RATING GUIDE:
5 – A keeper!
4 – Very good
3 – Passable
2 – I’d rather read a telephone book
1 – An absolute bomb.
Read at your own risk!
To date, I have read two Filipino translations coming from
Precious Pages Corporation. The first
was the translation of “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, followed by “Fine
Things” by Danielle Steele. This is the
third.
Whenever I start reading a
translation, I always wonder whether the translation will be as faithful to the
original, whether it will be as good, not as good, or better than the
original. After reading the Filipino
translation of “If Tomorrow Comes,” I can say that this translation is just as
good as the original.
Sidney Sheldon’s writing style is
crisp, no-nonsense and very, very raw, and I appreciated that the book’s
translator, Armine Rhea Mendoza (who also wrote the translation for the
Filipino version of Twilight) was able to recreate his writing voice and
style. Quite frankly, I thoroughly
enjoyed reading the translation of that part in the book where the heroine,
Tracy Whitney, spends time in jail. In
my view, that was one of the book’s more compelling parts … but it’s just
darker, grittier, wilder, more raw (ergo, more enjoyable) in Filipino. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as
reading “Puta ka!” as opposed to “You bitch!”
or reading “Tuturuan ka naming kumain ng puki!” as opposed to “We’re
going to teach you how to eat pussy!”
(I hope I remembered the lines correctly!) Reading that in my language was … wow. So dirty, and yet, so cathartic, so damned enjoyable! Although I felt slightly cheated when the
translator stopped short of saying “utong” for “nipple” and used “dunggot”
instead. I’m thinking, if you’re going
to be vulgar and dirty and crass, why not go ALL the way?
Like I said before (in my blog
entry dated 10 December), Sidney Sheldon’s “If Tomorrow Comes” reminded me so much of
Pinoy telenovelas that Sidney Sheldon might as well be Pinoy. Well, this Filipino translation just
indulges us with that fantasy. It’s
like a Pinoy telenovela come to life … action-packed, steamy, sexy,
gritty. Delicious escapist fare! Why, I can almost imagine it being turned
into an actual soap! Any takers?
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