Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Literally Speaking

I don't know why Jopay brought me to this situation. I'm actually translating an English-translated poem to Filipino. (English-translated because it's in Portuguese originally). My deadline is supposedly tomorrow. :s

I'm not sure of the title (because it was sent with no title or author) but what I found in the net was Onde o Mar Acaba by Egito Goncalves. I'll post my translation by next week, if Jopay approves of it. :D

Onde o Mar Acaba (in English)

The theme changes, where the sea begins.
Is adventure the sea or that form
which forms after, which will live
in the memory of days? i remember an island
the sea took me and opened
to me various gates of wisdom. The ocean
began before, finished after, there it
only flowed on, rocking me in nights
of furled sails, of easy pineapples
of high masts touched by longing
bright as the moonshine's traces.
Later, i realised i was out of work
because there were no Indias or from princesses
the reward of a smile. But fights
existed for others, torpedoes and canons
weren't far away. That war
I only pretended to be part of. Sailboat anchored
i would think the island, green as a slogan,
there i didn't get sick as, at sea,
happened to me on the ships of Insulana.
Sailor i was not. The ancient world
could be lived in books, offset reproductions
multiplied the atlas, some poets
would bathe their poems in Greece. I
was there, stopped in time, where
the sea began and ended, waiting
for the clock of sleep in the main square
to strike the return. My home
was in the orient, there the sea would
finish for me, and only when from the beach
i could see it, imagination could whisper to me
that it started by my feet and from the voyage
would be excluded. A face without secrets
that black tides sicken, and waves to me
when the plane descends and scatters
a sea of clouds that disband and begin again.


I'm having great difficulty in translating offset reproductions. :'(
Any suggestions?

[Why am I doing it? For somebody else's foreign language class. I can say no but what the heck, I like the challenge. It really is a challenge. Adik e no? XD]

***

We're going to Nueva Ecija this Saturday. Yay! ^_^

I hope the weather cooperates and won't rain down on us so we could trek towards the falls. I'll post a pic or two of our 24-hour adventure by next week also.

***
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix is now showing!!!!

[Ala lang.]

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