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!
Last
year, a Philippine publishing house, Precious Pages Corporation, published its
first-ever translation of a popular novel, that of Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight. This bold move caused quite a stir, and a
number of book lovers (like yours truly) asked many questions, such as the
following: Will the translation be any
good? Will book readers accept the idea
of translating popular novels? What
book(s) will be translated next? Will
it be (GASP!) Fifty Shades Of Gray?
Apparently,
Precious Pages Corporation’s decision to make translations of popular novels
available to the public has been a very good one. Even though the Filipino translation of Twilight received
mixed reviews, Precious Pages has soldiered on in its vision to give the
reading public a wider variety of popular material in Filipino. In the last few months, it has released the
translations of other titles, such as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
and Catching Fire (The translations are selling well, I guess). And
just recently, it has released the long-awaited (or long-dreaded) Filipino
translation of EL James’ Fifty Shades Of Gray.
If
you have read my book reviews of EL James’ Fifty Shades trilogy, it
would be obvious that I’m not really a fan of this book series. But since I am a new convert to reading
Filipino translations, I got a copy of the Filipino translation of Fifty
Shades and got ready to … what’s the right word … oh, yes. Puke.
Imagine
my surprise when I finished reading the translation without feeling any urge to run into the bathroom and
vomit my guts out. In fact, it took me
a much shorter time to finish reading it (as opposed to its English original,
which was almost an intolerable chore to read). What do you know? Believe
it or not, the translation is actually better than the book. Surprised?
Well, I am, considering how bad the source book is.
Thanks to
the sensible and careful efforts of Precious Pages’ translation and editing
team, the Filipino translation of Fifty Shades Of Gray is a much
smoother and quicker read. I was sooooo
glad that the team minimized the number of times I had to read about the color
of Christian Gray’s eyes, or the shape of Christian’s fingers, or Ana’s
lip-biting, enticing ways. I mean, hey,
the book readers aren’t idiots (well, most of us aren’t). You don’t need to tell us a hundred times
that Christian’s eyes are gray before we realize that they ARE gray. I mean, come on!
In the
original book, Ana sounded like a British woman desperately trying to sound
like a young American girl. In the
translation, Ana’s voice is very young and Pinay. She also sounds more “normal” compared to the original Ana, whose
capacity for vulgarity came in stages (it took her a huge dose of Christian
Gray before her swearing progressed from “Holy crap” to “Holy fuck”). In the translation, there are no such levels
and distinctions, and we know exactly how Ana feels the moment she goes “Putang
ina!”
Wow. Ang lutong ng mura, parang chicharon!
This “direct approach” is also
applied to the book’s abundant sex scenes.
Instead of using euphemisms for body parts or sexual terms (the kinds we
read about in those seedy underground tabloid columns or magazines), the
translating and editing team calls a spade a spade. Walang preno.
Breasts are not mountains but suso, the clitoris is not a gem but
tinggil, and so on and so forth.
I don’t know if that approach would raise the nausea factor for other
book readers, but that approach worked well for me. I probably would have rolled my eyes or snickered had I found any
of the euphemisms being used in the translated version.
I also discovered something
surprising about reading translations.
If you have read any of my previous posts, you would know that I am a
recent convert to reading translations.
I just enjoy reading books in their original form and reading their
translated versions. So far, I have
talked about the surprising things that happen when one reads a Filipino
translation. In my experience, a
translation is easier to read. It takes
less time, the words are processed by the brain much quicker and much more
smoothly, the details are more vivid. I
also experienced this while reading the translation of Fifty Shades, but
what’s surprising is, I liked Christian Gray MORE when I read the translation. He was a dangerous asshole in the original,
but he morphed into an almost-normal guy with many issues when I read the
Filipino version. Ana, meanwhile,
became younger, natural-sounding and more like your average Pinay … and believe
it or not, the sex scenes became less gag-worthy and more acceptable. Steamy, even. I’m not kidding.
While I will never consider the
English Fifty Shades trilogy as something I might want in my book
collection, the Filipino Fifty Shades is a very sharp, accurate, readable
and (dare I say this) enjoyable translation to read. Much, much better than the original.
RATING: 4 1/2
wow! mas naengganyo akong bumii. thanks!
TumugonBurahinHi, foreversrc,
TumugonBurahinThanks for dropping by and reading my book review. Bili ka, ha? Tapos, balik ka ulit at ikuwento mo sa akin kung ganoon din ang naging experience mo sa pagbasa ng translation. Happy reading :-)
ako din! thanks filipina reader, hindi ako nagsisising tumambay sa blog mo at magbasa :)
TumugonBurahinHello, PHRaddict! Maraming, maraming salamat sa pagdalaw! Pasensiya ka na at hindi ako agad nakasagot, nasobrahan yata ako sa kababasa ng mga libro, super-sore eyes (kailangan ko yatang mamakyaw ng EyeMo :-)) Please keep on reading, and visit from time to time ... I usually post my blogs on Tuesdays ... heto at may ia-upload nga ako, hehehe ... and please spread the word about my blog at ikalat natin ang pagmamahal sa pagbabasa ng lahat ng klase ng mga libro ... have a great day!
Burahin