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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 ...
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Ya Ama, Ya Llora, Y Ya Queda Solo na Vida (A Chabacano Spoken Word Poem) by Jesthoni Acosta

I fell in love with this poem the moment I read it. For quite some time now, we have been seeing these Tagalog nagmahal, nasaktan memes making the rounds online and I think that it's about time we have a Chabacano adaptation. Here now is a spoken word poem by Jesthoni Acosta (reposted with permission from the author).


Ya Ama, Ya Llora, Y Ya Queda Solo na Vida

Cuando solo y silencio
Ya hace tu espanta mi corazon dormido
Tu el gente gago que ya hace escapa mi corazon como'y perro loco
Tu el gente gago que ya hace con este amo

Cuanto meses ya pasa
Ya dale yo el dulce palabra
Maga palabra bien vale na oida
Ojala no mas tu hace de no hay nada

Hasta ya'n junto kita
Firme kita ta tiene pelea
El amor ta perde
Y yo aqui tan muni-muni por que este ta sucede

Habla tu yo lang y no hay mas otro pa
Por que ya coge yo contigo tiene tu otro uban na cama
Y el mas duele na todo
Mas ya escoge tu con ele contra conmigo

Este maga luha ta cae na mi cara
Amo el luha ta habla na mi corazon tanga-tanga
Si, de veras, ay ama pa yo
Pero hinde ya contigo

Ahora mi corazon denegrido
Sangrino y desaparecido
Hasta aqui ya lang seguro
Y ay queda ya tambien yo solo-solo

Spoken word poetry is an oral form of art that is often composed in the 'heat of the moment'. The author is a Bachelor of Physical Education student at Western Mindanao State University.

*This poem first appeared in Zamboanga Thoughts. It was edited so that the spelling would follow the prescribed Chabacano orthography.
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