The Poems of Ruth Mabanglo
INTRODUCTION
by Roderick Niro Labrador
Ruth Mabanglo is both a poet and scholar. She has been publishing poetry for over 30 years and has received numerous literary awards and honors, most recently the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame Award, the 1992 Commission on Filipino Language "Makata ng Taon" (Poet of the Year) for the poem "Gahasa" (Rape), and the Manila Critics Circle 1990 National Book Award for Poetry for Mga Liham ni Pinay (The Letters of Pinay). Mabanglo has also published many academic works and currently is a professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where she teaches Tagalog Language and Literature in the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature.
Many of the poems included in this collection have appeared elsewhere, but most have never been accompanied with an English translation. Although translating these poems into English can be perceived as a capitulation to American hegemony, a submission to the domination of the former colonizer's language, they reflect the poet's attempts to negotiate the realities of a Filipina exiled in a post-colonial diasporic space. And for more practical purposes, these English translations enable a wider audience, providing access to those who may not be able to fluently read, write, and think in Tagalog, especially those who link their cultural patrimony to the Philippines.
For this new readership, these translations offer a glimpse into the cultures, histories, and peoples embedded in the original language (although in the process of translation they have been "Americanized" to a certain extent). However as a word of precaution, the reader must not be fully satisfied with the translations for they are unable to completely capture the cultural, historical, political, and linguistic (and literary) nuances; for a fuller understanding, the reader must immerse herself in the language in which it was originally presented. Thus, the translations, in various ways, are unsatisfactory, inadequate re-presentations of a Tagalog original (and in this way, one can argue they are new poems). In many instances, Tagalog words remain in the English translations and are attached with footnotes and explanations. This was done in an attempt to facilitate reading and interpretation and at the same time, remain faithful to the Tagalog original so that the metaphors and meanings would not be completely lost.
The project of translating the poems in Invitation of the Imperialist has been arduous and rewarding and fortunately, not an individual effort. I cannot claim sole responsibility for the translations. This would be totally inaccurate. The translations are products of collaborative efforts between Mabanglo and myself, a process marked by interactive communication and compromise. This cooperative partnership was largely a result of my discomfort with being the primary translator of Mabanglo's poetry. As a non-native Tagalog speaker, 1.5 generation Filipino American man, how could I possibly capture the flow, rhythm, tone, metaphors, literary devices (such as alliteration and playing with words like in "mga tao/n"), rhyme scheme, and mood of poems written in a language I had only studied for a few years (under Mabanglo's tutelage), whose voice is a woman's voice, whose themes are specific to women's experiences, and whose subjects address feminist issues? I could not and cannot.
Thankfully, Mabanglo agreed to a cooperative partnership where for many of the poems, she provided the basic framework and I offered suggestions or made adjustments. For the other poems, the translations proceeded in the other direction. Thus, Invitation of the Imperialist is the fruit of our collective labor---more than a year of meetings, conversations, and discussions over word choices, meanings, and the socio-cultural and politico-historical contexts of the poems. In this sense, the English translations in this collection must be conceived as collaborative translations.
Works Cited:
Constantino, Renato. "The Miseducation of the Filipino" in The Philippines Reader, Daniel B. Schirmer and Stephen Shalom (eds.). Boston: South End Press, 1987.
Fanon, Frantz. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1967
McClintock, Anne. "No Longer in a Future Heaven: Gender, Race and Nationalism" in Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives, Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shohat (eds.). Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
San Juan, Jr. E. Writing and National Liberation: Essays in Critical Practice. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1991.
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