Philippine Normal University

College of Graduate Studies, & Teacher Education Research

Taft Avenue, Manila

Fruto, Christian T. Dr. Florencia Marquez

MA in Linguistics Ling 508
Text: Land of the Morning
[Lupang Hinirang]

Land of the morning

[Bayang magiliw ]
Child of the sun returning
[Perlas ng Silanganan,]
With fervor burning
[Alab ng puso, ]
Thee do our souls adore.
[Sa dibdib mo'y buhay. ]

Land dear and holy,

[Lupang Hinirang]
Cradle of noble heroes,
[Duyan ka ng magiting]
Ne'er shall invaders
[Sa manlulupig, ]
Trample thy sacred shores.
[Di ka pasisiil. ]

Ever within thy skies and through thy clouds

[Sa dagat at bundok, ]
And o'er thy hills and seas;
[Sa simoy at sa langit mong bughaw, ]
Do we behold thy radiance, feel the throb
[May dilag ang tula ]
Of glorious liberty.
[At awit sa paglayang minamahal.]

Thy banner dear to all hearts

[Ang kislap ng watawat mo'y ]
Its sun and stars alright,
[Tagumpay na nagniningning, ]
Oh, never shall its shining fields
[Ang bituin at araw niya ]
Be dimmed by tyrants might.
[Kailan pa ma'y di magdidilim. ]
 Beautiful land of love, oh land of light,
[Lupa ng araw, ng luwalhati't pagsinta, ]
In thine embrace 'tis rapture to lie;
[Buhay ay langit sa piling mo; ]
But it is glory ever when thou art wronged
[Aming ligaya, na pag may mang-aapi ]
For us thy sons to suffer and die.
[Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.]

Source: http://tagaloglang.com/Filipino-Music/Patriotic-Songs-of-the-Philippines/national-
anthem-of-the-philippines-english-version.html

A Critique on the Translation

of the
Philippine National Anthem in the English Language

Introduction
Translation is a process which transforms “a text originally in one language into an
equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the message
and the formal features and functional roles of the original text.” According to Peter Newmark,
translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author
intended the text. For Mildred Larson, translation consists of transferring without distortion the
meaning of the source language into the target language, meaning which must be kept constant,
even when the form of the source language changes as it is turned into the form of the target
language. That is if the translation is meaning-based.

In translation, if there are ten translators translating a literary text, like poem, there will definitely
be ten different versions of the translated product, inevitably there will be difference in words
used, forms or expression of ideas, structure of the lines, and etc. Probably there will be added
words, ahanged and even replaced ideas. According to Savory (Almarion, V. et. al. 2003) it is
impossible to give principle in translation that will not contradict other principle. You must
distinguish between the purity of the verse and the beauty of the prose.
In addition, Savory says, . . . there are no universally accepted principles of translation, because
even the only people who are qualified to formulate principles do not agree among themselves
and oftenly for so long contradict each other, which resulated to have bequeathed to us a volume
of confused thoughts which must be hard to parallel with other fields of literature. Nevertheless,
despite contradictions, theorists present principles to translators to choose from. It is up to the
translators now to choose the necessary and appropriate principles to the text being translated.
Not only that the translation process is dependent on the the principles, but more importantly it
is dependent on the qualities/characteristics of the translator.

According to Savory (1968) translation is made possible by an equivalence of thought

that lies behind its verbal expressions. This means that when you translate, you consider the the
idea or the thought which is not literarlly based but what is being communicated. Similarly,
when you translate, the verbal expression is not being given an exact equivalence, but rather, it
only serves as the basis as the surface structure and not the deep structure. The surface structure
refers to what is seen while the deep structure refers to what is not seen. Hence translation also
considers what is not seen yet communicates. One of the concepts of translation is the claim
between what is being said and what is being communicated.

Objectives
This paper is geared toward analyzing the English translation of the Philippine National
Anthem. Specifically, it is aimed at discussing the various methodologies, processes, and
techniques employed in the translation, and also citing some potential translation problems or
issues inherent in the translated text.

Findings
The translators mainly used the “oblique translation methodology” whereby the structural
or conceptual elements of the source language cannot be directly translated without altering
meaning or upsetting the grammatical and stylistics elements of the target language. The title of
the song itself in the TL which is “Land of the Morning” is completely different to its SL’s title,
“Lupang Hinirang”. This is can be an example of “contextual equivalence technique” in
translation. Symbolically, “morning” may mean “hope”, and “strength”. And thus, it can be said
that this is the “land of hope”, something related with the meaning of the SL’s title. On the
contrary, it can also be seen that the phrase “land of the morning” is another translation of the
phrase “bayang magiliw”, in the first stanza. Perhaps, the translators think that “morning” may
also mean “happiness”, “good fortune” and the like, something that is associated with
cheerfulness and with hope.

Another interesting point of discussion is the idea that the SL’s text is in poetry form. In this
manner, the translators not only considered the rules and principles in translation but also abode
with the conventions of poetry writing since the text is a lyric poem. Simply put, meaning can be
derived true the understanding of a whole stanza rather than isolating a single line. With this in
mind, it would be quite laborious for the translators to go for the “literal translation” or “direct
translation method”. Finally, since lyric poems are meant to be sung, choice of words are held
very significant in the creation of rhyme and meter of each stanza.

Issue
One major drawback in the use of “equivalence” or “reformulation”, as reflected in the
TL’s text, is the “degree of faithfulness” in the SL’s text. Lamaistre stressed in his principles of
translation that “the translation should be faithful to its source text” as much as possible to
preserve its meaning. So it means that a good translator must have full knowledge and
understanding of both languages; the source language and the target language. As Peter
Newmark stipulates, “a translator has to have a flair and a feel for his own language. How can
you make a translation if you have a limited grasp of the languages you will involve in
translating a text?”

Conclusion
In translating a text, it is very important to take into account the nature of the text,
whether it is in prose or poetry, in order to decide upon the kind of translation methodology and
techniques to be employed. Thus, a text can be translated in the target language in different ways
depending on the set objectives. Finally, a good grasp on both the SL and TL is essential to make
an effective translation.
Recommendations
Though apparently, the translators gave justice to the meaning of the text in the SL, it is
still highly suggestive to remain “more faithful” to the text by excluding additional, unnecessary
ideas that may mislead the readers and be more “creative” but “closer” to the intended meaning
or deep structure of the text.