Noli me tangere: The novel that imagined this nation
The English translations of Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo by Soledad Lacson-Locsin were published by Bookmark in 1996, the centenary of Jose Rizal’s execution. Mrs. Lacson-Locsin was an educator, translator, and writer who published in Spanish and English. Former Manila mayor Arsenio Lacson was her brother, and Business World publisher Raul Locsin was her son.
We especially enjoy how Lacson-Locsin rendered this letter from Doña Victorina de De Espadaña to Linares. Read it aloud!
Padre Damaso appears in the first chapter, and he is already, indubitably, an asshole. His voice is “…that of a man who believes everything he utters is sacrosanct and cannot be improved upon”, although his laughter makes him seem more agreeable, “even to the extent that one feels bound to forgive him his sockless feet and a pair of hairy legs…” Samakatwid, inokray siya ni Pareng Pepe mula ulo hanggang paa. Damaso confirms our first impression by declaring that the indios (Only the Spanish born in the Philippines were called Filipinos at the time) are lazy, ignorant, vicious and ungrateful.
Read our column at InterAksyon.com.
We’ve made inquiries as to availability of the Lacson-Locsin Noli and Fili. Hang in there.
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Reader ambulantfeather says the LL translations are almost always available at National Bookstores. Thanks. The books are not listed on their website.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 5th, 2013 at 12:43
I definitely get what you mean about “Noli” and “Fili” having been drags back in school when they were homework. Also, the Filipino translations we used in school were boring, and generally I skimmed through them chapter by chapter every time there was a test coming. It also helped that I’d read the comic book adaptations when I was younger (this also helped me through “Florante at Laura”).
I never fully absorbed “Noli,” but I did love “Fili” despite the general drag of it being schoolwork. If I recall right, “Fili” was somewhat more action packed; maybe that’s why it’s more memorable for me.
Well, now, I’m interested to read these books – this time, for pleasure. The English translation you indicate is probably key. Both are now on my list after I’m one with “The Flame Alphabet.”
February 5th, 2013 at 13:43
loved your column (in interaksyon.com) i have read both noli and fili and i LOVED leon ma. guerrero’s english translations. i have read and reread it time and again. teachers should find a creative way of having the students read these books without forcing them to read it.
February 5th, 2013 at 15:28
I need to read this English version. I don’t even remember the suicide story. And that tiny bit about tinola which – as a friend claimed when I said it’s the one food I actually refuse – is P.Damaso’s fave dish.
I hope this edition has the ‘Elias at Salome’ story.
February 5th, 2013 at 18:33
I actually loved reading Noli Me Tangere (in Tagalog) and I specially loved the kantanods in the first chapter and the grandmother of all social climbers, Doña Victorina de de Espadaña who uses the double “de” to denote that she’s already rich before marrying a rich man. And how I always hoped that a movie maker would cast Bella Flores as Doña Consolacion.
February 5th, 2013 at 18:34
Officially, the church has washed its hands of any involvement in filing the case against Carlos Celdran.
Hmmm…
February 6th, 2013 at 01:28
i wonder if you’ve seen bayaning 3rd world. there was a scene where a contemporarily dressed Rizal said that no one would believe that the retraction is true even if the signature was proven to be his own.
February 6th, 2013 at 11:33
oriames: No, we watch every Metro filmfest movie but we actually pass up a Mike De Leon of course we’ve seen Bayaning Third World.
Mike De Leon should be press-ganged into making more movies.
February 6th, 2013 at 11:34
UVDust: Yes, this version has Elias at Salome, which was left out of some translations.
Interesting how Elias is frequently described as a hot guy.
February 6th, 2013 at 11:35
The Leon Ma. Guerrero translations are elegant but bowdlerized.
Read Benedict Anderson’s essay on the translations.
February 6th, 2013 at 11:36
allancarreon: Fili is The Count of Monte Cristo! Revenge….
February 6th, 2013 at 13:14
Saan makakabili ng Lacson-Locsin translation ng Noli at Fili?
February 6th, 2013 at 13:17
I read JZ’s column at that site yesterday. I thought about posting a comment there, but then I read a few on the article’s message board and I changed my mind.
Anyway, I will be haunting several bookstores for a copy of Noli. Jessica Z always does this to me. She mentions a book, and I go look. Does that make me kind of her bitch?
Believe it or not, when I was in high school, I finished Rizal’s novels ahead of the class, on my own.
And I loved them. I became a skeptic because of JR.
But I had to pretend to my friends I hadn’t read them, because nerds were not cool during those times.
They are cool now, right?
Right?
February 6th, 2013 at 13:39
Read your review, but in real life, Jose Rizal never ever did a similar scene like Celdran inside the CHURCH itself. Though Rizal was excommunicated because of his works, it’s his alleged “involvement” or being “the soul of the revolution (of 1896)” that sealed his fate. While being exiled in Dapitan, he never ever made a scene or two there (the only “scandal” he did was living with Josephine Bracken). Two, the true villain in Noli is not Padre Damaso but Padre Salvi. Padre Damaso is only a facade of villainy but Salvi’s the manipulator of events transpired (and he’s the most “maniacal”). Rizal’s very clever there, which I admire wholeheartedly. Third, El Fili’s Rizal’s answer to both communism and anarchism–NO WAY! And, Leon Ma. Guerrero’s primary audience for his magnum opus was the British (but I like his “The First Filipino”, so human and honest).
February 6th, 2013 at 13:39
silentfollower: Nagpatanong na kami sa publisher kung saan mabibili ang Lacson-Locsin translation.
February 6th, 2013 at 13:49
jediknight: We said that if you read Atonement we would cough up some more Ian McEwan. Please post your full name (won’t be published) and we’ll leave a book for you at National in Rockwell next week.
Nerds may be more accepted today, nerds might be lulled into believing they are cool now, but we know that at some point They will turn on us.
February 6th, 2013 at 14:16
Meron sa Mt Cloud bookstore sa Baguio ng Lacson-Locsin Noli-Fili. Bibilhin ko sana pero wala na ‘kong cash at ‘di nag-a-accept ng credit card yung store.
February 6th, 2013 at 15:27
Sa totoo lang hindi ko naintindihan yung Noli Me Tangere na pinabasa sa amin ni Prof. Jess Ramos sa P.I.100 or short for Pu**** I**100. Napakalalim ng pagkakasalin sa Tagalog . At kapag si Maria Clara na ang pinaguusapan sa klase ay aalipustahin ni Prof. Ramos ang katauhan ni Maria Clara. Para sa finals namin, magpapalabas kami ng isang yugto mula sa aklat. Hindi ko maalala kung anong bahagi ng aklat ang napili ng grupo namin. Buti na lang naipasa ko ito.
February 6th, 2013 at 16:31
Chus: Ayyy! Yan ba yung klase kung saan maraming lalaki ang kailangang mag-drop….?
February 6th, 2013 at 22:03
Lacson-Locsin’s rendering of Dona Victorina’s letter to Linares reads like modern phone text language.
I also had Jess Ramos for P.I. 100. It was a hilarious summer class. (I got a 1.0.)
February 6th, 2013 at 23:05
I remember nung h.s., nagpapalabas din kami sa klase namin ng bawat chapter ng Noli. At ako lagi si Doña Victorina. She will always be my favorite social climber/kontrabida of all time. Idol!!! :D
And I would also like to know where to get that Lacson-Locsin translation. Thanks!
February 7th, 2013 at 09:33
Salamat, Jessica.
Sana mayroong mabibilhan sa Kalakhang Maynila. Ang layo ng Baguio.
February 7th, 2013 at 11:50
I really need to get the Lacson-Locsin translation of Noli, too.
Believe it or not, I skipped Noli because somebody (or at least one of those pretentious scholarly types na hindi pa napa-publish pero kung akala mo kung sinong magaling diyan) had told me that the prose was florid and annoying. So I went in search of El Filibusterismo instead, and found it years later – as Subversion -at the main library at the University of Hawaii.
And it was one of the best books I had read that year.
I don’t know whose translation it was, but it was hard bound in black with the words “Subversion” embossed on the cover. I heard that there are other translations with longer titles, but this may be my favorite translation of El Fili – and I’m not surprised that people don’t think they’ve read the same book that I did.
February 7th, 2013 at 14:50
If it’s any help, the Lacson-Locsin translations (especially the paperbacks Jessica pictured above) are almost always available in National Bookstore, right smack in the midst of the cheap, bowdlerized translations of Noli and Fili (and the horrid comics). I’ve heard these days, they actually require students to read the Lacson-Locsin translations and not the comics anymore (if not the florid Filipino translations by Virgilio Almario). The stylized hardbounds, however, are rarely found, but usually in NBS branches within Greenbelt and Glorietta. Powerbooks as well.
February 7th, 2013 at 15:57
For those who are not in P.I., there are copies found on bookfinder.com.
@stellalehua I think that’s a Lacson-Locsin copy printed by the University of Hawaii – possibly for the international market? I found it listed on Amazon but be careful of books listed there as sometimes sellers list their items under the wrong edition/translation.
I thought Isagani was really hot whilst in high school.
February 7th, 2013 at 19:28
@ambulantfeather and @deckshoes: Thanks! I had a gut feeling that UH did get a hold of the LL translations for the international market, as well, I wish I’d gone back to take down the ISBN numbers to make sure. I’ll keep an eye out for the LL version of Noli, too.
Dear lawdy, those komiks were the local version of Cliffs Notes, weren’t they? Maria Clara looked like a milksop on the cover of Noli, with all those tears flowing all over her face. That might have been another reason why I stayed away.
February 8th, 2013 at 06:56
@wangbumaximus21:
I don’t believe the parallelisms between Rizal and Celdran are meant to be taken one-is-to-one at face value. It is the spirit/principle of the comparison that is to be understood.
Rizal may not have done these things inside a church (or do we really know this? you never know), but his deeds were certainly more scandalous in the eyes of the Church than Celdran’s. Or have we forgotten that the Church found Noli and Fili so religiously offensive that they tried to (unsuccessfully) ban these books in the mid-20th century from being required studies in the academe?
So in a way, you are correct: Rizal never did any scene similar to Celdran’s stunt. Rizal did much much worse in the eyes of the Catholic Church, making Celdran’s stunt juvenile in comparison to the sophisticated approach Rizal had in criticizing the Church.
February 8th, 2013 at 11:30
@deckshoes: I thought I was the only one imagining him as a hottie. I really felt bastos then. Normal lang pala ang malibog sa kanya. haha
February 10th, 2013 at 01:14
It was Elias who turned me on. :) Then again, it seems Ibarra also was turned on…
February 13th, 2013 at 08:56
I have to get a copy of the books. Di ko pa kasi nabasa (What?! Where have you been?) kahit abridged version. :-(
February 13th, 2013 at 13:21
yeloman: We were required to read it in high school and college but we managed not to really read it till now.