Poetry in translation as discourse: A reconstructive translation into Cebuano of poetry in/from English by contemporary writers of the Central Visayas region

• Main Author: Pernia, Marjorie Evasco
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1998
• Subjects: Poetry > Translating; Discourse analysis; Philippine poetry; Cebuano literature; Literature > Translations; Language Interpretation and Translation; Poetry
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/786
• Institution: De La Salle University

The heart of this dissertation is the reconstructive translation into Cebuano of twenty selected poems in/from English by ten poets of the Central Visayas region (composed of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor) of the Philippines.The reconstructive translation derives its methodology from the critical and theoretical framework of poetry as discourse, informed by poststructuralist and postcolonial studies. Such a translation method sought to uncover the discursive constructs of the poem in/from English which were used to guide the translator's choices and decisions in the reconstructive translation of the poem in Cebuano.Translation practice such as this is significant as part of the acts of reclaiming a mother tongue and a cultural heritage which may have been overshadowed in this century by the colonial experience and the use of English. Moreover, it opens up a new area of inter-lingual translation practice among the regional languages of the Philippines, as well as translation practices from the national languages, i.e. Filipino and English, into the regional languages of the country.The selection of twenty poems by ten authors also have implications in the canon formations in the country, since it gives value to the work of these poets in the context of the literatures of the region and the country as a whole. The uses and pleasures derived from translation are many: for the translator, the practice itself is more than a way of savoring the richness of two languages because it is also a means of understanding the inter-dependencies of the poetic discourses in the two languages for the reader, the enhanced pleasure of reading the poem and appreciating it in the nuances of two languages. The translator has therefore participated in the important human activity of appreciating and understanding poetry, not only as a linguistic construct but also as a material product of cultural fluxes in history.