Berso sa Metro

The past 2 weeks I changed my route and would travel in the morning through the LRT. It is a longer route since I have to take 2 short rides to go to the station but I find something to look forward to in the train ride: The Berso sa Metro and Tulaan sa Tren.

I realized that the project has been undertaken by the LRTA and Insituto Cervantes de Manila (for the Berso sa Metro series) since 2007 but then again it is only now that I learned about it and I really find it wonderful. I wish that I get to read poems in all the train rides I have but unfortunately they only have them in few coaches. So each time I take a ride I choose a different door to enter and cross my finger that I get to read the poems. It is not just the poems that are great but the artistry involved with it – the graphics. They are really works of art and something that puts joy in your commute. Sometimes I would try to translate the Spanish poems before reading their translation in Tagalog but I could only grasp few words and phrases – oh how I wish I paid more attention to my 4 semesters of Spanish in college!

Anyway here is a poem by Ernesto Cardenal with a translation I got in Tagalog (from a new hire in our company who happened to copy the poem in Tagalog because he said he was able to relate to it) and also a translation in English. I don’t know who did the translation in English but it is not as poetic as the translation in Tagalog.

Al perderte yo a ti, tú y yo hemos perdido:
yo, porque tú eras lo que yo más amaba;
y tú, porque yo era el que te amaba más.
Pero de nosotros dos tú pierdes más que yo:
porque yo podré amar a otras como te amaba a ti,
pero a ti no te amarán como te amaba yo.

- Ernesto Cardenal

Nang mawala ka sa akin, ikaw at ako’y nawalan:
Ako dahil ikaw ang minahal ko nang lubusan
At ikaw dahil ako ang sa iyo’y lubusang nagmahal.
Ngunit sa dalawa ay ikaw ang higit na nawalan:
Dahil pwede kong mahalin ang iba tulad nang pagmamahal ko sa iyo
Ngunit ika’y ‘di mamahalin tulad nang kung paano kita minahal.

—Translated by Salvador Malig Jr.

When I lost you, you and I lost:
I, because you were what I loved the most,
and you, because I was the one who loved you the most.

But of the two of us, you lose more:
because perhaps I’ll love others the way I loved you,
but nobody will love you the way I did.

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Here's another one I found and like. They did not indicate who translated in Tagalog but I also added my translation in English with the help of google translate:

Tu justificas mi existencia;
Si no te conozco, no he vivido;
Si muero sin conocerte, no muero, porque no he vivido.

-Luis Cernuda

Ikaw ang dahilan kung bakit ako nandirito,
kung 'di kita nakilala, 'di sana ako nabuhay.
Kung ako'y mamamatay nang 'di kita nakilala,
hindi ako mamamatay dahil hindi ako nabuhay
~~Translation in Tren

You justify my existence;
If I did not know you, I would not have lived;
If I die without knowing you, I do not die, because I have not lived.
~~ My edited "google translate" translation from Spanish

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And another one...

Si alguna vez la vida te maltrata,
acuerdate de mi,
que no puede cansarse de esperar,
aquel que no se canse de mirarte

-Luis Garcia Montero

Kung sakaling malupit sa iyo ang kapalaran,
alalahanin mo ako,
dahil hindi mapapagod sa paghihintay,
itong walang sawang tumitingin sa iyo.
~~Translation in Tren

If life ever mistreats you,
remember me,
who can not get tired of waiting,
and who does not get tired of looking at you
~~ My edited "google translate" translation from Spanish :(

I know my translation stinks... made me wish more to have paid attention to Spanish in College!