Hard to Imagine – Benedict Anderson However, in Guerrero’s

translations, they were not kept in

Late 1950s – Philippine state began preparations
their original form. Similarly, the
for an elaborate centennial celebration of the
Tagalog exlamations naku! Aba!
birth of Rizal on June 1861.
And susmariosep! Were summarily
- Since Rizal composed his two novels in eliminated.
Spanish, a prize competition for the best o Once again, its elimination in the
new translation was sponsored. translation serves to distance rather
- Among those stimulated by the competition than familiarize national hero.
to undertake a new translation was Leon 3. Bowdlerization
Ma. Guerrero, at that time the Philippine o it is plain that Guerrero
Ambassador to the Court of St. James. bowdlerized many passages which
made him uncomfortable- passage
Key Elements of Guerrero’s translation alluding to political or religious
Strategy: matters as well as swear words and
1. Demodernization references to bodily functions.
o it is a characteristic of Rizal’s o Rizal frequently has high rougher
bravura style that although the story character swear, using the
of the Noli is set in the (recent) typographical convention “p---“.
past, and thus the dominant tense is This “p—” may signal the mestizo
the past, there are frequent exression putangina. Another,
modulations in the present. Yet, perhaps more likely, referent to
every such present was “puneta”
systematically turned by Guerrero o However, Guerrero either erased “p
into the past, but rather to push it —” completely or rendered it as
deep into antique past. dammit or, more bravely, “damn
2. Exclusion of the Reader you”.
o Throughout the novel, Rizal 4. Delocalization
regularly turns and speaks to the o Almost all scenes in Noli are either
reader. This technique sets time set in “San Diego” (Calamba) and
aside and sucks the reader deep into Manila. The Manila chapters are
the narrative, engaging her replete with reference of, streets,
emotions, teasing her curiosity and churches, neighborhoods, cafes,
offering her malicious voyeuristic esplanades, theatre, and so fort. The
pleasures. density of these places and
o However, in Guerrero’s translation, placenames are among the elements
Rizal’s witty insinuating voice was that give the reader the most vivid
muffled, a silent wall is set up sense of being drawn deep inside
between the author and the reader, the novel.
and once again everything urgent o Guerrero, however, eliminated as
and contemporary in the text is much as 80% of these still-
dusted away in History. recognizable placenames.
o Rizal’s Spanish text is bejewelled o Furthermore, Rizal on occasion
with Tagalog words and brings on stage the well-known
expressions (e.g bata, salakot, music-hall and operetta “star” of his
timsim, paragos, sinigang). days. Guerrero eliminated all these
stars representing them in
 aonymous collectivity as “the most or Latin America), mestizos
renowned performers from (persons of mixed descent),
Manila,” sangleys and chinos (Chinese born
o One would have thought that outside the Philippines) and indios
keeping Rizal’s names would have or naturales (“Indians” or indigenes
served to bring millieu of 1880s of the Philippine islands). But
closer to modern readers rather than sometimes he also uses the terms
estranging them from it. mestizo and criollo inconsistently,
5. De-Europeanization so that they appear to overlap or
o Rizal was unusually a cultivated even correspond. The inconsistency
man, made familiar through his is the characteristic of 1880s and
Jesuit shcooling with Latin and the 1890s, when political, cultural and
world of antiquity. He knew social changes were making
Spanish, English, French, and problematic the older hierarchy.
German, as well as a smattering of (Read the transition in the use of
Italian and Hebrew. He also read the word “F/filipino”, p. 246)
widely in European literature. It is o Guerrero’s handling of these terms
not surprising, therefore, to find the is exceptionally instructive. In the
Noli filled with untranslated first place. Filipina (Rizal for some
classical tags, as well as references reason seldom used the male form
to, and quotations from famous of the adjective or noun), meaning a
European masters. mestiza or criolla is typically
o Guerrero’s approach to all these rendered as Filipina, meaning a
references was to eliminate them or female national of the Philippines.
naturalize them as far as possible. Creoles virually disappear while
o Since Guerrero prided himself on mestizo is most commonly
his anti-American nationalism, rendered. Anglo-Saxon racist style,
there is a curious irony in all his as “half-breed.”
translations. For the effect of his
de-Europeanization translation is
note Filipinize Rizal but rather to
Americanize him.
6. Anacrhronism
o The most striking examples of
anachronism all, in different ways,
relate to the changing “official”
socio-political classification
systems operating in the Philippines
in the 1880s and 1950s.
o The problems accumulate if we
look at the way in which Rizal uses
ethnic, racial, and political
terminologies. On the whole, he
sticks to the later Spanish-colonial
classifications: penisulares
(Spaniards born in Spain), criollos
(Spaniards born in the Philippines