This Translation Tuesday, we feature the award-winning poet Jim Pascual Agustin who—born in the Philippines and subsequently moved to South Africa in 1994—represents what it means to write from a bilingual and binational space, to write between and across two homes. Self-translated from the Filipino across three decades, these poems speak to moments of precarious fragility that stretch from the life of a cockroach to his speaker’s experience of existential freedom. In Agustin’s translator’s note, we are treated to a mind that views the relationship between writing and translation as symbiotic—troubling the easy distinction and hierarchy between an original and a translation—as he explores his attitude towards self-translated writing as a kind of feedback loop and versioning.
“More and more I have been looking at my self-translated writing as ‘versions’ instead of traditional translations. These poems were written and translated over many years. The original Filipino version of ‘Upon Waking’ (‘Paggising’) was written in 1994 and first appeared nearly two decade later in my all Filipino poetry collection Baha-bahagdang Karupukan (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Manila 2011). I first attempted translating it in 2010, and then again in 2014. With feedback from a special international group of friends from an online discussion group called The Boathouse, I decided to leave out an entire stanza that was in the middle part of the original. The cut made for a stronger version of the poem. ‘No Past, No Future’ sees publication ahead of the original Filipino (‘Walang Kahapon, Walang Kinabukasan’). This poem was written, revised and translated on the same day in January 2021, with each version influencing the completion of the other. To me, though, the English version lacks the immediacy and nearly blunt force of the original such that it almost comes off, in comparison, as a cushioned version. I attempted translating ‘For the Saviours’ ten years after the original (‘Para sa mga Tagapagligtas’ from Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, USTPH 2011) was published. I don’t have the exact date of composition, but I think it dates back to the years following the 1986 People Power EDSA Revolution which toppled the Marcos dictatorship. Looking at the images again, I cannot help but see that they are just as apt to the tragedies brought upon by the current Duterte regime in the Philippines.”
—Jim Pascual Agustin
Upon Waking
Wing of cockroach
lies on the floor, but
no trace of its body
or a single leg.
Last night I heard it
crawling like
someone whispering
in the wall
next to my bed.
I pick up the wing,
it feels breakable.
Distant echo
of the flapping
of angels or demons.
Now it is here,
right here
between
my fingers
that are nothing
but mere flesh,
mere bone.
No Past, No Future
Your palms react and retract
from the touch of my hand,
as if they had been scraped
by a bad fall. We often fail
to notice the sharpness of a blade
on the ground where we stand,
the ground we walk each day.
It is easy to forget that sometimes
it is necessary to go slowly
or come to a complete stop
when there is thick fog or hard rain
or when smoke engulfs us, billowing
from a fire that cannot be traced.
For the Saviours
I can now walk on the side of the road
without having to avoid traces
of blood or the shadows of the murdered.
At home I no longer need to bolt
the windows shut, fearing
the creeping voices of prisoners.
Freedom is so visible, it makes the eyes
of babies look like wounds
while the newspapers declare the names
of the new saviours of the land.
Translated from the Filipino by Jim Pascual Agustin
Jim Pascual Agustin was born in the Philippines and moved to South Africa in 1994. His first book, Beneath an Angry Star (Anvil Publishing, Manila 1992), contained poetry in Filipino and English. His work appears or is forthcoming in Modern Poetry in Translation, Rhino, World Literature Today, New Coin, Ake Review, and Hotazel Review, among others. He has published several poetry collections and a short story collection, Sanga sa Basang Lupa at iba pang Kuwento, in Filipino. UK-based publisher The Onslaught Press released his eighth poetry collection, Wings of Smoke in 2017. How to Make a Salagubang Helicopter & other poems (San Anselmo Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the National Book Award in Manila. Crocodiles in Belfast & other poems, is his most recent book. Both titles are also on Amazon Kindle. He was awarded the Magdala Award at the 2021 Poetry in McGregor Festival. His randomly updated blog is www.matangmanok.com.
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