# Ang dalangang nais iligtas ni Jerome...



## romelako

"Ang dalagang nais iligtas ni Jerome sa sexual addiction sa kanya ay hindi natulungang iahon ng binata; siya pa nga ang nais mahila sa tukso; minabuti tuloy na takasan ang makasalanang sitwasyon."


Again, another lengthy and difficult Tagalog sentence.  Could I please have a translation of the following text?  Thanks in advanced.


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## DotterKat

Maybe you would like to give it a try, romelako? You probably will learn faster if you give it a shot.

Suggestions: don't literally translate "iahon" and use _save _instead, use the conjunctive adverb _moreover _before the first independent clause and separate the second clause as a second sentence.

You can do it!


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## DotterKat

I read your PM and truly appreciate your attempt.

Here is my suggestion:

Despite his earnest wish to do so, Jerome was not able to save the young lady from her sexual addiction to him; moreover, he came close to succumbing to the very same temptation. In the end, he thought it best to leave and thus avoid this potentially compromising situation.

>>>>>

About your question (_Ang dalagan nais_, which you thought was "A girl's wish"), this is where translating meaning rather than individual words comes into play.  The more complicated the sentence, the more crucial this becomes.

Read your first sentence (there should be two; the second clause should be a separate sentence) and decide the subject first:

"Ang dalagang nais iligtas ni *Jerome* sa sexual addiction sa kanya ay hindi natulungang iahon ng binata."

Obviously, it is Jerome, the doer of the action (the _wishing_ to save a young lady and the failure to _help _her).

So, make *Jerome *the subject of your English translation and make him appear first in your sentence -- and not _dalaga (_young lady). You now have the subject-predicate arrangement you were expecting.  In order to insert "_Ang dalagang nais iligtas _ni Jerome...", you will have to create an introductory clause. In my version, it is "_Despite his earnest wish to do so_,..." as this takes care both of his _nais _(wish) to save a young lady and his subsequent failure to do so.

"..._makasalanang sitwasyon_" as you know should translate to "sinful situation" but _*compromising* situation _is a better expression in English.


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## romelako

Ah, I see, I see.  Thanks A BUNCH for the help. 

But I'm still confused as to where the "ay hindi natulungang iahon ng binata" went.  It probably got jumbled up in the translation.  Could I please have an explanation?

I don't know if this is the best method of learning, but my method is to get Tagalog documents/articles and translate them to English.  Then, a week later, translate it back to Tagalog.  Now, given your "naturally-sounding" English sentence, I don't think I would be able to translate that back to Tagalog where it would make perfect sense.  I haven't been able to find an EFFECTIVE method to learning this language, seeing how most of the words I come across aren't in any online dictionaries (I use multiple dictionaries).  I have to rely on asking native speakers or these forums in order to get the words that I need to make a complete translation.  This is a hassle because the native speakers aren't always available and it takes time for you guys to answer my questions. 

This makes it a frustrating process because I feel like my ability to learn is stopped because of words or grammar that I cannot comprehend, which lowers my motivation.  I can't seem to find a good method.  I feel like I'm making such little progress.  Any ideas?


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## DotterKat

[_But I'm still confused as to where the "ay hindi natulungang iahon ng binata" went.]
_ 
It is translated in this phrase "...*Jerome was not able to save the young lady from*..."

You thought the line was not there because you were expecting to find two things:

1) The literal translation of *iahon* which was used in a figurative sense in the Tagalog text and therefore cannot (and should not) be translated directly.

As you know, iahon means to pull somebody out of the water (in the sense of saving them from drowning). The young lady in this case is not literally drowning, but rather is overwhelmed by her sexual addiction. Jerome wishes to save her from this affliction, which in the Tagalog text takes the form of "rescuing" her from the torrent or deluge of sexual obsession. Since the figurative use of iahon cannot be translated concisely and since a good translation should be about as long as the original, I suggested foregoing it altogether and using _*save*_ instead. Again, I point out the importance of translating the thought of a text rather than every word.

2) The word _*binata*_ (young man). I could have written the text this way: 

"...the (*young man* OR *young bachelor*) Jerome was not able to save the young lady from..."

However, the sentence will contain the same adjective twice (*young* man, *young* lady) which should be avoided in good composition if at all possible. I dropped the _young man _assuming that this is not an isolated text and that Jerome's young age and unmarried status would have been established earlier on in the narrative. And yes, I think this makes the sentence sound more natural and not "forced."

Here is how the text would appear if we translated it more literally:

The young lady that Jerome wanted to save from her sexual addiction to him was not helped to be pulled out of this obsession by the young bachelor; on the contrary, he was at risk of being pulled into the same tempatation. He then thought it best to flee this sinful situation.

As you can see, the resulting text is overwrought and in my estimation, not a good translation at all.

>>>>> 

Regarding how I learned Tagalog, which is not my native language, I believe I answered your PM a few weeks ago about what I did to learn it.


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## romelako

I know that you read Tagalog periodicals and watched television but I don't know enough Tagalog to be able to grab/understand words from the television.  They speak way too quickly for me to understand.  I mean, if I knew the words around the unknown words, then I could probably get the meaning from the context.  The problem is, almost all the words are "unknown words."

As you can already see, I have a lot of trouble translating a story from a Tagalog website.  The complex structure is so difficult for me to translate and I feel like I'm making no progress just asking you guys over and over again to translate for me.  But then, my translations would be wrong (if I tried) so I would be learning the WRONG things.

So, that's why I feel completely stumped because I have no other way to go about doing this.


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## Vlinck

oo nman. hehe


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## romelako

Lol, what a very helpful post,  Vlinck.


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## niernier

Romel, just remember that for every word you learn means one less word to look up in the dictionary the next time you see it. And look, you have not just translated this thread here but you have also corrected it. Isn't that great?


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## romelako

Haha, thanks for the words of encouragement, Niernier.  Much appreciated.


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## mataripis

romelako said:


> "Ang dalagang nais iligtas ni Jerome sa sexual addiction sa kanya ay hindi natulungang iahon ng binata; siya pa nga ang nais mahila sa tukso; minabuti tuloy na takasan ang makasalanang sitwasyon."
> 
> 
> Again, another lengthy and difficult Tagalog sentence.  Could I please have a translation of the following text?  Thanks in advanced.


  You can write it this way: Ang babae na sana ay nai layo sa makalamang pagnanasa ay nagkaroon ng kabiguan sa dahilang siyang binata pa nga ang nagtulak upang lalong malubog  silang dalawa sa tukso sa gayong makasalanang kaganapan.


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