The "Gopah"

A “gopah” refers to an Ifugao exhortation recited at the middle of a tayo, the Ifugao native dance.  Once the orator shouts, the beating of the gongs stops and the dancers stands and keep still.

Here’s a simple version:

Woooooooayyyy! (This is the first shout that stops the gongs…)

Goppagoppahan da’yun maanayottayon/ maannaldalikdik /an maannaldalipapan iya’ala papa/  Adiya’ man hintammawon/ ya adiya’ hinlang-uyawon/ Te man tinikittikid u handin matikid/ Dinayyu-dayyu’ handin madayyu/ Nangipahhada’ handin puhung/ an alyon dan numbalayan di buwayan/ amanga-mangay babana/  Itpol uy takut u ot lopto’/  Ya annakaya, hiya peman/  Balinunnuwo’ di pahul u/  Ot tuwiko’ di matana/  Hu’nuto’ di pehlet u/  ot itama’ u din hinopwa’ uy toona/  Pangiho’ di baba’gitna/ ot bangoho’/   Iyanamut uh tun lita’angan tauh tun ad ________(mentio ns a place)/ Pangidimigan hi panpanboban hi gangha/ ya pangipaypaypayadan/ hi gitgitawan di algo.

Heyyyyyyyy, duyya! (This last shout is the signal for the resumption of the beating of the gongs 

“Haggiye!” is the response that would come from the dancers before the continuation of the dancing.)

Here’s a translation:

Woooooooayyyy! (This is the first shout that stops the gongs…)

I am exhorting you who graciously dances/ who slowly glides your feet on the gounds/ and stretchers your hands/ who easily catches ducks/  Don’t take me easy/ and don’t take me for granted/  for I have climbed the steep ascents/  and I have descended slopes/  until I have reached a bottom where a lake was/  which they say was home to an alligator/  feared for his protruding teeth/  But I mustered courage and dipped into the water/  And truly, there it is/  I turned my spear/  And pierced its eyes/  I pulled my hack from its scabbard/  And used it to dangle as I opened its mouth/  I pulled its feral teeth/  Placed them on my backpack/  Brought it here to our yard in ________(mentions a place)/  Our reason to beat the gongs/  and spread our hands/  At the middle of the day.

Heyyyyyyyy, duyya!

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There is that version that changes “alligator” to “monkey”  thus the affected lines are changed this way –

-Dinayyu-dayyu handin madayyu/Ot tikitikidoh’ handin matikid/ Nangiyablata’ handin Balittiyon/ an alyon dan numbalayan handin bulangon an naba’gi-ba’gitan/ Huwaniyo’ di pahul u ot gayango’/ Ya namingpingan an nabkah nan opang/  Unudo ya dehdin munpitpitag/ Hu’nuto’ di pehlet ut puguto’ di ulona/  Bangoho’ ot iyanamut uh tuh nin litangan tau ad ---

The translation:

I have descended slopes/ and climbed steep ascents/ I came to a peak where a Ballitiyon grew/ They say was home to monkey/ That grew ferocious teeth/ I set my spears and threw to it/ And just at the first try, it fell off a cliff/ I followed it and there it was wobbly/  I cut off its head/ placed them on my back pack/ And here it is on our yard ---

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These versions were how I remember those that were taught us in elementary school.  Our teachers then have found ways to inculcate learning “culture” ( DepEd when we were pupils is DECS or Department of Education, Culture and Sports).   I guess it is similar to what the present educational system name as School of Living Tradition and that of indigenized learning.  My teacher then said there could be several versions, as many as the number of orators, but the plot would usually be the same.  As it is, there indeed are the more poetic versions (and rereading what I’ve written, I may have missed important lines that I can not remember at this time. )

( A request to those who read up to this point and who knows a version - kindly contribute “missing lines” on the comment section or perhaps the version that you know.)

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There was this story I heard in college, I don’t know if it indeed happen, that a student was asked to do the gopah but at the middle of the performance, he forgot the lines and so he resorted to another plot thus he said, “Nangiyablata han wa’el ot tuma’iya/  Pokko’ ot iyanamut uh tun puniskulan tau tae tau tanaytayyawan/ tanagtaggaman./” Those who did not understand clapped their hands in appreciation to what was presented but those who understood the lines, mostly the Ifugaos, laughed while at the same time irritated at the orator.  What he said was “I came upon a river and pooped.  I forked it with my hands and brought this to our school, reason for our swaying and dancing.”

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Lately, there were celebrations in the workplace when I was prodded to do the gopah when it is time for Ifugaos to present during cultural affairs.  But I did not.  I remember some time in high school when I did it in some classroom presentations, and back in college I shared this gopah to some friends who were taking up education degree.   But something I heard lately from a folk at home made me think this is not appropriate for present school and home celebrations.

 There was one time when I had a conversation with an elder relative, I call him Apu (grandfather) Bangaona, who is one of the eldest at this times back home in Mompolia.  And he shared that the gopah takes root and most appropriate in a dallung, or a rite/celebration after a successful headhunting expedition.  The teeth of the alligator or the head of the monkey that is mentioned in the gopah are metaphors for the head of the enemy or any target that is cut and brought home by someone who do the headhunting in olden times.

I have shared this to a professor who is involved in culture and he remarked, “The meaning changes over time and so the alligator and the monkey may no longer be attributions of the head hunted.”  But while he may disagree with me on my insight about it, the professor agrees that further research and documentation are needed.  Some maybe written for the archives only but it can be good source of the appropriate changes.  Indeed no proper documentation may lead to what was mentioned in the earlier anecdote.