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 ...
Depending on where you live in the Philippines or the family that you were born into, this practice may have different applications or perhaps it isn't practiced at all. When I stayed over a friend's house in Bataan for Christmas twelve years ago, we attended a midnight mass and I was very surprised when I saw people falling in line to take the priest's hand. They also practiced this at home with their parents and visitors were expected to do it as well. It felt very strange to take the hand of my friend's father whom I have only met a few days ago and place it on my forehead. My friend in Tarlac told me that this was not practiced at all among Ilocanos. She said that this was a Tagalog tradition. I have always associated this practice as a manner of greeting and showing respect to aunts and uncles who lived far away. For some reason, my parents never asked me to do this with my paternal grandmother and aunt and uncles who lived next door. Normally, we kiss them as a f...