When I posted the song “Sino ang BaIiw”, I tried translating it to English. I convinced myself that the message is good enough to be understood by many and not just the Filipinos. So I started... and it was torture..hehe. Then an idea came up in my mind. I printed the lyrics and went to my son’s room. He’s just been playing his online game for the whole day so i better give him something worthwhile to do. I told him to translate the lyrics of the song into English. He gave me his usual all confusing look like asking....”whatever for Mom??”. Before he was able to utter the thought i told him it’s a test to measure how well he still understand the language... after all, he’s a pinoy and it should not be too hard. He looked at the paper and did a quick speed reading... and his brows started to knot.. iguratively speaking. In my mind is a very wide grin... this will be very exciting.
Here’s his translation:
Ang natutuwang baliw yaman ay pinagyabang
The happy psycho showing off his riches
Dahil ari niya raw ang araw pati ang buwan
Because he says the sun and the moon are his
May isang sa yaman ay salapi ang hinihigan
There is one so rich that he rests on his riches
Ngunit ang gintong baul panay kasalanan ang laman
but the golden chest is just full of sin
Sinasambit ng baliw awit na walang laman
The psycho is (MOM!! what is sinasambit??) (MOM: like sinasabi) saying words without meaning
Ulo mo'y maiiling tatawagin mong hangal
You shake your head in pity and call this psycho stupid (Mom: psucho na stupid pa..lol)
May isang hindi baliw, iba ang awit na alam
There is one who is not crazy, who has a different song in mind
Buong araw kung magdasal, sinungaling rin naman
Who prays the whole day, but he still lies
Sinong dakila
Who is ...(Mom..what is dakila??) *discussion* ..noble
Sino ang tunay na baliw
Who is really crazy
Sinong mapalad
Who is wide (eh?? Mom...what is mapalad? Is it wide?? MoM: that is “malapad”, son) *slapped his own head* (Mom: another word is “swerte”)... o! Lucky!
Sinong tumatawag ng habag
Who is calling for forgiveness (hmm...Mom, is “habag” forgiveness??) (Mom: another word is “awa”)... oh! Okay.... pity.
Yaon bang sinilang na ang pag-iisip ay kapos
Is that the one who is born mentally retarded
Ang kanyang tanging suot ay sira-sirang damit
His only clothes are old and dirty
Na nakikiramay sa isip niyang punit-punit
That ... (mom! What is nakikiramay??)(mom: thats what you do when you go to the funeral...lol ) huh? Like sympathy? K...that sympathizes with his ripped thoughts
May binatang ang gayak panay diyamante at hiyas
There is a young man who wears nuthin’ but bling (mom: eh?? Bling daw??)
Ngunit oras maghubad kulay ahas ang balat
But when he takes them off, his skin is snake like
Sinong dakila
Who is noble
Sino ang tunay na baliw
Who is really crazy
Sinong mapalad
Who is lucky... fortunate (mom: ah...finally thought of a better word)
Sinong tumatawag ng habag
Who is calling for pity
Yaon bang sinilang na ang pag-iisip ay kapos
It that the one who is born mentally retarted
Ooh.....YAhh....... ((mom: hehe patawa ang anak ko)
Sa kanyang kilos at galaw tayo ay naaaliw
At his every movement we are entertained
Sa ating mga mata isa lamang siyang baliw
In our eyes he’s only a psycho
Ngunit kung tayo ay hahatulang sabay
But if we are (*getting irritated now bec of all the hard tagalog words* MOM!! What the heck is “hahatulang”?) (Mom: it’s like,what you get when you are in a court room!) lawyer??? (mom: NO, higher than a lawyer) judge??? (mom: yes) judged at the same time...
Sa mata ng Maykapal, siya'y higit na banal
But in Gods eyes, he is the sinless one
Kaya't sino, sino, sino nga
So who who who is
Sino nga ba
Who is
Sino nga ba
Who is
Sino nga ba ang tunay na baliw
Who is it , the really crazy one?
---- that was really fun and funny!! Hehe. My son was not so pleased though. He said those were not tagalog words at all. But they are...just ones that are not usually used in casual conversations. It is good practice for him. I give him .. a grade of B!
5 comments:
I was laughing like a psycho reading his translations :) But I must give him an A- for his efforts.
I'm sure you know that you cannot translate Filipino to English verbatim. You have to take the words in context. The wonder of language is its many variations and that makes it unique from other languages.
Your son's first translation exercise is interesting. My suggestion is for him to have an English-Filipino Dictionary/Thesaurus. Or perhaps an on-line translator like this one -> http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/Tagalog/default.htm
"diyamante at hiyas" = blingbling!
Now that's a contemporary, pop culture influenced, post-modern translation LOL
hahaha... kawawa naman anak mo. torture nga sya. nakakatuwa. nung unang part hindi pa nya alam ang dakila... hehehe... pero nung sumunod kuha na.
ako nahihirapan sa mga gawa ni rizal. lalim ng tagalog.
btw, i noticed that you found my friendster. im adding you as a friend. need your email add if that'll be fine.
thanks!
Thanks Juleste! Being a teacher yourself, i know that your grade is not like the strict mom that i am.
I know that we can't directly translate every word verbatim but this exercise is the first step to contex translations. After this, he should look at how to improve it to a more cohesive thought.
thanks for the link, he has it already. i will give him another test next month.
it's funny the way he used the "bling" word. he can very much use any translation but i would prefer formal words. As he needs to familiarize himself with deep tagalog words, he equally needs to do the same in the english language.
thanks thanks!!!
Hi DonG!
Oh! Being a pinoy by birth..he should know the language to the very core. he's slipping away and i should do something, right? You should hear him speak in tagalog! Sooo funny now with all the slang i can hear...but at least, he can still speak it. We speak tagalog at home and they will never loose the ability to understand but they are loosing the ability to speak it.
Oh, yeah! I came across it one day. i will send you a message in friendster! I'd be honor to be one of your friends.
thanks for the visit.
thanks em!
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