04-05-2010, 09:27 AM
Hmmm... I'm having trouble recalling if I've read any Tagalog poetry translated into English 
. The thing is many Filipino writers can speak and write in fluent English anyway, so if they want it english they write in english, if they want it tagalog they write in tagalog. Maybe I can find some examples later.
As far as I can figure it would translate okay, but I do admit that you would probably lose a lot of what the author was going for, like alliteration and the specific rhythms. After all, Tagalog, like Japanese, is spoken with definitely beated syllables (our alphabet goes "a ba ka da eh ga ha..." with open-mouthed vowels like what you make when you open your mouth for the dentist, but cut short), as opposed to the more rolling quality of the english language. So yeah, I guess a lot of the sophistication could still be l;ost in the translation, even if the image is there.
. The thing is many Filipino writers can speak and write in fluent English anyway, so if they want it english they write in english, if they want it tagalog they write in tagalog. Maybe I can find some examples later.As far as I can figure it would translate okay, but I do admit that you would probably lose a lot of what the author was going for, like alliteration and the specific rhythms. After all, Tagalog, like Japanese, is spoken with definitely beated syllables (our alphabet goes "a ba ka da eh ga ha..." with open-mouthed vowels like what you make when you open your mouth for the dentist, but cut short), as opposed to the more rolling quality of the english language. So yeah, I guess a lot of the sophistication could still be l;ost in the translation, even if the image is there.
PS. If you can, try your hand at giving some of the others a bit of feedback. If you already have, thanks, can you do some more?