ANNOTATIONs

ON stage were three poets, each one holding a book the cover of which contains the color red and green in the form of a ribbon. From the center of the knot was a white flower emanating from three leaves. For that day, the red and green colors meant Hungary. Around the symbols were words also in blue-green—Hindi Pasisiil ang Pagsibol at iba pang tula mula Hungaria (Spring Cannot be Suppressed and other poems from Hungary). But there is in that book design the word “pasisiil” that has become a grave word we often attribute to noble acts. The said word appears on the first paragraph, third line of the Philippine National Anthem—“sa manlulupig/Di ka pasisiil.” It is a battlecry—to the conqueror we shall not be vanquished. And sung as a marcha, the anthem possesses vigor. As the title of the book announces, it is not to the conquering human force that we subject ourselves; rather, it is that season, that Spring, that refuses to be cowered.

Translations command us to look at words and find not only nuances but also the natural selection of kinship, the subjectivity of humanness.

The event was the First Philippine Book festival, and that third day was auspicious for Philippine literature, at least for the six languages that were used for translation that day.

Through the joint initiative of the Hungarian Embassy, the National Book Development Board, the Ateneo de Naga University Press and the Savage Mind: Arts, Books & Cinema, a singular project was launched on June 4, 2003. From the words of Mme. Titanilla Tóth, the Ambassador of Hungary to the Philippines, it was clear how she valued the literatures of her country, talking about them intimately insofar as she remembered them. But then adding concepts intimately linked to the memories of the writings—remembering lines that were relevant and poets who were still remembered up to this day, seeing images that she believed would resonate also among non-Hungarians, in this case, Filipinos.

In her message, a significant aspect of the collection, Ambassador Toth spoke of Sándor Petőfi as “a visionary artist, who used his pen as a tool to fight for freedom, democracy and national identity. Through his works he became a symbol of Hungarian literature and culture, inspiring generations of writers and artists.” Petőfi is described by Mme. Toth as an “emblematic figure of the history and literature of Hungary” and calls him the “soulmate of the celebrated Filipino writer, Jose Rizal.” She continues: “Despite the geographic distance between Hungary and the Philippines, Petőfi and Rizal share many similarities in their lives and works. Both are national heroes, and they were advocates of freedom and patriotism.”

The Hungarian poet is just one of the poets whose works were translated into Filipino and five other Philippine languages. These other languages are Bicol, Rinconada, Bwînën (this orthography a sharp turn from the more common and older “Buhinon”), Tigaonon, and Minasbate.

How does one figure out the value of translation? In the earlier years, translation was meant to test the so-called “intellectual” aspect of a language. Can the language be used for intellectual discourse? The translator then in those periods was one who concentrated on the nuances, connotations and denotations of the vocabulary supplied by another language. Much, much later, the Bikolanos began to employ the term “dakit-taramon,” which literally meant “to transfer a language or word.” On that fateful day in the World Trade Center, Ambassador Toth, however, intoned the idea of cultural diplomacy, where two or even more countries’ literatures are used to conduct dialogues between two cultures. In translations, we not only learn about ideas that would have remained unknown had we not re-located said images, concepts, and sensing from the “foreign” language to one we call our own.

In another message in the book, Dante Francis Ang II, Chairman of the National Book Development Board (NBDB), wrote: “In today’s globalized world where ideas and cultures have become fluid and boundaries have been redrawn, our relationship with the printed word and the bounded pages have remained vital and necessary.”

Kristian Sendon Cordero, one of the co-editors of the anthology/ translation (Enrique S. Villasis is the other editor), expands the urgency of the season by entitling his own introduction to the poems as “Hindi Pasisiil ang Pagsibol ng Tula” (Poetry cannot be stopped from blooming).

The collection of Hungarian poems translated into six Philippine languages, and released during the First Philippine Book Festival should make us all giddy. First, it should test us about our knowledge of our islands’ languages; next, we should look to other languages and thereby derive not the lack of understanding but the desire to know them more, even in translations. Personally, I understand all the languages used in the collection but I am curious: how do these poems sound in their original Hungarian? What changes were made in the course of the translation?

Online there is an English version of Sándor Petőfi’s “It is Not Possible to Forbid a Flower” by Miklós Nádasdi. It says: “It is not possible to forbid a flower/To bloom in Spring when it has the power.”

Villasis in his translation says, Hindi mapipigilan ang isang bulaklak/ Na mamukadkad sa tagsibol ” (No one can stop a flower from blooming in the Spring). Cordero in his transference of the words (“dakit”) presents to us Petőfi’s first two lines: “Dai mo dai mapapabuskad an burak/kun nag abot na an saiyang kabagsikan” (You cannot stop a flower to open when its power has arrived). In Villasis, the blooming implicates the power; in Cordero, he needs to explicate such strength.

Let the banquet and the debate begin!

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