Thursday, June 5, 2008

Ang Sabi Ko Sa'Yo (English Translation)

I owe Jonat this translation a month ago pa. Sorry for the delay. :(

Here's the original text first:

Ang Sabi Ko Sa'Yo

Bumalong ang dagta
sa hiniwang kaymito.
Namuo sa talim
ng kutsilyo ang ilang patak.

Diyan ako naiwan, mahal,
at hindi sa laman.


- Benilda Santos


And here's my attempt of a translation:

I Tell You

Sap sprung forth
from the wounded fruit.
On the knife's blade,
a few drops congealed.

There I remained, my love,
not in the flesh.
Resource: Tagalog-English Dictionary by L. English

I agree with Jonat that the Filipino version is still more beautiful. Translations cannot compete with the original anyway.

This is the second time a friend asked me to translate the poem. The first one was a Portuguese poem, Onde O Mar Acaba. No, I don't know Portuguese, my friend sent me the English version from which I derived my Filipino translation. Hehehe.

[June 6 update]
Added the word "my" before "love" and removed "and" to denote more emotion. Thanks to Pope for the suggestion and long discussion especially on that last action. O di ba, rhyme? Hehe.

Nakukulangan pa talaga ako sa translation ko. :( Pero masaya na rin ako na masaya si Jonat. :)

2 comments:

  1. beautiful. i like it. wait, i love it. thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow, thanks for appreciating it. i wasn't too happy with the translation kasi.

    you're welcome :)

    ReplyDelete