practice some of the conditions of diaspora resulting from the Philippines’ histories of colonization. He was born and raised in [San Jose de Buenavista, Antique, on Panay Island in the central Philippines]. His father was an international ship captain, and his mother a housewife. ‘Lingården Äldreboende Lenhovda’ is part of a new poetry collection exploring what it means to travel outside of oneself.”
—Luisa A. Igloria