Translations into Filipino
Catch a Falling Star
A translator must be both a gifted writer and a dedicated scholar. Because translating a literary work requires intelligence, patience, sensitivity, erudition, and a generous spirit. The combination of these qualities results in empathy, which is what good translations must have. So I feel remarkably honored that Chuckberry Pascual (whose own literary works I admire and respect) has chosen to translate my work. The world I write about in Catch a Falling Star is the Manila of a colegiala in the late 50s and early 60s, a vastly different world from the one Chuck lives in. And yet, because he possesses those very qualities I mentioned, he has restored my world to vivid life for a different generation of readers. A new edition of the original English version was released last year to mark the book’s 20th anniversary. To make it also available for readers more comfortable in Filipino is the fulfillment of one of my long-held dreams. My heart is full. – Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Professor Emeritus, University of the Philippines Diliman
Filipino edition of Catch a Falling Star
Winner, Kids’ Choice Award, 7th National Children’s Book Awards
Finalist, Best Translation, Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards 2022
Finalist, Best Translated Book in Filipino, 40th National Book Awards
Mga Kuwentong Bayan para sa Gabing Maulan (Tales for a Rainy Night)
One can find in these works concepts that critics commonly associate with postmodernism: fragmentation, intertextuality, heteroglossia, and so on. These can be cited as reasons why Hidalgo’s contribution as a storyteller is essential. But perhaps Hidalgo’s most crucial contribution is valuing memory, her constant reminder that we must remember and never forget—the stories of women and the stories of the people.
Filipino edition of Tales for a Rainy Night
Finalist, Best Translated Book in Filipino, 42nd National Book Awards
Kundiman ng Panahong Naiwan (Ballad of a Lost Season)
One can find in these works concepts that critics commonly associate with postmodernism: fragmentation, intertextuality, heteroglossia, and so on. These can be cited as reasons why Hidalgo’s contribution as a storyteller is essential. But perhaps Hidalgo’s most crucial contribution is valuing memory, her constant reminder that we must remember and never forget—the stories of women and the stories of the people.
Filipino edition of Ballad of a Lost Season
Sa Bayan ng Nagngangalit na Buwan (Where Only the Moon Rages)
One can find in these works concepts that critics commonly associate with postmodernism: fragmentation, intertextuality, heteroglossia, and so on. These can be cited as reasons why Hidalgo’s contribution as a storyteller is essential. But perhaps Hidalgo’s most crucial contribution is valuing memory, her constant reminder that we must remember and never forget—the stories of women and the stories of the people.
Filipino edition of Where Only the Moon Rages
Ilustrado
When the body of famous writer Crispin Salvador is found in the Hudson River, the last book he wrote and believed to be his masterpiece, The Bridges Ablaze, is also discovered to be missing.
Ilustrado recounts “Miguel Syjuco’s” quest for The Bridges Ablaze through various texts: recollections, jokes, dreams, e-mails, newspaper articles, blog entries, interviews, excerpts from unfinished biographies, excerpts from essays, short stories, young adult novels, pulp novels, historical novels, and history books.
The novel plays with form, but it does not blink at the frustrations and possibilities of hope found in the society it depicts.
Filipino edition of Ilustrado
Winner, Best Translated Book in Filipino, 41st National Book Awards
Finalist, Best Book Design, 41st National Book Awards