Language/Wika/Diwa and the Global Pinoy
Posted by: Fats in: Wika at HirapFrom the concept of aesthetic equilibrium I mentioned in the postscript of the Ateneo forum/presentation, I received some very interesting questions from Rod Samonte, Filipino artist based in the US, through the Banggaan Yahoogroup about language and translations. He said:
On the subject of “articulation,” which came first the Tagalog or English words or did you want both Tagalog/English in your concept of Aesthetic Equilibrium? I am somewhat bothered that if you separate those concepts into just Tagalog they would not translate directly and altogether might have a different meaning if read only in English according to your translation. Your Tagalog, or inversely, whichever came first, your English translations of your concepts, are these your own translation as you see it with deeper meaning than I am able to understand? It seems to me kaluluwa/knowledge could be translated as kaluluwa/soul or spirit; or inversely, kaalaman or karunungan/knowledge. Same goes with ginhawa/body, maybe ginhawa/health; or katawan/body works better.
I posted my reply on the Banggaan Yahoogroup, as below.
Hi Rod,
Thanks so much for these questions - they help much in clarifying my own thoughts.
I can’t separate the concepts at all - whether in English or Filipino - because I was educated in English and I grew up in a Filipino (Tagalog) speaking community - plus Ilokano/Bikolano in the family. Of course, not only is this a personal reality but a reality in terms of Philippine society.
So, yes, the concepts are to be understood in both English and Filipino, as conjoined concept-languages, but more in the context of Philippine society rather than American or European or other society; although the interpretation within a different context brings out many interesting insights, especially perhaps in Filipino-American society. I also don’t believe that direct translations are effective because direct translations have the danger of losing context of the original.
So usually, I refer to the English-Filipino words as “reflections” rather than “translations.” These reflections are based on personal experience aided by readings on Filipino Philosophy and Anthropology written by Filipino intellectuals (such as Jesus Peralta, Renato Constantino, Zeus Salazar, F. Landa Jocano and others). I also use various Tagalog-English dictionaries, especially the one by JV Panganiban because it is also a thesaurus and has words in several of the major Filipino languages (as well as Bahasa Indonesia, Melayu, etc.)
In direct Tagalog-English translation you are correct that Kaluluwa translates to Soul, but in the Filipino worldview, Kaluluwa is reflected in “Kalag” (in Bicol and Bisaya). So, actually in Filipino, the concept of “kalag” is rather complex:
In Bisaya and Bikulano language, soul (kaluluwa) and untie (kalag) are synonymous. Soul can be untied from body (ginhawa) when:
1. The person is asleep and dreaming
2. When the person is unconscious
3. When an infant or child is “having a tantrum”
4. When a person is sickIn 1-4, the person, though without a soul, remains alive.
5. When a person dies - in this case the soul becomes an anito and the body is destroyed.
On the other hand, “spirit” does not reflect “kaluluwa” but rather to “espiritu” which is a concept-language that we got from the Spanish (and their religion).
The concepts above are very much alive in Filipino culture and are manifested in (non-Catholic) concepts such as “usog” for example, as well as folk medicine.
If language is a medium by which concept are internalized and externalized, then, for me, that implies that we don’t merely use language to communicate, but we are actually building and developing languages as we use them.
Eto nga pala (below) ang mind-body “dualism” ng Pinoy, medyo kaka-iba sya sa western mind-body split. Actually, dinagdagan ko ito ng “wika” (or “language” and “symbolization” / “pagsasagisag”), kasi naniniwala ako na mas wholistic ang relationship ng mind-body sa Eastern cultures at mas na-emphasize ito through a “triad” rather than a “dualism” or “binary.”
1. Within kaluluwa=diwa (soul=consciousness): konseptong intelektuwal - isip/akala (thought/belief or presumption); dunong/alam (knowledge/sense or wisdom); talino/talisik (intellgience/erudition or deep learning); hulo/hula (deduction arrived through raciocination/prediction or conjecture).
2. Within ginhawa=damdam (spirit or freedom from want=feeling or sensing): Konseptong sensoryal - lasa/tikim (taste/to taste); kita/tingin (vision/to see); ulinig/dinig (something heard in passing/to listen).
Sa dito, ay mas klaro kung bakit “Kaluluwa=Knowledge” at “Ginhawa=Body”, plus “wika” ay nabuo ang “aethetic equilibrium” o buhay at bisa.
Mabuhay!
Fats
My interest also lies in how Filipino-Americans are now articulating their own “global Pinoy-ness.” It’s really interesting, for example, how Filipino-Americans are becoming interested in the babaylan, which perhaps a number of local Pinoys would find rather to “exoticized.” However, according to the book proposal description sent to me by Leny Strobel, also based in the US:
“Prof. Jun de Leon, Filipino indigenization scholar, says that underlying Filipino personality is the figure of the babaylan—she who embodies and represents the openness of the culture to the world outside, the notion of kapwa (the other as part of one’s self), the fluid, inclusive boundaries of her social world, the lack of preoccupation with control, and the ability to traverse many worlds. How this structure of subjectivity, notwithstanding its long submergence into the subconscious by centuries of colonization, continues to manifest in Filipinos’ everyday transaction of their social world constitutes a fascinating subject of study.”
Here the babaylan manifests (in her philosophy and rituals) the global Pinoy phenomenon. It’s just interesting that the Filipino-Americans consider this as “real” whereas many local Pinoys would probably consider it too “exotic”!
