feedback 11...
Subject:
Jose Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios at an iya nobelas
Name: Bugsay of Cagaut
Address: Bgy. Cagaaut, Salcedo, Eastern Samar
Email:
Date: June 26, 2009
May paki-ana gad la ako hin nga
mga nagsusurat dinhe nga an mga iro-istorya ay an mga iginsurat ni Jose
Rizal sugad hin nga iya Mi Ultimo Adios pati na an iya duha nga nobela: El
Filibusterismo at Noli Me Tangere. Nasiring pa hiya hin nga mga tawo nga di
nahigug-ma hin aton yakan nga - Ang taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sarili
niyang wika ay mahigit pa sa hayop at malansang isda.
Kay ano man nga iginsurat niya ine
nga tulo niya nga trabaho (Mi Ultimo Adios, et al.) hin kinas-tila? Di ba
gud maupay kun lugod iginsurat niya ine hin aton kalugari-ngon nga yakan?
Kaiya na gad siguro naton nga mga
Pilipino in magsubad kita hin nga yinakan na di man aton, and this is
exactly the reason why our language (including Waray) did not futher develop
over time. I got hold of our dictionary in Waray translated in English and
Tagalog, and how it is done is pathetically wanting of words that would
appropriately described things no matter one tries to find the right word.
We even have corrupted names on
how we used to pronounced it just because we heard such words come out from
the mouths of foreigners like how we pronounced 'Manila'. Before the
heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier years ago, we
Manilans would pronounced the name of the city in a 'malumay' way of saying
or pronouncing it, but as soon as we heard how it was said or uttered by
those foreign sports writers covering the fight, like Man'i'la we started
uttering it exactly like this.
This may be a trivial thing to
think about but we have continued this attitude over generations. We just
could not be 'ourselves' concocting our own or developing or polishing our
own creativity. We readily embraced other people's inventions and
discoveries instead of us being the 'trailblazers' for new things. We just
imitate or copy what we have seen and gone through and yet believed that we
are doing great.
Rizal if given the chance in 'an
afterlife' would instead write his Mi Ultimo Adios and his novels in
Pilipino for all the 'indios' to understand and hasten the freedom and
independence from the tyrannical Spaniards.
Amo la.
Subject:
Re Kabataan Paglaom Han Aton Nasud
Name: KablasLaGihapon
Address: Norway
Email:
Date: June 19, 2009
Ini kabahin han reaksiyon ni Mr.
Armando Corales han nahinotisya dinhi ha Samarnews.com (Child NPA Warrior).
Tuod ito, nga tiunano man ini nga kabataan magigin paglaom han nasud kon an
iya mahibabaruan amo an pag distrongkar la hin armalite? Pero ha lain nga
bahin, diri naton mababasol adi hi alias Dayocdoc, nga at tender age of 12,
mas ginpili niya an makigbisog ha kabubkiran. Una, anuman an iya choice kon
ha mga huron, waray abilable nga mga eskoylahan nga poydi pag-adman hini nga
kabataan? Ikaduha, ano iton sitwasyon ha kabubkiran ha aton nasud? Waray
kalugaringon tuna nga poydi pag umhan o anuman nga pwede magin surok hin
pangabuhi.
Normal na ito nga an propaganda
han gobyerno kon maynadadakop nga NPA gerilya ilabi na kon menor de eded,
ginpirit an bata, pero an kamatuoran, waray pagpipilian ini nga batan-on.
Ngan ha luyo hini nga ngatanan nga kakurian, nakita siguro ni Alias Dayocdoc
nga bangin manla, pinaagi han iya armalite, iya mapukaw an gobyerno ngan
mapamata ha tinuod nga sitwasyon ha kabubkiran! Hinumduman unta naton, nga
"circumstances dictates our action"!
Saludo ako han mga Pilipino nga
haira batan-on nga huna-huna, nahimo nga magmata ha tinuod nga sitwasyon ha
katilingban!
Subject:
Kabataan Paglaom han aton Nasud
Name: Armando L Corales
Address: Mercedes, Catalogan, Samar
Email:
armando_cor56@yahoo.com
Telephone: 09154486510
Date: June 14, 2009
Siring ni Gat Jose Rizal an mga
Kabataan daw amo it maglaom hit aton Nasud, paano nira matatagamtaman an
siring ni GAT Rizal nga hira it pag lao hit nasud paano kun ini nga mga bata
iba na an ira gawi, kundi pag talapas na hit kamingawan nga amo it mando han
nag ampon ha ira nga maruba an ira kabubuwason.
Sugad kana kan Joel Silvestre @
Doyocdoc, ha edad nga 12 anyos igin baid na sa kagiusan, nga imbis pag aram
ha eskwelahan an dapat matagamtaman lugod mas nabaid pagdistrongkar han
armas kontra han pag-aram ha eskwelahan, paano nira makakamtan an tinuud nga
katalwasan.
Kamo nga waray mga batasan og
traydor nga nahihilo hit huna-huna hit kabataan makonsinsya man kamo haira,
ayaw nyo tutdu i hin maglain nga mga pan hunahuna, amo ii itinuud nga
pagtalapas hit human rights ngan recruitments of minors.
Subject:
Mi Ultimo Adios / Katapusan Ko Nga Panamilit
Name: Zaldy G. jaba-an
Address: Barangay Canatu-an, Motiong, Samar
Email:
zjabaan@yahoo.com.ph
Telephone: 0916-257-7943
Date: June 4, 2009
Malipayon nga oras ha iyo ngatanan!
Kon ighikaw man ha akon ngan kon
may man naaawa nga marikognisar an akon version han translation han Kan Dr.
Hose Rizal siday nga Mi Ultimo Adios, waray man problema...okay man la ha
akon... an importante, malipayon ako nga nahimo ko ini nga butang...kon
nakadum-it man han akon probinsya nga nagtaw'han ini'n akon siday...nanginginyuppo
ako nga intindihon an diri ko tinuyo ug diri ko intensyon nga makagupong ha
mga igkasiko Samarnon.
Yano ngan simple la an akon
pagkatawo...diri ko gad unta karuyag nga may ko mga igkakabirubingkil o
igkakadupil dupil....kay papriho man la kita mga binuhi han Dyos!
Mabuhay an Samar ngan para han mga
karuyag makipagsumpayan alayon kontak 0916-257-7943 / 0928-305-4364 or visit
www.youtube.com - search Motiong Samar.
Salamat ngay-an han mga umintindi
ngan nakakasantop han akon panalinguha...nga mahubad ha pinulongan Waraynon
ini nga Siday.
Mabuhay an Samar! Bisan pa man kon
nagbabalatbagat it damo nga mga problema, pagprubar ug mga kakurian.
Subject:
Desiderata and Tomas Gomez's Translation
Name: A. Morales
Email:
Date: June 2, 2009
Honestly, Mr. Desiderata, I have
not read the translation of the late Sen. Gomez. Can you upload it for
everybody to see? If it has the imprimatur of the NCCA or the NHI, then it
should stand as the best or the standard. I will try to search that online
but if you have a copy, kindly share it with us. This debate would be over,
I hope, with that translation of Gomez as the primus.
However, the problem with your
thesis that Jabaan's translation is "amateurish" or "trashy" is that we have
yet to see and compare the two. You may be a better judge because you took
time reading the original work of Rizal, Tomas Gomez's translation, and of
course that of Jabaan's. It may just be comparing a diamond with a "bubot
han baso" but still we have to see the difference.
I know that literary awarding
bodies such as the Palanca can decide not to award the first prize if no
entry is not worth the title. Unfortunately, we are not into Palanca. While
the literary world is somewhat a world different from the real world, the
real world is full of "defaults." Default, in computer science lingo, is
defined as a setting or application value assigned when there is failure of
performance. Sadly, we face defaults all the time. From goverment, to
economy, to arts, and whatever field of endeavor. We usually get an assigned
setting because of our failure to perform---like voting wisely, upholding
meritocracy, or valuing what is lofty, ideal, right, just, and other high
standards. As I mentioned earlier, unless we can prove by comparison that
Mr. Jabaan's obra belongs to the waste disposal system of the literary
world, we still have to pat his shoulders for his diligence and courage in
coming up with his own version of Rizal's poem.
Maybe we should have a Palaka
award in Samar as our own counterpart (the one with the loudest croak wins).
In a nation that does not value
arts and literature, no doubt that the Palanca prizes are cheap and sensilyo
but it is a good start to encourage writers, specially the young, to write
not merely to join contests but to contribute to the cultural revolution of
a nation whose only known contests are the perennial beauty contests that
every purok or sitio has.
I am looking forward to reading
Buddy Gomez's father's translation. Until then, I am on a default mode to
accept that Zaldy's "amateurish" and "trashy" (according to Desiderata)
translation stays as the one that we should compare future or other
versions. It may not even get the "honorable mention or the consolation
prize" or may just be immediately trashed using a "Palanca-ish" standard
even if it is the sole entry to a contest. I don't care about that, my hope
is that in the future, the NCCA or the NHI or the Knights of Rizal would one
day sponsor a contest in translating Rizal's opus into understandable
dialects of the filipino people. As long as Rizal's work are in a foreign
language not understandable by millions of filipinos, he will continue to be
a hero that is foreign to most filipinos---a hero imposed by the Americans
on the imagination of filipinos. He is as dead as his rebultos when the
ordinary Juan dela Cruz or Mang Pandoy can't relate to his writings and his
thoughts. He and his works will continue to be moot and academic or relics
of the past. I hope that Rizal will live not in the halls of the national
museum but in the hearts of his people. And, translating his works from a
foreign language to one that is understood by his people is one way of doing
that. For this simple reason, I salute Zaldy Jabaan's diligence.
Subject:
Dethroning King Jabaan
Name: DesiDeRata
Address: Catbalogan, Samar
Email:
Date: May 29, 2009
A. Morales' pronouncement that Mr.
Jabaan's tacky work can intrepidly occupy the king's throne because no one
has laid claim to it may be likened to our political conviction that in the
province of the blind the cock-eyed is queen. Just because we do not see it
does not mean it does not exist. Maybe, we are just too lackadaisical in our
choice that any thing is just as good as the real thing. Our myopic penchant
to conceal our inadequacies often leads us to pretentious admiration and
insipid acclamation. We have forgotten to value ourselves and loft our
standards that we easily accept the mediocre. The Palanca Literary Award is
a most sought-after prize by any writer not because of the cash that comes
with it (the cash prize is pittance, just ask Tim Montes) but because of the
prestige it adds to his or her literary portfolio. There were years when the
organizers declared no winner in specific categories, not because there were
no entries but because the entries failed to meet the standards set forth
for these categories. Those that barely passed were awarded with "honorable
mentions."
When DesiDeRata prodded Mr. Jabaan
to matriculate in courses that would further hone his talent, it was not
because DesiDeRata wishes to ridicule him, but rather DesiDeRata sees some
potentials in the amateurish" and "trashy" output that he churned in. While
Mr. Jabaan's efforts were enormous, his skills and aesthetics were hampered
by his sheer ignorance of the criterion or benchmark for translation. The
greatest enemy of a writer is his pride, rather FALSE PRIDE, and his
greatest gift is his OPEN MIND. If we are hurt, and are deeply hurt, it is
because we have closed our minds to the possibility that we may be wrong,
and our tendency will always be to withdraw (as what Berliner Beneto Co did
when he could have shared further his insights on translations). The
disparangement that Mr. Jabaan has to put up with should come with the
realization that hard work precedes success. It is in the knowledge that we
are wanting that we strive to be filled, in the understanding of our
weaknesses that we become strong, and in our determination to excel that we
are exalted. Truly, it may be easy to criticise, but it is much easy to
dismiss criticisms as products of envy, frustration, or inadequacy. When we
are left with nothing to defend our work with, we resort to challenging our
critics to come up with their own versions, to compare theirs with ours. We
easily forget that outstanding literary works are borne out of conviction
not of comparison, that the great opuses are assessed by the measures of the
true (honest re/presentation), the good (sound structure), and the beautiful
(aesthetics and uniqueness), and that the best encouragement is failure.
Unless we set our minds to aspire for what is excellent, we will forever be
wallowing in a province of mediocrity governed by a cock-eyed queen.
Lastly, contrary to A. Morales'
claim that no Samarnon translation of Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios has yet been
written, the late Tomas Gomez, Jr., a lawyer and poet laureate of Calbayog
City, translated Rizal's opus from the original Spanish to Binisaya and his
translation was accorded the distinction of being recognized by the National
Historical Commission as the official Samarnon translation worthy of display
at the Rizal Shrine.
Will you, then, move over to the
less pretigious throne that was suggested by A. Morales, erstwhile
translation king Mr. Jabaan?
Subject:
Kun nag-aaraway an kamanampan, kairo han kabanwaan
Name: A. Morales
Email:
Date: 27 May 2009
Desiderata, Beneto Co, and Zaldy
Jabaan:
I am happy that we have these
three samarnons who are ardent literary students. How I wish that they could
band together and start promoting Samarnon or Waraynon literature for the
benefit of all samarnons.
Desiderata and Beneto Co are two
of the most intelligent feedback writers here in Samarnews.com. They may not
agree on certain issues but the two are well-versed in English. I hope we
could have more people like them in Samar. I do not even mind the two of
them exchanging their divergent views on things because they have the
penchant to write their thoughts succinctly.
I heard about how the two literary
giants Dr. Edilberto and Dr. Edith Tiempo, founders of the Summer National
Writers' Workshop in Silliman University in Dumaguete City, the oldest and
the most reputable in the Philippines, would debate rabidly on a single
phrase or word. They may be married to each other but they know that they
have to criticize each other not to bring down the other but to bring out
the best in each other. I think we should practice that. As a people, we are
easily piqued when somebody critiques our work. Criticism is a tool to bring
out the best in us.
Zaldy's translation may be
amateurish but who is a pro in Zaldy's field? No one. Until somebody comes
up with a better translation, Zaldy's work would remain the best available
translation. Even in our political life, Mila Tan who was a shiok-tong
dealer is now running the affairs of the province because no one can
dislodge her from power. Until somebody better can prove to all of us that
he/she could do better than Mila, then we have to accept Mila's own version
of governance. I am not saying that Zaldy's work is as sloppy as Mila's
because I am not a bona fide literary critic. In fact, Zaldy still has the
king's throne unless somebody else can show him to use the toilet bowl as
his new throne.
Kumbaga, by default Zaldy's work
is still the record to beat. Anybody who can dislodge him will have the hat
of the champion. Unfortunately, no one can have the time and passion that
Zaldy gave to his own work so he may be there sitting on the throne of the
champion until someone else would smash him with a better translation.
Subject:
On Translations and Intellectuals
Name: Taga- Salug
Address: Catbaloga City
Email:
Date: May 23, 2009
Mabuhay ka Mr. Beneto Co! Ungod
gud la an pulongnon nga an humay nga bungahon napilay ngan natamod, an lata
nga may sulod diri ma-aringasa ug an tubig ha salug mamingaw kun halarum.
Han akon pagbasa han imo feedback
han kan Mr. Jabaan's work waray gud ako kita hin guti-ay nga paghambog ha
imo bahin. Kundi an imo pag "apprreciate" han iya effort ug "encouragement"
nga magpasigi pa hiya han iya trabaho.
Sugad man kan Mr. Addi Batica. Usa
pa ini nga halarom nga tawo nga mapa-inubsanon (ha akon kasabot, lol).
Asya gud ini denhi ha aton lugar
ha Samar. May-ada ngani baga nalupad dayon la guin lalabtik basi mahulog
dayon. Deri manla tagan hin higayon nga maka-indong intawon basi
makapag-praktis ngan maging ungod nga eksperto han iya higayon.
Subject:
Requiem to a Berliner
Name: DesiDeRata
Address: Catbalogan, Samar
Email:
Date: May 22, 2009
It is tragic that Berliner Beneto
Co wrote "fin" to provide further comment and extend his "expertise" re: Mr.
Jabaan's translation of Mi Ultimo Adios, for no amount of feedback can
exorcise his rating of "excellent translation" to Mr. Jabaan's work. It
would likewise be useless to refute his arguments since Berliner Beneto Co
prematurely precluded any forthcoming rebuttal, dramatically ending it with
the "show me yours, I'll show you mine" fallacy. Being confident of my
skills and myself, I have nothing to prove and need not indulge in such
childish repartee lest be mistaken for a "second-rate trying hard copycat."
Nevertheless, for the benefit of the Samarnews readers (including A.
Morales, the recent contributor to the issue)who may have followed this
trail of discussions and maintained an open mind, let me put some things in
specifics. In revisiting Rizal's opus, we have his original opening stanza
as follows:
Adios, Patria
adorada, region del sol querida,
Perla del mar de Oriente, nuestro perdido Eden!
A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida,
Y fuera mas brillante, mas fresca, mas florida,
Tambien por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.
and the following English
translations by Charles Derbyshire (1911)
Farewell, dear
fatherland, clime of the sun caress'd,
Pearl of the Orient sea, our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest,
Still I would give it thee, nor count the cost.
and by Edwin Agustin Lozada (2001)
Farewell, beloved
country, treasured region of the sun,
Pearl of the sea of the Orient, our lost Eden!
To you eagerly I surrender this sad and gloomy life,
And were it brighter, fresher, and more florid,
Even then I'd give it for you, and for your sake alone.
On the other hand, Mr. Jabaan
translated thsi opening stanza as
Adios higugmaon
tuna nga nataw'han
Nasud nga nahura' dagaang han adlaw
Eden nga kalipay ha amon naanaw
Nga perlas han dagat ha may sinirangan.
Halad ko ha imo
kalipay nga tim-os
Ini'n kinabuhi nga raptay ngan kabos
Nagin bantugan man liwat in maugop:
Kun mauripon ka hin kasamok.
In evaluating the translation in
terms of form, Mr. Jabaan who incidentally also went to UP has clearly
transgressed the original work - the opening stanza consisting of five lines
- by having his translation in two stanzas of four lines. Notable, likewise,
is his deviation in the use of punctuation marks, such as the exclamation
point of the phrase "nuestro perdido Eden!" and the end commas in each line.
The substance is much to be desired. His choice of the word "nasud" for
"region" is highly incorrect since at the time when Rizal wrote the poem
there yet was no nation to talk about as the Philippines was under Spain.
His translation of the phrase "nuestro perdido Eden" into "Eden nga kalipay
ha amon naanaw" is incongruent. While Rizal refers to his fatherland as the
"our lost Eden" (see Lozada) or "our Eden lost" (see Derbyshire) alluding to
Milton's "Paradise Lost," Mr. Jabaan translates (?) the loss as sorrow or
the absence of happiness. He also reverses the arrangement of the lines "perla
del mar de oriente" and "nuestro perdido Eden!" thereby losing the impact of
the line. Just go on and read his translation of this line. And what
happened to the imagery brought about by the words "y fuera mas brillante,
mas fresca, mas florida?" For these words, Mr. Jabaan has substituted "nagin
bantugan man liwat in maugop kun maoripon ka hin kasamok." is this
translating or reinventing? I would have wanted to ask Berliner Beneto Co by
what measure did he rate the work of Mr. Jabaan for it to earn an "excellent
translation" rating, but I know that his pc has been silenced by his refusal
to comment further.
As we carefully go over the rest
of Mr. Jabaan's translation (which I cannot discuss in detail for want of
space), we will find Mr. Jabaan in most instances, paraphrasing,
summarizing, creating, reinventing and putting forth his own interpretation
of Rizal's opus but clearly not TRANSLATING, in contrast to what Derbyshire
and Lozada did in the English translations. Where has the imagery created by
the words "el sitio nada importa, cipres, laurel, o lirio" gone? Two tenets
in PROPER translation mandate us to maintain the form used by the original
writer and simply translate the words as they appear in the original. How
can anyone who knows Spanish and Binisaya (not Waray, as Professor Cesar
would have despised the word to indicate our literary tradition and
language) be so blind as to overlook these transgressions in translation?
What Mr. Jabaan did was to interpret Rizal's work and create his own form
and version of it. Rating this kind of work as "excellent translation" is
not only pretentious but more so condescending and patronizing. Contrary to
what Berliner Beneto Co would wish to picture of me, I do subscribe that
publishing "creative outsputs by talented Samarenos" will enhance the
development of Samarnon (again, not Waray) literature, but the key words are
creative works and talented individuals. Berliner Beneto Co may have
misjudged the work of Martin Luther on the Bible, but I still believe that
Berliner Beneto Co's rating of "excellent translation" to Mr. Jabaan's work
is pure and simple patronage.. While he feels disgusted of Filipinos who are
"loud" and talk too much in symposia (as they may be "vexations to the
spirit"), he nevertheless gloats over those who offer outputs of their work
- no matter what the quality in form and substance - as in Mr. Jabaan's
case. If Berliner Beneto Co allows his rating to stand (and I wonder if he
really did go over the translation and understood every Bisayan word in it)
because a highly "biased and prejudiced" reader made some "destructive"
comments and "ridiculed
I can understand A. Morales'
concern that Mr. Jabaan has as much right to translate Rizal's work as
anybody else, including Desiderata, but he must have considered the
aesthetic and technical merits of Mr. Jabaan's work. May I ask A. Morales if
he thinks Mr. Jabaan's translation of Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios is deserving
of being proclaimed as the official Samarnon translation, or of being
forgotten as one amateurish attempt at translation?
Incidentally, Desiderata is Latin
for "things that are to be desired" or "mga butang nga sadang hingyapon."
Thank you, Mr. Ray Gaspay, for
giving equal space to my riposte to Berliner Beneto Co's "last farewell."
Subject:
Sulibang ko pa man...
Name: Doming Q. Cabanganan
Address: 10 Smoketree CT, Lafayette, CA 94549
Email:
domijunssc@yahoo.com
Telephone: 9252567870
Date: May 19, 2009
Mga Kababayan,
Maupay nga takna ha aton ngatanan
hain kaman nga daplin han kalibutan...
An kabaskug han usa nga nasud na
depende han kabaskug han sosiedad; an kabaskug han sociedad, na sarig han
kabaskug han iya familia, diin an fundasyon nasarig han tinuod nga pagkilala,
kahadlok, paghigugma han aton mahal nga DIYOS nga makagarahom ug magburohat
han ngatanan....Ngani besan ha baraan nga kasuratan na sering, SEEK YE FIRST
THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND EVERYTHING WILL BE GIVEN UNTO YOU. Waray an tawo
mahihimo nga kaupayan kun waray tugot an Ginoo. Ug an DIYOS na bulig han
tawo nga nabulig ha iya ngahaw. Waray na yana na hulog nga mana tikang ha
langit. Hadto la adto han panahon ni Moses while traversing ha desierto han
Egypt.
Salit kita nga mga taga Samar,
labi na jud an mga KABUS UG MGA TIMAWA... magsumikap tayong lahat. Ayaw na
kita pa owat, pag sarig ha mga TRAPOS, Traditional Politicians, diin na
parayaw kunohay pagbulig labi na kun harani na an elections. Kairo man
naton,labi na an mga KABUS UG MGA TIMAWA, pag e-etsahe hen noodles labi na
kun mayda tunga kilo nga bugas gin babalyo na naton an aton sagrado nga
BOTOS upod na an aton KALAG...
Ano man an aton tama nga buhaton?
Pag buroblig kita, pagkaurusa kita pan limbasog kita tubtub han aton
makakaya sugad hadton mga ginbuhat han mga progresibo na yana nga mga nasud
sugad han Israel, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore ug iba pa. Ayaw na kita
hito nga pagka berobingkil, aro-araway kay waray hito maupay nga dadangatan.
Sering han mga kalagsan... PAG NAG-ARAWAY AN MGA KAMANAMPAN KAIRO HAN
KABANWAAN.
Kadam-an han aton mga ahensya ha
gobierno nabulig pag pa uswag han aton katawhan. Kinahanglan la nga maaram
kita makigkita hini nga mga ahensya sugad han DTI, BFAR, o besan an
magkalainlain nga banko sugad han LDP, Allied, BDO.
Ha akon pagsabot, an Chairman han
bag-o nga na organized nga SMED Council amo he Vice Gov Jess Redaja.
Pakigkitae niyo kay, I know, mabulig ito hiya. Besan hadto nga diri pa hiya
politiko, talaga mabuligon na, asay pa yana. Kun dida man ha DTI, aada liwat
here Engr. Malou Macabare, hera Ariel Donceras ug labi na gud iton guapo ug
matinambuligon nga provincial DTI Director. Kun dida naman ha Samar
Provincial Chamber of Commerce and Industry, aada hera Ms. Lourdes Singzon,
Stanly & Asan ha Luisa Tan Hardware. Tungod kay kulang na panahon, magkita
kita liwat sunod...
Subject:
From Tim Montes on Translation....
Name: A. Morales
Email:
Date: May 17, 2009
It is funny that
we are debating what the best translation is of Rizal's majestic obra.
Here's Tim Montes, a pure waray literary master. Maybe we should all bow
down to Tim's brilliance instead of insisting on our own. – A. Morales
TIMOTHY R. MONTES
On Style in Translation
A funny thing happened while I was
in the middle of my translation project. The author of one of the stories I
was translating, Don Pagusara, arrived from Davao and decided to live with
me for five days as he waited for the Palanca awarding ceremonies on
September 1, 2004. His short story “Talia Migrante” which I had decided to
translate for my class in Literary Translation had won second prize in that
year’s Palanca derby. While living and interacting with Don may have been a
good opportunity for me to be able to capture the author’s sensibility
(inasmuch as translation is a form of re-dreaming the poet’s dream), I found
myself more embarrassed than pleased at this turn of events.
Sure I learned more about Don
Pagusara as a person—his biography, his politics, his three marriages, even
his physical ailments at 65 years old--- but even in the personal intimacy
and friendship that developed, I could not muster the courage to tell him
that I was translating his story to English. I myself am a writer in English
(or as Jimmy Abad chooses to call it, from English) and I know that Don
himself is a very good translator of works from other languages to Cebuano.
(According to a poet-friend of mine, Don’s translation to Cebuano of the
short story “In the Village Called Talim” by Aida Rivera Ford (1) is better
than the original, but I did not like his English translations of his own
poems from Cebuano.) Why, then, was I reluctant to share my translation with
him? More than the fear of being criticized by the author for failing to do
justice to his work, I felt that I had as much claim to my translation now
as the author had over the original. It felt like I had given birth to a
story of my own, not merely a shadow of the original.
If there was one crucial thing
that I realized in the process, it was the realization that translation is
not a mechanical act. It is as creative as any original work that a writer
undertakes. This insight was further bolstered by my post-translation
assessment of my work. After translating the three stories from Cebuano to
English, I reread them with a sense of personal claim over them. The voice,
the style, was mine, not the authors’ anymore. It was as if I could identify
my own writerly voice in my work. Even if the stories had different
narrators, even if they were written by different writers (two by young
women and one by the sexagenarian Don), I could identify my own verbal tics
and stylistic flourishes. The rhythms were mine. Sometimes, I could even
claim some original imagery in my effort to achieve equivalent literary
effects. My penchant for using subordinate clauses, my use of parenthetical
clauses --- all these I could identify as my own stylistic fingerprint.
Compare the original and my
translated version of the first few sentences of Blanch Gutib’s “Si Ate Weng,
Si Mama, ug Ako”:
Sa pagkakita
nako sa reaksyon ni Ate Weng sa dihang nasayran niya ang pagkamatay ni Kuya
Noel, unang nisulod sa akong hunahuna si Mrs. Mallard nga nabasa nako sa
sugilanon nga gisulat ni Kate Chopin. Lahi ra ang gipakita ni Ate Weng kon
itandi sa gipakita sa ubang tawo nga anaa sa iyang kiliran. Gigakos siya ni
Mama, dungan silang nanghilak, pero nagsiga ang mga mata ni Ate Weng. Murag
gipugngan nga motulo ang iyang luha.
As I watched Ate Weng’s reaction
to the news of Kuya Noel’s death, I remembered the character of Mrs. Mallard
in the story by Kate Chopin. Compared to the other relatives around her, Ate
Weng seemed to take the news of her husband’s death with more equanimity.
Mama hugged her while crying, but Ate Weng, eyes almost bulging in the
effort to keep back her tears, remained dry-eyed.
In the second sentence of my
translation, I started with an introductory subordinate phrase that is
unlike the rhythm of the source text. The word “equanimity” is my own
addition and not found in the Cebuano. In the third sentence, “eyes bulging
in the effort to keep back the tears” is a parenthetic phrase, creating a
peculiar rhythmic effect quite different from the original. It was my own
stylistic decision to create tension and firmness in that sentence, instead
of hewing close to the prose style of the original.
Often in translation studies, what
is emphasized is the literary style of the author which has to be
approximated, echoed, formally imitated by the translator. But translation
(literally “to ferry across”) (2) is such a strange process, and I would
make the dangerous claim there is enough room for originality in translation
as there is in creative writing. If one uses the analogy of “ferrying
across,” I’d say that the translator starts out with the same cargo, but by
the time he/she arrives at the other shore the cargo will have inevitably
transmuted into something else. If the cargo happen to be mangoes, they can
get rotten in transit; a good translator, however, will arrive at the
destination with the fruits intact, even fuller and juicier. In fruits as in
translation, ripeness is all.
I think it is high time that focus
should also be given to the literary style of the translator. For it is now
a truism that a translation is a different order from the original, and I
think it might even be possible for a translation to be “better” than the
original. For while it is true that there will be an inevitable loss in the
process of translation, there is also something gained in the rendering of a
work in another language. A superb translator can render a new verbal,
imaginative reality totally different from the original even if the same
content or invariable matter is concerned.
For isn’t it true that the
literary style of Constance Garnett is as present in her translations of
Russian literary masterpieces? The novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo
Tolstoy have the same sound and verbal tics and tonal register because what
comes out is Garnett’s voice that weaves through the warp and woof of the
translated work. If one wants to experience the authentic style of Tolstoy,
one should go to the original; the translated work is as much the style of
the translator as that of the author. When we read One Hundred Years of
Solitude, we are getting the style of Gregory Rabassa as much as that of
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My impression of the ponderousness of German
literature comes from H. T. Porter Lowe as a translator, not necessarily
that of Thomas Mann in the original.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons
why there have been controversies between writers and translators.
Milan Kundera is a Czech writer
who, after the Spring Revolution in Prague during the sixties, chose to live
in exile in Paris rather than stay on in his home country under Soviet
regime. It was around this time that he, by choice, started writing novels
in French. By the 1980s, when his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being
was made into a movie, he became a literary celebrity. However, when his
novel was translated into Czech by a countryman of his, he repudiated the
translation because, according to him, he could not see himself in the
translation. The result of this controversy has been tragic: his own books
until this time cannot be read by his countrymen (Nehring 67).
This, then, my dear Kundera, is my
point. Style is not a mere verbal ostentation, like icing to the cake.
“Style,” according to the French critic de Buffon, “is the man” (qtd. in
Xiaoshu and Dongming), and the translator cannot really reproduce the
writer. Even writers, if they decide to do their own translations, will only
be frustrated by this effort of reproducing themselves in another language.
In the effort, they will end up like a puppet trying to sound like the
ventriloquist. Translation is really an act of re-writing, not a computer
program that automatically transcribes words into another language. The
translator, then, can only reproduce himself because a system of stylistic
cloning has not been developed yet.
For exactly what is it that a
translator tries to imitate in the original--- the rhythms, the syntax, or
the sentence lengths? Prose style is something slippery and, in fact,
inimitable. Virginia Woolf, that great prose stylist of the
stream-of-consciousness, pinned down style to rhythm: “Style is a very
simple matter,” she wrote. “It is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t
use the wrong word” (qtd. in Yagoda 25). From a writerly perspective, this
is, indeed, a simple matter, but from a translator’s perspective, it is not.
Can the same rhythms be captured when one uses another language? Each
language imposes its own sound-sense such that fluidity in, say, Proust’s
Remembrance of Things Past in French can become floridity in English if the
syntax would be preserved. English that tries to sound French is not French
but awkward English.
If de Buffon is right, style
cannot be imitated because a man cannot be duplicated. In the 19th century,
Macaulay was the literary craze in England, which resulted in a host of
other writers who imitated his sentence structures and rhythms. The critic
George Lewes had this to say about Macaulay’s prose imitators: “They cannot
seize the secret of his charm, that charm that lies in the felicity of his
talent, not in the structure of his sentences; in the fullness of his
knowledge, not in the character of his illustration” (qtd. in Yagoda 229).
Yagoda, the contemporary expert on literary style, comments further that
imitation, whether by translators or by copy-cat writers, is a futile act.
“Imitation of Marlon Brando,” he says, “will only be impersonation good for
party laughs, and not much else” (229).
Perhaps it would be better to look
at literature as a performative art, not as an iconographic codal medium.
The critic J.O Urmson opines that literature is closer to music than to any
other art form. Unlike film or sculpture or painting, we don’t get what we
see in literature. Literature is just a set of instructions for the actual
performance of the imagination (329).
Analogously, a musical score is
not music per se but mere notations on the page that need to be performed by
a pianist, violinist, or guitarist. A musician has to interpret/bring to
auditory reality the musical notations of, say, Beethoven in the Kreutzer
Sonata. Every reader looking at words on the page is like a performer, with
the imagination as a flexible instrument.
Along this vein, I would like to
think of translation as a form of musical re-arrangement that would bring
different harmonics, tone colorings, and emotional textures to an original
piece of composition. This is necessary in order bring out the peculiar
qualities of language, in the same way that a different arrangement is
needed for a solo flute compared to an original version of the music
composed for a string quartet by Mozart. The translator is a verbal
musician, trying to suit the sonorousness of language to different
instruments. The worst kind of translation is one so faithful to the
original that it doesn’t make sense anymore in the new language. The violin
is made to sound like a sliding trombone.
Between the ego of the writer and
the freedom of the translator to create something new based on the original,
I cast my ballot in favor of the latter. A dead composer cannot dictate to a
musician how the music ought to be interpreted. Every pianist has a
signature touch, and who can say if Cecil Licad’s interpretation of
Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on Theme by Paganini is inferior to the
interpretation of Rachmaninoff himself?
Sometimes, I think that Saul
Bellow’s translation of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story “Gimpel the Fool” is
stylistically the translator’s---- the jumpy ease of the voice, the syntax
that calls to mind Bellow’s own novels like Henderson the Rain King or The
Adventures of Augie March. It is only in this particular story by Bashevis
Singer, thanks to the translator, that I feel the energy and humor of
Yiddish American spirit. His other stories translated by others don’t have
the same zing and vigor. If I decide to read the latest translation of
Mann’s Death in Venice it will be to experience the hand of the translator
in the same way that I try to feel the hand of a new director when I watch a
remake of an old movie. To compare it to the original would only end in
dissatisfaction and frustration. (3)
The spirit of reading translation,
then, should not be that of always looking for correspondences with the
original. In his poem “On First Looking on Chapman’s Homer” John Keats
couldn’t have experienced the exhilaration of a translation if he kept
looking at Chapman as a cheap imitation of Homer’s original. Instead, he
created new metaphors for the experience to make us understand how the
freshness and vigor of the original was embodied in the translation.
According to him, he felt like a “watcher of the skies” (astronomer)
watching a new planet “swim into his ken” (discovery) and ends the poem with
a caesura, a long pause to approximate the feeling of the Spanish explorer
on top of the mountain when he first saw the Pacific Ocean---- “Silent upon
a peak in Darien.”
In translation, the creation of
new metaphors is an active process that makes each sentence, each image,
each sonic tonality a process of creation by the literary translator. The
translator is an artist, not a transcriber, and as such is entitled to his
or her own style.
It is in this spirit that I
present my translation of three stories about women from Mindanao. It is not
an anthology of contemporary short stories written by different writers from
Mindanao, more like my collection of stories which I happened to co-author
with three other writers.
The ferryboat has docked, I have
come upon a fresh horizon, and I hope the mangoes in the cargo hold are ripe
enough for eating in this new land.
NOTES:
(1) This
translation is included in Aida Rivera Ford’s short story collection Born in
the Year 1900, UP Press, 2000.
(2) The word comes from the ablative of the Latin word ferre, which means to
move to another point. It is the same root word as “ferry.”
(Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary of the English Language
Unabridged)
(3) The idea of translation as a form of re-writing/re-interpretation is
evident in the latest translation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. In a
recent Salon.com review of the translation made by UCLA linguist Michael
Henry Heim, the reviewer has this to say about the translation: “Heim has
thrown open the windows of Aschenbach's gloomy hotel and let the sea breezes
in….Aschenbach seems like a
more comprehensibly human and sympathetic character here, and Mann's ironic
treatment of him less overtly cruel (and frankly funnier), than in H.T.
Lowe-Porter's deeply coded, overly British translation. Mann's dense,
overgrown language feels lighter, more burnished with Venetian beauty, than
ever before in English.” As such, the homoerotic element in the novella
becomes clearer in the recent translation.
WORKS CITED:
- Nehring,
Christina. "The Unbearable Slightness: Why Do We Love Milan Kundera Again?"
Harper’s Nov. 2002: 66-69.
- O’Hehir, Andrew. “Just How Gay Is Death in Venice? A homoerotic "master
text" or a cryptic parable of art, arrogance and self-deception? A fresh
translation helps pry Thomas Mann's classic from too-literal
interpretation.” Salon Magazine Online. 10 Aug. 2004. Available here.
- Urmson, J.O. “Literature as a Performing Art.” In Aesthetics: A Reader in
Philosophy of the Arts. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997, pp. 323-330.
- Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary of the English Language
Unabridged. Springfield, Mass.: Webster’s, 1993.
- Xiaoshu, Song and Cheng Dongming. “Translation of Literary Style.”
Translation Journal 7. 1 (January 2003). Online. Available here.
- Yagoda, Ben. The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing. N.Y.:
HarperCollins, 2004.
Subject:
On the translation of Rizal's work...
Name: A. Morales
Email:
Date: May 15, 2009
I am amazed how an innocent (or
was it calculated) try of Mr. Jabaan to translate the work of Rizal into
Waray has created quite a stir in this forum. Let me just add a few points
on this seemingly hot topic.
One, I challenge Desiderata to
come up with his own version of Rizal's "Mi Ultimo Adios." From then, we
could judge who has the better version. I would ask the indulgence of Mr.
Adelbert Batica to do the judging since he is an expert both in Spanish and
in Winaray Samarnon. The basis of judging will be more on what version
closely resemble the meaning of the original poem of Rizal. To tell you,
even in Samar Island alone, there would be multiple variations since
Samarnon Westehanon is slightly different to Samarnon Estehanon or to
Samarnon Nortehanon or to Samarnon Calbayognon. Even within the Westehanon
sub-group the Basaynons will have a little bit of different translation to
that of a Catbaloganon. Translation is a difficult process the same way that
a great novel cannot be easily captured in film.
Just like the Bible, there a
number of English versions that you could choose from. There's the old King
James Version, there's the New International Version, there's the Today's
English Version, there's the Contemporary English Version, and so on and so
forth. The purpose always is to make it more understandable to the reader
while at the same time preserve the true meaning of the original work.
Second, I would suggest that
Desiderata and Mr. Jabaan should not be swallowed by argumentum ad hominem
by throwing bricks at each other. Desiderata and Mr. Jabaan are both
unknowns in the literary world so they should not be saying words that would
attack the person since they do not know each other. Mr. Jabaan's curriculum
vitae in front of his work is not necessary to my estimation because I am
not impressed with those credentials but I am impressed with the time and
talent he had poured to come up with a wonderful translation of Rizal's
work. Desiderata should not also equate himself with Rizal's literary genius
because he is not. He needs to publish his works first and pass the litmus
test of literary criticism before all of us can say that he has the caliber
of Rizal.
Third, let our criticism be more
for the betterment of the final output. If Desiderata is indeed equipped to
critique then he should do it point by point. And, Mr. Jabaan should be open
to well-thought criticism and answer the points raised. If our criticism is
only aimed at eroding the confidence of the other person then it is useless
and harmful. Remember that people have egos. They do not want to be told
that their work is wrong. So, my first suggestion is still the best solution
to this word war: output versus output.
Thank you!
Subject:
Answer to Desiderata's comment
Name: Beneto Co
Address: Berlin
Email:
bing_co06@yahoo.com
Telephone: 01737678842
Date: May 12, 2009
1) About my opinion on Jabaan’s
translation. Of course it is my personal assessment but it is an objective
and fair one that is based on my years of translation work. In fact, I do
not know him. In contrast, your criticism of his work is more of a personal
opinion laced with bias and ridicule. Objective and constructive criticisms
are vital to any field of endeavour but personal attacks disguised as
comments are destructive. May I add that you don’t need to believe in what I
have done. It is not necessary.
2) On conservatory of music etc.
You must have absorbed a lot of theories in college. In theory yes, but
reality is far from it. Enrico Caruso and Pavarotti remain the greatest
tenors of all time but they never entered a music conservatory. The same can
be said of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Schumann and other other great
composers. Even Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and our local singing
talents like Pilita, Nonoy Zuniga, Lea Salonga, Nora Aunor, Regine never
went to music conservatories. Formal schooling of course helps but talent is
the prime requisite. That is why, even without formal schooling, gifted
individuals in both the arts and the sciences have become extremely
successful. On the other hand, long formal schooling in the absence of
talent produces only mediocre professionals. This is true to all academic
fields. Just look around you, how many of those who graduated with a
creative writing degree or any other degree course have made it big? You
will be dismayed to find only a few.
But since you “visiously disagree”
that there is no proper way to translate, let’s be specific. Kindly
translate “properly” to Waray the following lines from Desiderata: “Speak
your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and
the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexation to the spirit.” I bet your translation is as good or bad
as mine. For there will never be a proper translation of these lines. There
can be a good or accurate one, meaning that it is able to capture the
original meaning intended by Max Ehrmann in 1927. Only Mr. Ehrmann knows the
real meaning behind the lines. Any translation is merely an approximation.
Language is a reflection of culture, traditions, environment, and people’s
interests and reasons at a given time. Because of this it is not easy to
find a word with exactly the same meaning as another word in another
language.
3) On Martin Luther. You misread
me. I did not unfairly misjudge Martin Luther. In fact, I praised him. By
the way, I must know something about him. I did a postgraduate thesis on
some works of Martin Luther. But I will not say anything more on this since
it is beside the real point.
4) On traumatic moments inside a
lecture room. You did not only misjudge me, you also underestimated me.
Please never underestimate strangers. I would not have pursued advanced
degrees abroad for 12 years if I did have traumatic moments at school. On
the contrary, I think it is you who have been badly influenced by an
arrogant college professor. As a student, I met many of them in Diliman.
Unfortunately, humility is something unknown to the typical college teacher
in some popular universities in the country. Sadly this arrogance is
transmitted to the students who wrongly believe that it is a sign of
greatness.
5) On courses such as Literary
Criticism. I agree with you of course. But the point that I strongly believe
in is that attending formal school is not the only way to learn new
knowledge and special skills. It is not the only way to nurture your
talents. In many cases, it is the “learning by doing” especially under the
guidance of a supportive mentor (in the workplace or anywhere) that can be
more decisive and effective. Goethe, Shakespeare, Marx, Hugo, Kant, and
Asimov never attended the college courses you have mentioned but you know
who they are and what they achieved in life.
6) That patronizing mediocrity
will only stagnate Samar. I do not agree with you that Jabaan’s work is
trash and that it will stagnate Samar. I do not believe that publishing
creative outputs by talented Samarenos will stagnate Samar. I’m sorry but I
don’t get the logic. On the contrary, it is the biased and personal attacks
on budding artists and professionals by people who pretend to be experts
that is detrimental to Samar’s development since it discourages the young
undiscovered talents to come out. Samar needs its sons and daughters who
have been successful in their professions to support, encourage, and guide
promising talents.
I will tell you a bad news: You
know Filipinos are starting to be known in international scientific and
professional circles as good only at talking. This is because many Filipinos
who attend international professional conferences would try to impress the
audience by being loud during open fora and discussions (like what is common
in seminars and conferences here in the country). Many of them fail to
realize that outside the Philippines everyone is judged by his/her output
like scholarly publications and not by what he or she says about others’
works.
So I challenge you Desiderata,
whoever you are, to show us your output. Make your own translation of Mi
Ultimo Adios and let us see if indeed you can turn the theories you have
learned (or have been teaching your students) in the classroom into
practice. Prove to us that you can produce a better translation and not just
a trash as you call it. That is the only way. Otherwise your biased attacks
on Jabaan’s work will be nothing but mere yearnings of an envious and
frustrated person. I will mention the obvious: to create our own scholarly
work is damn harder than criticising other’s work. Award-winning writer
Roger Ebert once wrote: “Those who can do it, do it. Those who can’t do it,
criticize.”
(Note to the
editor: I hope you would give space to this message which I consider
important for all readers of Samar News. This will be my last comment on
this topic. Thank you very much.)
Subject:
Mi ltimo Adios Rewind
Name: DesiDeRata
Address: Catbalogan, Samar
Email:
Date: 8 May 2009
Berliner Beneto Co's feelings
towards Mr. Jabaan's translation is undoubtedly a personal one, but his
views on translations should be viewed professionally, if I am to believe in
his claims to have translated works from Spanish and German to English.
I may agree with him that there is
no single way (or style) to translate a literary work, but I viciously
disagree that there is neither a proper way to translate it. It is like
valuing graphite for diamonds. A singer who has taken voice lessons, or who
graduated in a conservatory of music, surely will have richer quality,
better techniques and far-reaching range than one whose only credentials are
awards won in amateur singing contests. Berliner Beneto Co may have
forgotten that the reformist Martin Luther was a monk who studied Latin and
whose training included transcribing and translating hundreds and thousands
of works. His skills were not honed in a matter of months. These were
products of years and years of training. Thus, it is unfair to misjudge
Luther's translation of the Bible as one that did not undergo the rudiments
of proper training in translation.
It is likewise disheartening to
read from Berliner Beneto Co that attending lectures and courses will only
produce mimics and copycats out of those who attend them. I can only surmise
that he may have had traumatic moments inside a lecture room or his teachers
may have been "ogres" of sorts leaving him with the thought that school is a
place where one becomes a rigid conformist. Enrolling in courses such as
literary criticism, comparative literature and creative writing allows you
to assess your strengths and weaknesses and develop your potentials as a
writer. The lectures can only serve as guide or benchmarks for you to
observe, the style will still be yours to develop. Berliner Beneto Co should
realize that patronizing mediocrity such as, in my "harsh personal opinion,"
the "trash" translation of Mr. Jabaan is counterproductive and will only
stagnate Samarnon Literature. The main reason why Tagalog, Iloka
Subject:
Mr. Jabaan's "Katapusan Ko Nga Panamilit"
Name: Beneto Co
Address: Berlin
Email:
bing_co06@yahoo.com
Telephone: 01737672488
Date: 5 May 2009
I wish to congratulate Mr. Jaba-an
for his excellent translation of Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios. I do not
agree with the anonymous reader "Desiderata". There is neither a single nor
a proper way to translate a literary work since every translator puts
his/her own interpretation and artistic touch into every work that he/she
translates. In fact, this is true to all kinds of works whether literary or
scientific.
In my view, Mr. Jaba-an was very
successful in translating Rizal's work. The harsh suggestion by Desiderata
for Mr. Jaba-an "to attend a course on translation" is like telling him to
learn how the lecturer of that course does it his own way. Also, it is
implying that the lecturer of that course has the monopoly of the best way
to translate literary works. History tells us that the greatest translators
did not have formal training in translations. To cite the best example,
Martin Luther translated the most important written work, the bible, from
Latin into German. I have not found any evidence about any seminar on
translations that Martin Luther attended before he translated the bible. The
only requirement for anybody to be a good translator is talent, diligence,
and of course mastery of the languages of interest.
PS: By the way, I am a native of
Samar and have translated written works from Spanish and German to English.
I am based in Europe.
Subject:
DANGPANAN... its mission
Name: Franny "Kiko" Catayong
Address: New York, USA
Email:
catfranz2501@hotmail.com
Date: May 3, 2009
As the word implies it is where we
seek refuge. That's the name of the Student Association of Eastern Samar
National Comprehensive High School in Borongan. Fittingly so because its
main objective is to promote, enhance and foster the development and
improvement of the quality of life of members, while at the same time
assisting its Alma Mater in addressing some of its problems in any humble
way possible. In its infancy of existence the Incorporators and Members have
already initiated discussions with the leadership of the school on how
Dangpanan will be of assistance to tackle the enormous problems the school
is currently at a crossroad. The discussions were very positive and with the
help of everyone, not only the current students and former students, but the
whole community and even those who are not residing in Eastern Samar, who
embrace the principles of unity, togetherness and upliftment of the way of
life we all share, the odds are in our favor. By the way, Dangpanan
Association of Concerned Students of ESNCH, Inc. is a duly registered
Non-Profit, Non-Sectarian organization with SEC Reg No. CN200817732,
approved on November 11, 2008.
Therefore, we are appealing to
everyone to help us achieve our objectives. However, to those who disagree
with the association's existence and its ideas, I dare you to challenge us
in a CONSTRUCTIVE WAY, NOT IN A WAY YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT NOW. It won't
further your cause because the more you hate Dangpanan, the more other
people will realize you are just a bump along the way, or, let may say it
more nicely, "You really have done nothing before Dangpanan came into being
to help the Alumni and the school itself and you will never achieve in
destroying the Association because you work with your mouth not with your
accomplishment...or do you have one for the school or Alumni?". Dangpanan
is, and will always be the Flagship of Unity, Hope and Inspirations for
those people seeking refuge, and the feeling of security as a member of the
Student Association and the community in general.
When I came to visit the school
after 37 years last year, I was so excited to meet old friends, classmates
and my original mentors and was really happy to have met with them and enjoy
that moment. Special mention to Mr. Jess Robin and wife Cynthia, Mr. Gau
Garfin, Dr. Franny Cabalonga, Ms. Clara Aljibe, Mrs. Nilda Corado, Mrs.
Amparo Gillo, and of course Mrs. Eunice Montes, who is just like a mother to
me.
Again, having given the honor to
come back to ESNCHS as Keynote Speaker of this year's 38th Commencement
Exercises, I was even more excited to meet the whole school's staff and the
students where I was once, one of them and reminisce the days of my
adolescense in the old Provincial High. However, I was really surprised why
some people, especially those supposedly, well educated Alumni have
conducted themselves not in cognizance with those education they possessed
but in a manner not practiced by even lowly educated people by using the
Homecoming Event on April 18 to malign, degrade and slander Dangpanan and
its Incorporators and Members. The role of those people was, supposedly, to
accept the "Sponsorship for the 2010 Alumni Homecoming" but what they
did?...I already mentioned it earlier. Are these people worth the authority
of being leaders, wherein their followers will look upon them for good
examples... or what were their motives of using the Homecoming to show to
the world of their true selves. Are they Jealous, Insecure, Greedy or what?
My friends you know the answer... We have nothing to do with their own
organization, its even more exciting if they already have... But be careful
in chosing them to lead you, you might end up somewhere you won't really
like. What have they accomplished for the school and the Alumni? I believe
Leadership must come through good deeds, not using her/his BIG MOUTH so much
in destroying others. Like some of your politicians, they are the cause of
hardships and missery in your community, my community, my province and my
Borongan. Tulad ng nabasa ko na slogan ng politician, naka tayo malapit sa
school dyan sa Borongan na nagsasabi "LABANAN ANG KAHIRAPAN". Ang totoo nyan
SILA ANG DAPAT NINYONG LABANA DAHIL SILA ANG SANHI NG KAHIRAPAN. Therefore,
I am appealing to all Alumni to join Dangpanan's cause to Unite and Achieve
our Obectives and Never again use the "Alumni Homecoming" as an avenue of
divisiveness and hate, INSTEAD OF USING THE EVENT TO CELEBRATE. After all, I
believe, most i
I hope I was able to enlighten
those who were caught offguard and don't share the same attitude by the
malicious and scandalous message made by some disillusioned, supposedly
leaders. DON'T FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLES, I KNOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN THEM...I
PROMISE, YOU WILL BE BETTER OFF IF YOU STAY AWAY FROM THOSE KIND OF LEADERS.
In my own humble way, I remain as your friend even to those still trying to
know me. You won't regret becoming my friend... you can ask those in
Borongan who have known me better and believes in me. I don't pretend to
know everything like others... because I don't, no body does. But we don't
want anybody destroying others and the Association, because Dangpanan is a
legitimate organization and we will fight whatever it takes. With
HUMILITY... Let others judge us be our accomplishments and our actions, not
by our BIG MOUTH... Thanks a lot.
Subject:
Pera Pera Lang Yan!!!
Name: Anti Corruption
Address: taga Lim-ao
Email:
blade_achilles@yahoo.com
Date: 04-16-09
Mahal naton na gobernadora (kun
may nag mamahal man) Mila Tan, kunta dire ka na gad madalagan hit 2010 na
eleksyon…kay maka luluoy na gud man hit Samar!! kay 2 na kamo na nagkakabo
hit kaban hit gobyerno, kaawod gad kamo intawon...amo la... salamat.
Subject:
Mi (not Me) Ultimo Adios Revisited
Name: DesiDeRata
Address: Catbalogan, Samar
Email:
Date: April 13, 2009
Surely, Mr. Jabaan is a "good
critic" because he is a "bad worker." And a good critic knows his standards.
In the case of Mr. Jabaan and his translation, however, no benchmarking was
done nor were references cited to situate and define the parameters of his
translations. It is sad that Mr. Jabaan missed (again) the point of the
feedback. It is even more unfortunate that he took the stride as personal
for the intentions were to illustrate, as burlesk, the literary skills
demanded of translators. It is not enough that you are a native Waray
speaker for surely the same question will be asked of you - "if you are a
native Spanish speaker - the language by which the original work was
written?" In the end, what really Mr. Jabaan did was to translate into Waray
the English translation (was it Derbyshire's?) of Jose Rizal's opus. I stand
corrected. Instead of prodding him to take Translations 101, he should
matriculate in Translation 0 (Translating translations) under Dr. Genoteva
or Dr. Sugbo. Need I say more? P.S. Did Rizal not use Dimasalang and Laong
Laan as effective tools for reform? Please consider DesiDeRata in the same
genre.
Subject:
Me Ultimo Adios Revisited
Name: Mr. Zaldy Gabiana Jaba-an
Address: Barangay Canatu-an, Motiong, Samar
Email:
zjabaan@yahoo.com.ph
Telephone: 0916-257-7943
Date : 04/04/09
Para Han Komentaryo han nag-alyas
Desiderata, January 14, 2009 han Catbalogan Samar buot ko ipaabot ha imo nga
may puplonganon nga nasering, "A good critic is a bad worker!" Kay ano nga
diri ka mag-post han imo kalugaringon nga bersyon han Me Ultimo Adios?
Bangin nahihinaglimot ka nga orihinal ako nga Samarnon - may pagtamod ug
pagtahod han kalugaringon nga pinulongan! Komo Samarnon ayaw ta pagpasagdi
an inamasang ngan pagsaralakot han paggamit han aton linggwahe!
Ngan suliban ko, nag-alyas ka pa?
Kay-ano diri mo akos tindugan it imo mga pulong? Nanginginyupo ako nga kon
mahihimo ayaw anay igyakan it imo nahibabaruan, lugod klaruha anay it imo
nahibabaruan antis mo igyakan? Kay daw sugad man hin nasamad an akon
kasing-kasaing han imo komentaryo! Nagin personal man an imo komentaryo?
Bisan pa man, damo nga salamat...
Subject:
Seair Flights Manila Borongan
Name: M.
Address: K.
Email:
wutz90@eudoramail.com
Date: 02-16-09
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When Seair launched the first
flight from Manila to Borongan, the media was full with articles about this
event. Now it seems that Seair stopped to serve the route MNL - Borongan,
for economical reason. Now, nobody reports about it.
People should know about it and
also should get to know about the reasons. Why did Seair start to fly at
all? It was very clear before that not enough people would fly this route
due to high fares. Maybe a good journalist can inform the public about the
relation between Gov. Evardone and Seair Vice President Patrick Tan?
Subject:
Tan return to Capitol: What else is new?
Name: Santi Corsido
Address: Tacloban City
Email:
aniway_militante@yahoo.com
Date: 2-15-09
The return of Milagros Tan to her
post as governor of Samar after serving a 3-month suspension elicits more
questions than answers: So what now of the cases filed against her? Are
there now results of the investigation and/or judicial processes to ferret
out the truth about her unabated corruption? Have the government offices
e.g. Sandiganbayan, DILG, etc. tasked to pursue the cases against Tan
reached a conclusion? If there is none, then we can safely conclude that the
3-month suspension from office of Tan is enough sanction for the
multimillion funds that she stole from the public coffers? In such a case,
what else then is new?
The present dispensation-
including the national government is indeed infested with crooks, thieves
and liars! The Samarenos' agony continues as the malfeasance of government
officials like Tan just maginifies by leaps and bounds! It isn't surprising
that the only option for the people is to take up arms to put an end to all
these.
Subject:
Name: KablasLaGihapon
Address: Scandinavia
Email:
Date: Jan 30, 2009
Nabibido ako han panlantaw ni
Mr.Cel Coretana mahitungod han aton kabugtuan ha kabukiran. Daw sugad iya
gin-uubos an prinsipyo ngan kausa nga ginpapakigbisog han New People's Army.
Tuod ito nga papreho kita 'TAWO' ma riko o pobre man, pero kutob la ha
pagigin tawo kita nagpapapreho. Ini matungod nga ha presente nga sitwasyon,
an riko amo an nag-aamkon han ngatanan, ngan an pobre amo an nag-aantos ha
kadayunan.
Kinahanglan pa ngani kita
magpasalamat nga may-ada pa mga tawo nga diri nahadlok pakigbisog ha ngaran
han social justice, nga may-ada pa grupo nga naugop han pobre. Ini nga aton
mga kabugtu-an ha kabukiran, diri ini hira tanan parag-uma, kundi may-ada
mga tikang ha mga well-off nga pamilya. They are just bold enough ha
pagkarawat han kamatuoran nga an kalibutan o an Pilipinas in diri magigin
progresibo kon an singko porsyento la han populasyon an nag-tatag-iya han
aton karikuhan. Ngan diri ini hira MAKA-IYA! Ngan ini nga idelohiya Mr.
Coretana nga ira ginpapakigbisog in diri bulok ngan istupido kundi basi ini
ha Libro ngan ekperensiya...pagbasa daw anay hiton pilosopiya ni Fredrick
Engels ngan Karl Marx ngan an nagin ekperensiya nira Leon Trotsky ngan
Lenin.
An aton pagkatawo in diri
napoporma ha ngaran la han materyal nga karikuhan kundi ha dignidad ngan han
prinsipyo nga aton tinitindugan...an diri pagigin makaiya. Greed is the
source of all evil. Amo ini iton rason kay ano nga diri kita na asenso, DIRI
an New People's Army!
Subject:
Fact
finding kuno...
Name: Lyndo Cruz
Address: Calbayog City
Email:
lyndoncruz0826@yahoo.com
Date: 28 jan 2009
Here comes the Katungod-SB
again... pretending to be for the poor and for the opressed... well, nothing
has changed... she is still the master of story telling and tele-nobela that
of course, NPA is always the protagonist and AFP is the antagonist...
anything else?
I'll treat my whole circle of
friends if I see her doing things against NPA... But of course, that would
be nightmare because, she can't hurt the feelings of her brothers, right...
can see the context... that's it.. Kasamang Kathrina… hehehe...
Subject:
Tawo kita bilnga it kamatuoran han pagkatawo
Name: Cel Coretana
Address: Santa Rita, Samar
Email:
rodaezro@yahoo.com
Telephone: 1650-766-3171
Date: 01-28-09
Usa nga butang papreho la kita
tawo riko o pobre, hadto nga mga panahon bayae ta na ito. Mga NPA ayaw na
kamo pagpaowat hit iyo mga idolohiya. Mamatay kamo hit waray maibubulig hit
iyo kalugaringon nga pagkatawo. Guin himo kita han diyos ha kaupayan para ha
ngatanan dinhi ha kalibutan. Pero ayaw kamo pagsugot nga hingangadto kamo ha
kasisimdan. Ato kamo hit kamatooran han kanan diyos la. Ayaw kamo pagpauwat
hit ig kasi niyo tawo nga orowaton liwat. Bublig kita para hit kaupayan hit
at nasod nga Pilipinas. Pamamlitan nala hin-o hi Manny Paquiao nga usa na
yana numero ono nga tawo ha bug-os nga kalibutan. Ayaw kamo pagbisibis hit
iyo kalugaringon nga dugo hit nga mga tawo nga it ira ambisyon para la hit
ira kalugaringon.
