Up close with Dr. Hope S. Yu

The National Committee on Literary Arts and the Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Inc. unveiled the publication of Mila’s Mother, a translation of Ang Inahan ni Mila by the late Cebuano novelist, Austregelina Espina-Moore last October 25, 2008 at the Casino Español de Cebu.

A consummate writer, the late Austregelina Espina-Moore authored 11 novels in Cebuano serialized in Bisaya magazine and collected several prestigious awards for her distinguished contributions to national literature, including the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas in 1992.

Dr. Hope S. Yu, associate professor of the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of San Carlos, translated the novel into English. Mila’s Mother comes on the heels of helming the book Kapulogan: Conversations with Cebuano Writers, wherein she worked with her students and a number of Cebu’s most established writers. In this interview, we asked Dr. Hope Yu, the major challenges of putting Mila’s Mother together and took a sneak peek into her upcoming literary projects that delve into very intriguing, controversial subjects.

TF: Can you tell us how your latest book came to be?

It was serendipity! I was in Dr. Corazon Villareal’s graduate class in Translation Studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (that was in 2002). She had asked us to do some translation. The first translation I did was Diin May Punoan sa Arbol (Where a Fire Tree Grows) by the same author. Then I did Inahan ni Mila (Mila’s Mother) and Balay nga Baraha (House of Cards).

These manuscripts had been sleeping in my desk for quite a few years now. Give or take, five years. The opportunity to publish came with the National Committee on Literary Arts’ program. So I revisited the text and here it is.    

TF: Why did you choose this particular novel of Cebuano novelist, Austregelina Espina-Moore, to translate?

Austregelina Espina-Moore was one of the Cebuano women novelists, along with Hilda Montaire, who I read before I was tasked to translate. I found the narrative to be good in terms of exposing the stereotypes of “dominant” mothers. She actually has another interesting novel, Lani! Lani! which I am currently translating.

TF: What’s the biggest challenge in putting this book together?

The translation was the biggest challenge. Put that down to my cautiousness in translating anything literary or artistic, for that matter. I believe that translation is an art and it cannot be taught. One can teach a craft but not an art.

A translator must respect the meaning and tone of the original text. These two elements are quite difficult to duplicate in translation. In terms of meaning, the saying goes something is lost, and yet something is also gained in translation. Tone is very challenging especially when the languages sound different.

TF: Why do you think the Cebuano reader can connect with this book?

Well, because the original Cebuano text is included in the book (laughs). It never appeared in book form because like most Cebuano or Philippine novels, it was serialized in magazines like the Bisaya or Liwayway. Seriously though, it’s a fine example of the realities of Cebuano society.

Good Cebuano stories have come about from the maturation of writers and readers into a interconnected and mindful body that desires to appraise itself and conceive itself as something distinctive. I think most Cebuano writers have decisively settled into a consciousness of their uniqueness and have begun to look at themselves in a less imitative way.

TF: Your last book, Kapulongan: Conversations with Cebuano Writers, had you working with both student and established writers, and tapping new media as well. In retrospect, how was the whole experience?

I celebrate myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

This is from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” and the reason behind the Kapulongan class project. I wanted to establish the curve — from the world to the poet, from the poet to the text, from the poem to the reader and then back to the world in whatever way that experience has changed the perception or fired the imagination.

The students of the Poetry and Fiction class last semester were very enthusiastic and serious about their interviews it was impossible to get tired when I had all these energies around me. Most of the writers were cooperative and took time out from their busy schedules to do the preliminary and the video interviews. It was so exciting to watch the kids meet and get to know their favourite writers. The project was always challenging and not without surprises or its turn of unforeseen obstacles but I was always left with a feeling of exhilaration at doing this work.

There were several people who helped us make the class project a reality and I must mention them since they ensure the posterity of the arts. Dr. Erlinda Alburo, the director of the Cebuano Studies Center, inspired the project. Her love for everything Cebuano is so contagious. Dr. Russel Pielago, my former chair at the Department of Languages and Literature, was very supportive of the project. Mr. Eugene Florendo and his crew at ESF Productions did a wonderful job. My colleague, Mr. Trizer Dale Mansueto, helped out with the translations of the story samples. And of course, the book would not have been made possible without the assistance of Sunflower Press.

TF: What are you currently working on?

I’m actually working on several things at the moment. I’m finishing two research projects – one on the figure of the prostitute in Indonesian literature and the other on the querida in selected Cebuano fiction by women writers. I’m also doing translations of Gremer Chan Reyes’ short fiction and Hilda Montaire’s novel Ikaduhang Sugo from Cebuano to English. I am also editing the sequel to Kapulongan which is Kulokabildo: Dialogues with Cebuano Writers. 

TF: What have been reading lately? Anything that you particularly enjoyed?

Aside from the corpus of Cebuano short stories for my research, I’m almost done with The Judgment by Chart Korbjitti. It’s one of the reading materials for the intensive course on modern Thai literature that my department is conducting in cooperation with the Southeast Asian Regional Exchange Program (SEASREP). The novel is quite fascinating because it deals with losses. The absence of justice in the life of Fak (the protagonist) is quite tragic, but an interesting read into the psychology of society. For my research interest I am reading Sex, Literature and Censorship by Jonathan Dollimore. It’s an altogether different area since this book deals with the concepts of desire and theory. Dollimore looks at how the experience of desire in life and art compromises ethical beliefs and how dissident desire is set against social life and what is widely agreed to be the limit of civilization itself.

The books are available at the Cebuano Studies center.