A Critique Paper on "Ang Suwat sa Sugarol" by Adonis Durado

The source text (Binisaya) and the translated text (English)

Adonis Durado is a multi-awarded Cebuano poet, illustrator, and graphic designer. He was born on August 25, 1975, in Cebu City, Philippines. He is a Fine Arts graduate from the University of San Carlos, Philippines. One of his famous crafts is the poem entitled “Ang Suwat sa Sugarol.” The writer usually uses Cebuano as his medium in writing poems and other masterpieces. According to him, “I invest so much on images and metaphors when I’m writing than playing with sound. I am more of an imagist than a lyric.” He’s trained as a visual artist so most of his works are more on visuals. He added that, he likes balance, harmony, proportion, contrast, etc. These are principles in designing that he always applies when he writes. He wanted all of his crafts will be appreciated not just by those urbanized humanoids but as well as those who are living in the remoter areas. “Suwat sa Sugarol” poem is simply an allegory of life of a gambler. The terms that are usually used in gambling are being utilized there as a mere description of a gambler’s lifestyle, characteristics, and vices. And it was also shown there how a gambler faced his tremendous consequences and own bad karma after all the bad things that he did before.
According to my own observation, you will not understand the ST (source text) if you will translate the text literally in another form of language, simply because, every term that were used by the writer in the ST has a deeper meaning and you have to dig deeper to unleash the hidden meaning. Every line in the TT (translated text) in general, was translated literally that changes the whole meaning that the writer from the ST wanted to convey to his audience. Some of the lines were translated correctly or has the same meaning with the ST but majority of the lines in the text diverted from what is the meaning of the ST is all about. Each words and phrases that were used were literally translated without focusing on the original writer’s authentic meaning in the ST. I firmly suggests that, as a translator, you need first to understand the whole meaning of the ST before translating it because as far as I am concerned, the meaning in the ST when translated was distorted. Do not use literal translation to some sort of poems that are somehow uses a lot of imagery and metaphors because it might have something behind it. Analyze the ST first and instead of word-for-word, translate it using the sense-for-sense.
The TT was somehow translated well but failed to convey the meaning from what the writer wanted to convey in the ST. As for me, when you read and analyze both the ST and the TT, the two texts were two different poems with the same terminologies used. They were not parallel to each other and is somehow far from what Adonis wanted to convey.

References:
http://balakerongdaku.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html?m=1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adonis_Durado

Pan's Labyrinth Movie Review

Pan’s Labyrinth Movie
Two worlds amalgamated in one movie was indeed a beautiful sight! Fairy tales and scary movies are designed not only to console the viewers but as well as to terrify them. What makes Pan’s Labyrinth a masterpiece is it balances its own magical thinking with the knowledge that not everyone lives happily ever after.

What I loved the most upon seeing the movie was it shows four factors of which even real people could relate although Del Toro (the Director of the movie) already mixed something fictional in the story. I loved its brutality, sorrow and darkness but with something enchantment to shift human interests and made the movie line more interesting. Without these factors, the movie would be as dull as a teacher-dominated classroom.

When you disintegrate the factors linking it to the real scenes in the movie, first we have brutality. Captain Vidal, the wicked stepfather serves both as the real world, real-life villain in the movie showed his brutality towards his pregnant wife Carmen and his stepdaughter Ofelia and as a captain in military aspect, he was not only brutal to the guerillas but as well as to the innocent individuals. It can be seen in the movie his love to punish and torture that was very inhumane towards other people whom he thought were sinful. Throughout the movie, Ofelia and her mom were already in great sorrow upon the treatment of Captain Vidal who just purely wanted the baby inside the belly of Ofelia’s mother and not them. And the setting was already in great chaos. Darkness happened when everything were in doomed and there was no escape anymore but in contrary to the inimical events were the magical occurrences done by the magical intuitions of Ofelia together with her friends Faun and other rare creatures that only Ofelia could see.

A heart-pounding movie written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro wherein in the midst of despondency of war there occurred a child’s never-never land and most of all, the movie has a dark-twisted and a beautiful entwining of fairy-tale fantasy with war-movie horror to capture the eyes and interest of many viewers.

Everything, everything short movie review/reaction

I just wanted to share my short reaction review regarding in the movie entitled "Everything, everything" wherein it has an excellent and unexpected plot twist that blew my mind and so as my perception in watching various types of movies. The movie would tell us that the love of a mom is immeasurable and she will do everything for the sake of her kids though it's very risky. The protagonist in the movie, on the other hand, would tell us that everything is worth the risks and death will always come to us if it is our time already but if not yet? Savor each moment with someone you love the most.

     Looking Throughout The Century

"Saamong panahon kay dili na maayo!"
"Saamo bitaw nauna, wala mana!"
"Saamo nauna.. Saamo nauna..."

      Did your parents or your elders tell you some of these phrases? Well, simply because they existed in an era where technology were still insignificant. Nadine Lustre once bashed in the online community just because she said, "C'mon guys it's 2017!" and as I had observed, majority of her haters because of that statement were kids from 90s below and the ones who praised her straightforwardness were kids in the new millenial generation. Technology is circulating the globe now, with that, change has come not only in the world of  medias and machineries but also to our humanity.

According to Cooper Fleishman's article, nearly 30 years ago, the New York Times took a skeptical look at the laptop, or the "executive computer," what was in 1985 an obscenely pricey work tool for the corporate class. "For the most part, the portable computer is a dream machine for the few," the article stated. "Somehow, the microcomputer industry has assumed that everyone would love to have a keyboard grafted on as an extension of their fingers. It just is not so."

Our tech can provide an escape from the mundane and from ourselves. It provides troves of knowledge, indulges our deepest obsessions and grants easy access to dangerous vices. We'll be telling stories about it. 

 

  The table below shows the differences of parents 30 years ago and the new millenial generation when it comes to media/technologies, social relationships and their beliefs/values:

    Based in my own experience, technology plays significant role in our society nowadays, however, it does not only gives us benefits but also negative impacts where health, social relationships and our very own culture are greatly affected. Furthermore, technology before was just simply making the life of the people a little bit easier in contrast today, where technology is part of the human lives. They could not live without it and technology as well is somewhat useless without its consumers. It's as if they're glued together and live for the rest of their lives depending on each other. 

   

 Hence, we cannot eradicate the advancement of technology but we can embrace it and adapt to that change and when change finally has come then it is up to us now how will we handle and control that change without affecting our health, our society and our beloved Mother Earth.