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The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

While Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) written by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry in 1943 now has over 300 translations in different languages worldwide and is now considered the world’s most translated book (not counting religious works), there have been surprisingly only two translations of his book in the Philippines (Filipino and Bicol). El Diutay Principe is only the third edition featuring a Philippine language. The Little Prince is a classic French novella about a pilot who gets stranded in the desert after a plane crash and encounters a little fellow who asks him to draw a sheep for him. Through the course of their meeting, the pilot rediscovers the true meaning of life and what people should value the most. When I came across the book in 2013, I found that I could relate very well to the negative image given to “growing up” in the book. When the idea to translate the book into my mother tongue was presented to me, I didn’t think twice. I thought, ‘a lot of people my

Pasacalle- A Chavacano de Ermita Song

I recently found a video on YouTube featuring the song Pasacalle. According to the uploader, the song is in Ermitaño Chavacano.

I tried listening to the song but I can’t make out any of the words.

Since the user disabled embedding for his video, here is the youtube link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUk9G-Mq5Rg

I previously asked if anyone out there knew the lyrics to this song. As can be seen from the comments section of this post, somebody (by the name of Mr. Cesar Mamongan Jr) replied to my plea and posted the lyrics to this song. Below is the lyrics in its original Chavacano de Ermita.

Pasacalle de Aray by Jesus Balmori

En la dulzura de mi afán
Junto contigo na un peñón
Mientras ta despierta el buwan
Y en las playas del Pasay
Se iba bajando el sol.

Yo te decía "Gusto ko!"
Tú me decías "Justo na!"
Y de repente "Ay naku!"
ya sentí yo como si un aswang se acercá.

Que un cangrejo ya corré (ya corré, corré, corré)
Poco a poco na tu la(d)o
Y de pronto ta escondé
Bajo tus faldas...amoratado!

Cosa que el diablo hace
Si escabeche o kalamay
Es el que no ta sabé
Hasta que yo ya escuché
Fuerte fuerte el voz ¡Aray!

As was commented by Mr. Mamongan, there are some parts which does seem like Spanish. These are the parts which have conjugated verbs (se iba, decía, *escuché, decías). Not all verbs in the song however are conjugated. Corré, escondé, sabé are already "chabacanized". This is evident in the fact that the last letter is stressed.

We do see obvious Chabacano lexicons such as na and ta (as present tense marker) and ya (as past tense marker) before verbs.

Just a disclaimer, the analysis made on the song is based on what the commentor posted below.

Comments

  1. Pasacalle de Aray
    a song in Chabacano de Ermita

    En la dulzura de mi afán
    Junto contigo na un peñón
    Mientras ta despierta el buwan
    Y en las playas del Pasay
    Se iba bajando el sol.

    Yo te decía "Gusto ko!"
    Tú me decías "Justo na!"
    Y de repente "Ay naku!"
    ya sentí yo como si un aswang se acercá.

    Que un cangrejo ya corré (ya corré, corré, corré)
    Poco a poco na tu la(d)o
    Y de pronto ta escondé
    Bajo tus faldas...amoratado!

    Cosa que el diablo hace
    Si escabeche o kalamay
    Es el que no ta sabé
    Hasta que yo ya escuché
    Fuerte fuerte el voz ¡Aray!

    In my opinion, its lyrics are a mixture of Spanish and Chabacano because, as you may observe, some of the verbs are conjugated, something that rarely exists in creole contact languages like Chabacano and Papiamento.

    Anyway, since you have been looking for the lyrics of this Hispanofilipino folk song, I have provided them here for your analysis.

    More power on your blog.

    César Momongan, Jr. (Cebú)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Jerome:

    I appreciate your acknowledgement but I have no intention at all for copyright infringement. Credits of the song go to Sr. Don Guillermo Gómez Rivera who was the interpreter of this song in his album Nostalgia Filipina vol. 2. Unfortunately, the composer of the song seems to be anonymous as it was meant to be a traditional folk song which might have been handed down from generation to generation.

    At any rate, thank you very much for your blog as it brings lots of valuable information regarding the Philippine Spanish creole language known as Chabacano in its different varieties. Keep it up!

    Te deseo una Feliz Navidad y un próspero Año 2013. Un abrazo.

    César Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can add something about the composer: it was Jesus Balmori. The song is written in the Ermita chabacano as it was really spoken around 1920, with a strong influence of non-creolized Spanish. Balmori also wrote some pieces in a more traditional (and idealized) Ermita chabacano, like "Na maldito arena", published in the Revista Filipina. vol. 11, number 4, pp. 21-73. April 1917.

    Feliz Navidad!

    Mauro

    Mauro

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gracias Sr. Mauro por tu valiosa informacion!

    ReplyDelete
  5. senyores jerome, mauro and cesar jr.
    is this jesus balmori the composer of the sacred heart hymn "no mas amor que el tuyo"?
    for your info, i was born a full-blooded chabacano in cavite city in 1947, but our family moved to padre faura, ermita in 1954. our family met some chabacano-speaking remnants serving the local parish, nuestra senora de guia, (at that time administered by spanish capuchin friars) but they soon dissipated and moved elsewhere, not passing on the language to their children. que lastima!

    bobby valentin
    ciudad de bacoor, cavite

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bobby, unfortunately I don't know a lot about Jesus Balmori but let's wait what other people would say. Thank for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ojalá todo hablantes de la lengua Chavacano (Bahra, Zamboangueño, Caviteñ, Ermitense, Abakay y el Cotabateñ) hay puede uní na un cita para puede kita/nisos/mijotros estandarizá e intelectualizá nuestro/de aton/di nisos/de motros Idioma Materna.

    Con Atentamente,

    Áron; Un Ilonggo-Zamboangueño

    ReplyDelete

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