# Ang pasalubong...



## romelako

"Ang pasalubong ay isang alaala na ibinibigay ng isang nanggaling *sa* paglalakbay *sa *kanyang *dinaratnan."

*Okay, the "sa" in the sentence is giving me a lot of confusion because I'm not sure which preposition it refers to.  And also, can someone please give me a translation of the word "dinaratnan?"

Thanks in advanced.  Much appreciated.


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## niernier

*"The pasalubong is a memento given by a person who was gone from a trip to the people he/she meets."*

Ang pasalubong = The pasalubong
ay isang alaala - is a memento
na ibinibigay = that is given
ng isang *nanggaling sa* = by a person *gone from*
paglalakbay = a trip
*sa* kanyang dinaratnan = *to *the people he meets. (the 'people' here is implied)

I was also confused there for a moment but I think I can explain this. Dinaratnan or dina*d*atnan is the object focus for the root word "dating" which means to arrive. I guess that it's a very irregular verb because you cannot find the root in it. My best try translating "sa kanyang dinaratnan" to English is "to the people he meets". If you would like to, you can check this list of verbs.


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## DotterKat

*"Ang pasalubong ay isang alaala na ibinibigay ng isang nanggaling sa paglalakbay sa kanyang dinaratnan."

*Here is my suggestion:

*A gift is a souvenir a traveler gives to those he/she goes home to.

*This is one of those instances when a verbatim translation will not serve as well as just translating the thought of the sentence.

*...nanggaling sa paglalakbay*: _*...who is returning from a trip/who has gone on a trip*_. This entire phrase can be simply distilled to "*traveler*" and the resulting English translation will sound more natural.

*...sa kanyang dinaratnan: *niernier's translation is accurate ("to the people he meets"), but in the context of the entire sentence, perhaps it would be apt to say that it refers to _*'the people he/she goes home to"*_, keeping in mind that a "_*pasalubong*_" is indeed a gift that one gives upon returning from a trip (usually abroad) to his friends and family. Such gifts are not normally given to some random stranger that the traveler has just met.

Here is a more figurative slant to the translation: _*A souvenir is a token of remembrance offered by a traveler to his reminiscence.

*_This last translation will work if you imagine a traveler coming back with a little memento of his trip, like a small Eiffel tower or Statue of Liberty, that serves to unlock all of his memories of that voyage. In which case, the travel itself is the past and *dinaratnan *will (figuratively) stand for the present -- what he is now coming home to, the present time. Thus, the little souvenir is his gift to himself, from the past to the present --- a gift offered up for his own reminiscing.


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## niernier

"the people he/she goes home to" sounds more closer to the real meaning of "sa kanyang dinaratnan" in this context. It really helps with you around here Dotterkat.  I should learn this lesson that verbatim translation doesn't work all the time.

My interest has been piqued on how to say a couple of sentences in English with its equivalent Tagalog using the dinaratnan. I will post it on another thread.


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