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GE1804 Hard to Imagine An Abridged Version By Benedict Ande...

GE1804 Hard to Imagine An Abridged Version By Benedict Anderson Rizal had always been regarded as a national hero, his works worthy of scrutiny and analysis. His two (2) greatest novels (i.e. his chefs d'oeuvre) were Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo -- instrumental in awakening the Filipino nationalism and patriotism. However, he has written them in Spanish. So, when the American occupation took place, only a handful knew how to speak creole and fluent Spanish since American slowly replaced the former as the lingua franca of the country. Thus, when needed to be translated, the known translators at that time, such as Leon Ma. Guerrero, only had to work with what they had because both novels became inaccessible (this was also noted by Doreen Fernandez in a different article). With it, came the bitter rivalry between factions in the national government. On the early run of the Rizal bill, opposition was fierce. With it came the competition for translating the novels, where Guerrero enters the scene. Leon Ma. Guerrero was then an ambassador to the court of St. James, whose translations were prized among many. But he did not submit his work later due to the low cash prize, instead giving it to The Manila Times for publication. Since then, as Doreen Fernandez noted, Guerrero's translation became "the only translation anybody reads now." By analyzing Guerrero's translations, word-for-word with the original manuscripts, it is clear that it has been distorted in interesting ways. These perceived "distortions" were, in his own words, an "attempt" to make the novel "palatable to a new generation of English-speaking Filipinos, and give it, beyond them, a wider audience among other English-speaking peoples on the centenary of Rizal's book. In his own new version, he tried to give "the reader 'the ease of original composition,' the Noli as Rizal might have written it if he had been writing in English for the present generation of Filipinos." Guerrero observed that Rizal's writing style might be unappealing to the modern ear, as Spanish is a language that can be more sentimental and florid (i.e. complicated) than modern English. The Introduction By Caroline Hau In the mid-1950s, Jose Rizal was still a hot topic sixty years after his execution regarding the inclusion of the study of his life and works in the curricula of all public and private schools, colleges, and universities. Despite that the hero was well-known, his life was largely unread. The Rizal bill's aim was to give appreciation to the life of the national hero and analyze his works, particularly his well-known novels of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. However, the lawmakers had to confront the dangers in reading Rizal. First, to be read means that these will be read in different ways; and second, different ways of reading are ideological in nature, thus it can be political. His writings can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the context being picked up as it was being read. This debate stemmed from the Catholic church's insistence that Rizal's harsh criticisms at friar abuses, simony (i.e. the act of paying the church to do sacred roles and/or things, such as sacraments), and other practices were the rants of a heretic. As they defended, Rizal's actions and novels must stay in the past because it talks about the past. As written by Teodoro Locsin, Sr., "Many of the passages in Rizal's novels which the Catholic hierarchy finds so shocking, so objectionable, would take on a new, a more comfortable meaning if read in the context of 01 Handout 3 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 2  GE1804 the novels, against the background of the life of the hero. "These are the conditions that estranged Rizal from the church," a Catholic instructor might begin a course on the writer. "These conditions no longer exist. The abuses are gone. In his place you might have felt as he did, written what he wrote." REFERENCES: Anderson, B. (2004). 11 Hard to imagine. In Spectre of comparisons: Nationalisms, Southeast Asia, and the world, 253-47. Ateneo de Manila University Press. Hau, C. (2000). Introduction. In Necessary fictions: Philippine literature and the nation. https://archive.org/details/necessaryfictions 01 Handout 3 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 2