Buhayin ang Tanaga!

Sunday, April 16, 2006

French Tanaga, Spanish Tanaga, Esperanto, Too.

I got an email from reader and poet Kevyn Bello which worth sharing.
We have to make more people, especially our own people see the art in ourselves.
Allow me to post the whole text and the tanagas in various languages that follows:


First and politely, I thank you for having and keeping the Tanaga site. I myself am a 17 year old Filipino who has only an understanding but no speaking ability of Tagalog, and it seems that the Filipino youths of the West are losing some of their indigenous culture. Ever since Foreign forces have come, we have confused ourselves as Pacific Islander/Asians, English as a national language instead of some one or several of the diverse languages (I think Chavacano should be in there), and our own Baybayin.

But the Tanaga I have assurance can live on as long as others employ the form as a living symbol of the past. The 7-syllable count makes the form even more difficult for us poets who employ even-counted syllables.

Anyways, here are some tanaga that I myself have wrote. I love the art form, and it is easy to create one in minutes. Of course, I hope it is not too crappy, but it's a poem!

In French:

Si les anges prendraient mon coeur,
Il se réveillait au Ciel,
Comme l'encens de la douceur
À ce trône de l'Éternel.

Poetic translation:


If the angels take my heart,
It should rise above the sky
As sweet incense taking part
To the throne of Him, Most High.

In Spanish:

Jesucristo es mi Señor,
Rey de reyes en honor.
De su sangre, es su amor
Como un bello salvador.

Poetic Translation:

Jesus Christ is but my Lord,
King of kings in honour best.
From his blood, reveals his love
As a Saviour comely blest.


In English:

Yahweh God, I ask of Thee
That Thou would'st take care of me.
May the world be peaceful, still,
So all may receive Thy Will.

The shadows fill within me
And consummates me wholly.
Blissful death, I wait for you
When my sacred blood is due.

In Esperanto:

Levantiĝas sola stel'
Tra l' ĉielo kiel hel'.
Estas venus' sub la lun'
Ĝis la veno de la sun'.

Poetic translation:

One small star is risen high
As a brightness through the sky.
It is venus 'neath the moon
Till the coming of the sun.

- Kevyn Bello

Editor's Note: Some translations may not be in the exact 7-7-7-7 form, due to the difficulty of words lost in translation. Interestingly, with the 8-syllable form it becomes the "Dalit", another indigenous form popularized by the Spanish Friars in their evangelical publications.

posted by Jardine Davies @ 6:35 PM

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