English to Tagalog Literal Transfer

English to Tagalog translation can best be tested when read aloud to a Tagalog audience. The Tagalog audience will understand any Tagalog or "tagalized" word even if they won't really understand the whole text. Often, no Tagalog will analyze the wrongness or rightness of a text simply because most Filipinos are not trained to be analytical. And after all, they use it and listen to it all the time that they take it for granted. This is actually the same response of other people groups to their languages elsewhere in the world.

That it is an English to Tagalog translation will not always be apparent to the immediate users. And besides, analysis or comparing the Tagalog text with the source text is not required of the end reader. But the translator can contribute toward the enrichment of the language by choosing nearest equivalents that will encourage the build up and usage of good Tagalog. "Nearest equivalents" can always be contested, but depending on the audience, what is appropriate is more or less deducted from the "common cultural experience" or from how people generally say them. Of course, there will be regional variations, but if understanding is not blocked, some dialect differences can be allowed.

This rapport with the audience, this mentoring for a better appreciation of the language, is consciously achieved in literary texts where the translation needs to be as source oriented as possible. This means that when the material is literary, there is a sense that the transfer should be more literal but it should not be stiff and inacessible. See the English to Tagalog exercise below for an example:

English source text
Today dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. Who can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? But here is the cheering, the comforting, gladdening message from our heavenly father, "The Lord thy God careth for it. His eyes are upon it away to the ending of the year (Deut 11:11,12)

All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. Here, anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. No heat, no drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all down hill. If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us! It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and brings down the shower of blessing; the hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the showers.

Tagalog Literal Transfer
Ngayon mga kaibigan, simula na ng ating pakikipagsapalaran sa mga bagay na hindi pa natin nalalaman. Nasa harapan natin ang bagong taon at lalakad na tayo upang angkinin ito. Sino ang makapagsasabi kung ano ang ating makikita? Anong mga bagong karanasan, anong mga pagbabago ang darating, anong mga bagong pangangailangan ang kailangang tugunin? Ngunit naririto ang nakalulugod, nakapagpapagaan ng kalooban, nakapagpapasayang mensahe mula sa ating Ama sa Langit...

Lahat ng ating pangangailangan ay tutugunan ng Panginoon. Ito ang mga bukal na hinding-hindi matutuyo; mga pag-agos ng batis at mga pag-indayog ng tubig na walang katapusan. Naririto, para sa iyo na nababahala, ang mabiyayang pangako ng Ama sa Langit. Kung siya ang Pinanggagalingan ng mga awa hinding-hindi tayo mabibigo. Walang anumang tag-init o tag-tuyot ang makatutuyo ng batis na iyon, "....

Ang lupain ay binubuo ng mga burol at kapatagan. Hindi lahat ay bundok o kapatagan. Kung ang lahat sa buhay ay isang patay na kapatagan, ang gayon at gayon ding malamlam na katotohanan ay makasasakal sa atin; kailangan natin ng mga burol at ng mga kapatagan. Iniipon ng mga burol ang ulan para maging mabunga ang daan-daang kapatagan. Ah, at gayon din sa atin! Ang mga mahihirap na pag-akyat sa mga burol ng buhay ang nagtutulak sa atin sa trono ng biyaya, at nagpapabagsak ng ulan ng pagpapala; ang mga burol, ang mga madidilim na burol ng buhay na pinagtatakhan natin at inirereklamo ang nagdidilig sa tuyong kapatagan.

Translation Problems

"we stand upon the verge of the unknown"
simula na ng ating pakikipagsapalaran sa mga bagay na hindi pa natin nalalaman.
simula na ng pakikipagsapalaran natin sa mga bagay na hindi pa natin alam.

"There lies before us"
Nasa harapan natin
or Humaharap tayo ngayon
or Hinaharap natin ngayon

"comforting"
nakakaaliw - can back translate to entertaining
nakapagpapalubag-loob
nakapagpapagaan ng kalooban

"shall arise"
kailangang tugunin
or biglang darating
or haharapin natin

"this dull sameness"
gayon at gayon ding malamlam [na katotohanan]
gayon at gayon ding kalamlaman

"springs"; "fountains"; "streams"; "river"

there are concrete equivalents
mga bukal (springs)

and one may invent an approximate literary equivalent
mga pag-indayog ng tubig (for fountains - literally dancing waters)

and streams can be the small rivers
ilog/batis

and river can be the big sea-dagat

yet, "ilog na iyon" for "that river" doesn't quite fit yet.

"bring down the showers"
ang nagdidilig sa tuyong kapatagan [includes what the showers are for-back translates to bring showers/waters the dry valley]

English to Tagalog technical transfer