The Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS) of the University of Santo Tomas and Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (Umpil) held a National Seminar on Translation, titled “The Role of Translation in the K-12 Curriculum,” on Sept. 28 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium. The seminar was in celebration of World Translation Day.
Isagani Cruz, professor emeritus of De La Salle University and president of De La Salle College, gave the keynote address, on “The Mother Tongue Policy in Grade School;” and National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera spoke on “Not Language Alone: Translation and Culture.”
Other speakers were SEA Write awardees Marne Kilates (who, aside from writing lovely books of his own and editing an online literary magazine, has more than 30 years of experience as a literary translator)l CWLS associates Michael M. Coroza and Rebecca Añonuevo; this year’s SEA Write awardee. Kilates, Añonuevo and Corroza are among the few Filipino writers, who, besides producing excellent poetry themselves, use their considerable gifts to translate the works of other writers.
Technical translation was discussed by Imelda de Castro of UST’s Faculty of Arts & Letters, and Minda Limbo, officer-in-charge of the Translation Division of the Komisyon ng Wika.
CCWLS director and University of the Philippines professor emeritus Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo said that “since ours is a nation of many languages and cultures, translation is not an option, but a necessity.”
“Our literatures will accomplish more effectively than anything else the task of explaining ourselves to each other,” she added, “and this we must do before we can even think of explaining ourselves to other peoples, or becoming globally competitive, which is what the new K-12 Curriculum hopes to accomplish.”
A special feature of the seminar was the launching of Volume 2, issue 2 of Tomas the CCWLS’s peer-reviewed, bi-lingual, literary journal. Tomas 2 includes contributions by Cirilo F. Bautista, Oscar V. Campomanes, Alma Anonas-Carpio, Paul Alcoseba Castillo, Albert B. Casuga, Michael M. Coroza, Carlomanh Arcangel Daoana, Kat del Rosario, Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, Bienvenido Lumbera, Jose Victor Torres, Recah A. Trinidad and Sooey Valencia.
Another special feature was a short poetry reading by Kilates, Añonuevo and Corroza, and CCWLS deputy director Ralph Galan, of poems that they had translated either from English to Filipino or Filipino to English.
Despite the gloomy weather, guests came from schools as far away as Quezon and Batangas, as well as from Far Eastern University, St. Scholastica’s College, San Sebastian, Philippine Women’s University, University of the East and UP.