[MV] Deokman & Bidam 다시 만나러 갑니다 (by 적혈야화)

Ang Asno at ang Bumili rito

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Today, I translated another work which still features a donkey. This is the third time and I hope that you will like it. According to the source I saw, the moral lesson here is that a man is known by the company he keeps or is it a donkey? In the story, the donkey joined "the one that was most idle and the greatest eater of them all." Below is the translation:

Isang tao ang nagnanais na bumili ng isang asno. Nakipagkasundo ito sa may-ari na susubukin muna ang hayop bago bilhin. Iniuwi niya ang asno at inilagay sa bakurang nilatagan ng dayami kasama ang iba pang asno. Doon, bumukod itong asno sa karamihan at sumama sa isa na pinaka batugan at pinaka matakaw sa lahat. Nakita ito ng amo at nilagya ang asno ng tali. Matapos ay dinala nito pabalik sa may-ari. Sa pagtatanong kung bakit, sa maikling panahon ay nasuri na ito, sinabi ng tao na, "Hindi ko kailangan ng pagsusuri; alam ko ng magiging katulad lang iyan ng sinamahan niyan."

After you read the above, I want to share my experience with this particular work and some of the highlights of the text. First of all, the number of sentences in the original (then again maybe not) and my own words differs. The Filipino translation have seven sentences in all compare to only four on the source. As always, it is a challenge for me and I guess for other translators out there to grasp the essence of the original and transfer it to the translation without compromising the intelligibility of the work. What I did was to divide the thoughts in the source to the nearest possible fragments ready for translation. I did this because the source have either compound sentences or complex sentence or both. Another thing that I want to mention is my lack of Filipino vocabulary related to the farm or countryside. The appearance of the straw-yard in the source gave me at least and hour of headache just to find and appropriate equivalent. After that, I gave up and just wrote a phrase which hopefully best describe a straw-yard. This work gave me an assignment to search for specific words in Tagalog or Filipino (if any). By the way, I live in the Manila so don't blame me for lacking on countryside words. Anyway, I promise to make it up for you.

Now, let us go to the icing. The first word to highlight is nagnanais which means to like or to wish. I prefer this over gusto which is a word borrowed from Spanish. Although gusto is more popular these days, I am promoting our own. I cannot consider myself a purist. It is just that nagnanais sounds nice so why have an alternative. Nakipagkasundo is the past tense of the verb to agree with. It is interesting that this word is derived from sundo. Sundo from the other hand means either the verb to fetch or the one whose duty is to fetch. Thinking of this, maybe an agreement or kasunduan expect an action from either party or something like this. May-ari means owner. It is from the word ari-arian which means property. May, not the English May (either the month or the auxiliary verb) indicates existence or possession. Having this in mind, it is safe to say that may-ari is the one who possess properties. And before I forget, ari is also used in Filipino as a euphemism for the genitals of both sexes.

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Infolinks

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These links are part of a pay per click advertising program called Infolinks. Infolinks is an In Text advertising service: they take my text and create links within it. If you hover with your mouse over these double underlined links, you will see a small dialog box containing advertisement related to the text marked. You can choose to either move the mouse away and go on with your browsing, or to press on the box and go to the ad page which is relevant to the text. Click here to learn more about Infolinks Double Underline Link Ads. 

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Hangeul

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I will share you, guys, about the Korean (or Han which probably was a coincidence) alphabet or better yet a syllabary. Ancient Koreans borrow the sophisticated writing system from their Chinese neighbor.  They called it Hanja which is the exact counterpart of Mandarin’s hanzi or what we know in English as the Han characters. They even imitated the Chinese pronunciations of the said characters. Thus, a similarity between hanja and hanzi is apparent.

It was not until the fourthJoseon king, Sejong the great, that hangeul was invented. It was said that the king himself invented it. This claim was written as “This month, his majesty has personally created the twenty eight letters of the vernacular script…” This event was revolutionary indeed that some were happy with its invention and some are not.

On one account, a scholar official criticized hangeul and said that while the invention is heaven sent, only the barbarians have their own alphabet and with the state principle of “respecting the senior state” (which refers to the middle kingdom-Ming dynasty China at that time), Han characters must retain its position as the official writing system of the kingdom.

The hall of worthies during the time of king Sejong the great published several books completely written with the new letters. However, when the king died, this invented beauties was banned. Still, even when it was banned, the women of the royal court patronized this as a means for them to exchange letters. The nineteenth century came and Korea has preserved some of the court women’s literature now valued for their own artistic style. Then, the twentieth century arrived and finally hangeul was recognized by its people and until today is still used.

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Ang Asno at ang Kanyang mga Amo

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Here is another fable I translated into Filipino which is about a donkey. This time, the donkey is not contented with its current master and end up to a tanner. It is so sad a fate of this donkey that even after its death, his master will have a use for it.

May isang asno na nabibilang sa nagtitinda ng halamang pangsahog. Kaunting pagkain lang ang natatanggap nito at lubusan ang pagbabanat nito ng buto. Kaya naman humiling ito kay Jupiter na makalaya sa kasalukuyan nitong paglilingkod at matanggap ng ibang amo. Matapos na bigyan ni Jupiter ng babala na pagsisisihan nito ang kanyang pakiusap, ang asno ay naibenta sa gumagawa ng tisa. Sandali lang matapos nito, napagtanto niya na higit na mabigat ang pasaning dadalhi at labis na mahirap na gawain sa pagawaan ng tisa. Muli itong humiling na makapagpalit ng amo. Isang paalala na ito na ang huling pagkakataon na pagbibigyan ang kahilingan ang winika ni Jupiter sa asno. Ang asno nga ay nailipat sa mangangatad.  Nalaman nito na lalong higit sa sama ang kapalarang kinasadlakan, sabay tanda ng hanap-buhay ng kanyang mga dating amo. Umaatungal na nagbitiw ng salita ito: "Mainam palang ako'y gutumin ng isa o pagurin ng isa ko pang dating amo, kaysa mabili ng bago kong amo na gagawing katad ang aking balat at pakikinabangan pa kahit na ako'y yumao na."

As I translate this fable, challenges after challenges arose. One advanced learner of Filipino will notice that the sentences in the above work is somewhat different compare to the reference. Here we see the manner in which a Filipino or a Tagalog people expresses his thoughts. I cannot follow the English syntax because of the limitations of similarity in this area. Another thing to consider here is the name Jupiter. Since it has no Filipino counter part I just copied it. I retained the English spelling because nowadays, even the native speakers prefer it. The word 'herb' gave me a headache and at least an hour to consider until I decided to choose a phrase "halamang pangsahog" which is a little bit of ambiguous because of its meaning "an ingredient plant". I hope that the readers will not confused it with 'gulay' which means vegetable.

Aside from the construction of sentences, I also work a little magic with the words and phrases that I used.  One example would be 'lubusan' which is derived from 'lubos' that denotes "something extreme". I also add a Tagalog idiomatic expression "magbanat ng buto" which correspond to "to work hard" and with a literal meaning "to stretch ones bone". "Paglilingkod" on the other hand is derived from 'lingkod' which means 'service'. I also chose 'amo' over 'panginoon' because the latter is used today in reference to God or Jesus and had a Pre-Christian equivalent to a nobleman. 'Katad' which means animal hide and 'yumao' which is the erudite word for "namatay" (died) are also things worth mentioning. 

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