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 ...
A few days ago, I realized that Telemundo's YouTube channel had started uploading some of their telenovelas (most probably as part of their efforts to help people cope with the strict lockdowns imposed a few months ago) including one that I remember being shown in a local TV network dubbed in Tagalog a few years ago. A friend also recommended it to me in the past so I decided to watch the first few episodes to see if I would like it.
One interesting expression that I kept on hearing from the telenovela was the expression muerto de hambre. I remember using this expression as an example of Chabacano words which look like they are direct translations from Tagalog. Anyway, after hearing this expression in the telenovela, I'm starting to think that the Tagalog patay gutom is most likely a direct translation of the Spanish muerto de hambre. In the telenovela, one of the characters would often call the poor workers in the hacienda as muerto de hambre. I think it is similar to the English word 'wretched'.
Perhaps the omission of de in the Chabacano equivalent is recent but as far as I can recall, the Chabacano expression has always been muerto hambre or muertoy hambre. I do not recall if older people would say muerto de hambre.
Literally, the meaning of this expression is eating in huge amounts or simply being a glutton. My memories of this word include my grandmother telling us not to eat too fast because we are not muerto hambre.
As you can imagine, the figurative meaning of this expression which has something to do with one's socio-economic background is not anymore in vogue in today's politically correct society. I don't think anyone would like to be branded as a classist for using this word. Otherwise, I think it is rather cruel to do so. In Tagalog, you will rarely hear it from casual conversations and will only appear from time to time in television programs. I think you will hear it in Cebuano more often where they also use the expression patay gutom but only to refer to themselves and as a synonym to 'being desperate'.
How about you? Do you use the expression muerto hambre, muertoy hambre, or muerto de hambre?
As a native spanish speaker the expression "Muerto de hambre" is quite common. As you say it has several meaning one used as an insult "muerto de hambre" as a despective way to address poor people. The other meaning is "I'm (or you are) starving"
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. You're on a roll! :P
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