Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29

This paper examines the translation praxis, called Sinaramutan, of Godehardo Calleja in his rendering of Shakespeare's sonnets for the Bikolnon (people from Bikol) in the southeastern Luzon region of the Philippines. Sinaramutan derives from the Bikol word simot, meaning gleanings or leftovers,...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Santos, Maria Lorena M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/1/TT%2016.pdf
_version_ 1848815675163803648
author Santos, Maria Lorena M.
author_facet Santos, Maria Lorena M.
author_sort Santos, Maria Lorena M.
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper examines the translation praxis, called Sinaramutan, of Godehardo Calleja in his rendering of Shakespeare's sonnets for the Bikolnon (people from Bikol) in the southeastern Luzon region of the Philippines. Sinaramutan derives from the Bikol word simot, meaning gleanings or leftovers, while a related verb, saramutan, means to collect or to heap together many small items. In his Sinaramutan translations, Calleja mainly uses a base lexicon of the Bikol Central Standard dialect, to which he adds vocabulary from the languages and dialects of Bikol provinces, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, and Masbate; he occasionally borrows from Tagalog, the basis of the country’s national language or, more rarely from Philippine regional languages like Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a, related Austronesian languages of Southeast Asia, and Sanskrit. In doing this, he avoids words of Western origin, specifically from Spanish and English, the languages of former colonisers. The title of Calleja’s collection reflects the decolonising enterprise of his translation praxis: Kun Saná si Shakes Taga Satô, which means “If Shakes Were Just from Here.” This paper zooms in on translations of two well-known sonnets, 18 and 29, to harvest what it can from applying a Sinaramutan translation that localises and talks back to Shakespeare and a Bikolnon linguistic canon. The paper argues that Calleja's translation praxis does more than write back to the coloniser: It also defies both the regional centre and a monolithic Bikol language by cultivating a Bard who is Bikolnon, thus writing into Bikol a “Shakes” from here.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T00:53:45Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:22740
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T00:53:45Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:227402023-12-26T10:17:10Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/ Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29 Santos, Maria Lorena M. This paper examines the translation praxis, called Sinaramutan, of Godehardo Calleja in his rendering of Shakespeare's sonnets for the Bikolnon (people from Bikol) in the southeastern Luzon region of the Philippines. Sinaramutan derives from the Bikol word simot, meaning gleanings or leftovers, while a related verb, saramutan, means to collect or to heap together many small items. In his Sinaramutan translations, Calleja mainly uses a base lexicon of the Bikol Central Standard dialect, to which he adds vocabulary from the languages and dialects of Bikol provinces, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, and Masbate; he occasionally borrows from Tagalog, the basis of the country’s national language or, more rarely from Philippine regional languages like Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a, related Austronesian languages of Southeast Asia, and Sanskrit. In doing this, he avoids words of Western origin, specifically from Spanish and English, the languages of former colonisers. The title of Calleja’s collection reflects the decolonising enterprise of his translation praxis: Kun Saná si Shakes Taga Satô, which means “If Shakes Were Just from Here.” This paper zooms in on translations of two well-known sonnets, 18 and 29, to harvest what it can from applying a Sinaramutan translation that localises and talks back to Shakespeare and a Bikolnon linguistic canon. The paper argues that Calleja's translation praxis does more than write back to the coloniser: It also defies both the regional centre and a monolithic Bikol language by cultivating a Bard who is Bikolnon, thus writing into Bikol a “Shakes” from here. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023-09 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/1/TT%2016.pdf Santos, Maria Lorena M. (2023) Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 29 (3). pp. 228-242. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1618
spellingShingle Santos, Maria Lorena M.
Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title_full Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title_fullStr Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title_full_unstemmed Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title_short Between Bikol and the Bard: Gode Calleja’s postcolonial Sinaramutan translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 29
title_sort between bikol and the bard: gode calleja’s postcolonial sinaramutan translation of shakespeare’s sonnets 18 and 29
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22740/1/TT%2016.pdf