Here’s an interesting book and exhibition in Spain : Exposición Filipiniana. See the online gallery. And read John Silva’s review. There’s also a review in the Spanish newspaper El Pais. The Ayala Museum and the Ateneo de Manila University’s Art Gallery curator participated in the exhibition.
Courtesy of Eating the Sun: a new translation of Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere is going to be published by Penguin Classics. Rizal is the first Filipino author to be published by Penguin.
Sylvia Mayuga on how the internet serves as meditation room, Agora, and emergency room for Filipinos everywhere.
Roger L. Simon muses on planned government leaks and the role they play in media management.
Technobiography on establishing Wikis so local communities can participate in the drafting of legislation.
Something to strive for in The Philippine Presidency Project: (via Pajamas Media) a website “maps the corpus” of all American State of the Union addresses from 1790 to 2006.
The Sunday Punch of Pangasinan has an essay that takes a fond look at the elderly.
Technorati Tags: Philippines
Let’s do something unique with the “maps the corpus” idea. How about a map of where Philippine Presidents have been heckled..hahaha
Re: Noli by Penguin – Oh my God. National Bookstore had better be stocking this in the next few weeks.
Re Noli by Penguin: it’s already out, and yes it’s in National Bookstore.
It’s translated by Harold Augenbraum, apparently some expert on Latino-American literature (although he doesn’t seem to be Latino himself).
An American publisher published a translation during the eighties.Am not sure if it was also Penguin.
Oops! correction, I first saw the book dring the eighties but it was translated by Charles Derbyshire way back(1912)
Heard this personally from a prominent blogger (bato bato sa langit) that Guerrero’s translation to English is one of the worst. Is there any consensus on bad/good English translations of Noli/Fili?
mickety-
personally, i like the guerrero version, i find the soledad-locsin version heavy as lead and quite literal -“man!” for “hombre,” for example.
my father, who read the noli and fili in the original spanish, told me that rizal was marvelously witty as a satirist, and that any translation had to capture that essential flavor in rizal’s writing.
i haven’t read the derbyshire or bocobo translations, though. i suppose it depends on one’s criteria for translations: should they be literal, or attempt to capture the spirit of the work?
I found the Derbyshire translation on Project Gutenberg; haven’t been able to read through it yet, though. Speaking as a heretic, I would prefer to read a Noli translation that really lets Rizal cut loose at the shibboleths of his day – somehow that never came through at all when we were “learning” it in high school. So I’d guess mine would be a vote for “capture the spirit”. Does Guerrero come close? And, I wonder, how will the new Penguin translation measure up?
I enjoyed the Guerrero version, which should be the point of any translation, I’d think. It could be a problem with Filipino translators of Rizal is they view him with such awe and reverence that it becomes a kind of Biblical effort, which ignores the need for style. The new translation should be interesting in that respect (Jessica Hagedorn wrote a blurb praising the translation).
jhay: up, whether the old manila or diliman campus, would be the no. 1 heckling spot.
penguin’s noli is already out. saw it sa nbs sa podium about two or three weeks ago.
This is Harold Augenbraum, translator of Rizal’s Noli by Penguin. I do not consider myself an “expert” on U.S. Latino literature, though I have edited six books on the topic and written essays about it myself.
I agree with the person who wrote that Rizal wrote with great wit, and I tried to capture it in my translation. My favorite part is during the great Damaso sermon, when the friar ends with “It is manifest, manifest, manifest!” and a dozing liquor salesman things the customs officials are after him for a customs manifest and runs off.
I have spent the past 13 years trying to get a new translation into print. I was dissatisfied with past translations. Rizal is a hero of mine, not for his political engagement, but for his erudition and artistic accomplishments. It was a labor of love, and I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to send me any comments you have about the translation.
Depends, Harold. Do we get a discount? 😉 Just kidding. Looking forward to reading your translation.
Googled “Exposicion Filipina” and found this page expecting a historical account. What I probably should’ve been looking for was Exposicion Regional Filipina” — any idea where I could get info on that?
Specifically, I’m tracing a bakery / candy factory that won a medal… I’d like to get details of what the award was about and for what product in particular.
On the Augenbraum translation. Would have helped if Harold consulted Tagalog speakers. Some Tagalog words glossed would have been much clearer. Can’t comment on the “fidelity” itself of the translation. Still hoping to read the original before I could do that.