Why translation matters for the country

By the time this column comes out, the Philippine delegation to Frankfurter Buchmesse would have arrived in Frankfurt, prepared to show the international publishing world the rich and diverse stories from the Philippines from Oct. 16-20, the short span of the book fair. The attendance and participation this year is especially crucial as the Philippines is the Guest of Honor (GOH) country in 2025, following Italy, this year’s GOH. It is interesting to point out that the first Southeast Asian country to be GOH was Indonesia in 2015.

What does it mean to be the GOH country? It is an arduous undertaking, as the country has to apply for it years in advance, with the important required documentation by the government representatives from the applicant country – in our case, Sen. Loren Legarda who first proposed it as a country goal and the National Book Development Board officials – and more important, a Bid Book prepared by former National Book Development Board (NBDB) governor and director of the Ateneo de Manila University Press, Karina Bolasco.

The Bid Book presented an overview of the country’s publishing industry, all that our arts and literature can offer, the significance of being GOH and the significance of Jose Rizal’s ties to Germany. He studied ophthalmology in Heidelberg and published Noli Me Tangere in Berlin by Berliner Buchdruckerei-Aktiengesellschaft, an all-woman press which offered the cheapest cost. In 2025, aside from the usual modest-sized country stands, the Philippines will display the best of its books over a hundred years in a space of approximately 2,000 square meters.

Since the objective of the Frankfurter Buchmesse is to sell book rights, rather than the book itself, it stands to reason that our books need to be translated to other languages. This is important for a country like ours where most of our writers write in English and in Filipino and we have over 100 regional languages. Being GOH country also requires a focus on regional writers for a truer representation of the country’s national literature.

The writers from the regions are said to be doubly challenged because they have to first be translated to English before they are considered by foreign publishers for possible translation rights.

Our pioneering writers with established reputations have been translated into other languages, like F. Sionil Jose and Nick Joaquin. But there are many more that the world needs to discover. The German publishing industry has recently shown great interest in the works of Jose Dalisay Jr., Luna Sicat Cleto, Daryll Delgado, Criselda Yabes, Alan Derain, John Bengan, Eliza Victoria, children’s books by Mary Ann Ordinario, graphic novels by Budjette Tan, Jay Philip Ignacio and Renren Galeno. Are we ourselves familiar with these authors?

Kristian Sendon Cordero, Bikol writer and director of the Ateneo de Naga University Press, has been promoting the writers from the region, introducing them to the rest of the country and the world through his own Savage Mind Press and his work as co-chair of the Translation Committee for the Philippines as GOH in 2025. He points out why translation is of utmost importance: “Translation calls us to build new worlds where the strangers and the inexplicable are accepted, and those who have been condemned to unforgiving silence, gasps and gaps, a horror vacui and are now given another opportunity.”

He organizes a yearly book festival in Naga in partnership with the NBDB to ensure that Manila-based writers interact and collaborate with writers from the region, like the recently-concluded one where writers from Samar were highlighted.

Merlie Alunan is a multi-awarded poet, teacher and cultural worker in the Visayas. Based in Tacloban, she encourages writing in the regions and laments the challenges that writers from the regions face. She is emphatic in saying that there cannot be a Philippine national literature until it encompasses all the regional languages. In a recent speech, “On the South, to the South: Building Literary Corridors,” she hails regional writing: “Our mother tongues have outlasted empires. It is still standing up today against the restless mobility of the population, mass media, the internet and, hardest of all, against the national language policy. Despite all these, the mother tongues persist, true as ever to our people’s need. Today many young writers, university educated, are writing again in our mother tongue. They will reclaim our languages from the neglect of past generations.”

To encourage the translation of Philippine books to international languages, especially in preparation for GOH 2025, NBDB has been running a Translation Subsidy Program for Foreign Publishers this year with fairly comparable publishing grant subsidies with other countries. Genres which are covered are Children’s Literature, Young Adult & New Adult Literature, Gastronomy, Travel, Graphic Novels & Comics, Poetry, Experimental and New Media and Classics, Contemporary Fiction, Nonfiction, Historical, Cultural. The subsidy amounts range from $1,200 to $4,500.

The application period for 2024, now on its third cycle, is from Aug. 01 to Nov. 30. There will be two more cycles in 2025. Complete guidelines and information are available at https://books.gov.ph/GOHtranslationguidelines/

Interested publishers may also email the PhlGoH2025 Committee on Translation at [email protected].

Our books need to be read by the rest of the world.