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

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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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Translating The Little Prince: The Most Famous Quote Of Them All

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"Por medio del corazon lang ta puede mira enbuenamente. No puede mira el maga ojos si cosa el deverasan importante."

This is undeniably the most popular quote from The Little Prince and I took great care in translating it into Chabacano because I wanted the Chabacano version to make the reader feel the same way as they would reading it in English. I used a Chabacano that's in between formal and casual, not too spanishy, and not too conversational either.

Here is the quote in its original French:

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

Here is how it was translated in Spanish:

No se ve bien sino con el corazón; lo esencial es invisible para los ojos.

Here's how it was translated to Filipino by Desiderio Ching in 1991:

Sa pamamagitan lamang ng puso makakakitang buti. Hindi kita ng mata ang pinakapuso ng mga bagay.

Here's how it was translated in Bicol:

An puso sana an makakahiling kan tama; an pinakaubod kan mga bagay dai nahihiling kan mata.

Here is how it was translated to English by Katherine Woods in 1943:

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Here is how it was translated to English by Richard Howe in 2000:

One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.

Here's the first version of this quote that I made in Chabacano:

Hende claro na maga ojos el maga cosa importante. Si ta usa lang con el corazon, ay puede mira enbuenamente.

Later, I revised it to:

Por medio del corazon lang ay puede mira enbuenamente; no puede mira el maga ojos el cosa importante.

But I felt like it lacked emotions. Plus, I didn't want a translation that looked like it was taken from Google Translate. The good thing about Chabacano is that it is a very expressive language, with all its gayod, man, gane, gale, etc. and using one of these words can alter the meaning of a sentence or make it sound more emphatic. So I changed it to:

Por medio del corazon lang ta puede mira enbuenamente. No puede mira el maga ojos si cosa gayod el deverasan importante.

I liked that version but I felt like it was too expressive and did not mirror the style that the quote was written in originally. While that was the version that made it to the actual book, this was the version that made it to the back cover of the book:

Por medio del corazon lang ta puede mira enbuenamente. No puede mira el maga ojos si cosa el deverasan importante.

The word por medio is not used in conversational Chabacano but anybody who listens or watches Chabacano news programs would know it.

Deverasan is a word that comes from the Spanish de veras. It is an adjective but can also be an adverb such as in this case.

Relevant Links:

A Reading by the Translator from El Diutay Principe: https://rebrand.ly/translatorreading

El Diutay Principe Book Excerpt: https://rebrand.ly/edppdf

Frequently Asked Questions About The Translation: https://rebrand.ly/edpfaq

Launch video: https://rebrand.ly/launchvid

More photos of the book: https://rebrand.ly/edpphotogallery

Media Kit: https://rebrand.ly/edpmediakit

Visit El Diutay Principe on Facebook at www.facebook.com/eldiutayprincipe

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