Sonnet 90

Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,

Now while the world is bent my deeds to
cross;
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah, do not, when my heart hath scaped this
sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquered woe.

Tagalog Translation:

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,

To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortunes might;
And other strains of woe, which now
seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not
seem so.

Kamunghian mo na ako, kung balak mo rin

lang,
Habang galit pa sakin ang kapalaran;
Dumagdag sa pasanin, akoy paluhurin sa
bigat;
Nang hindi tumulo ang luha, kung ako'y
nakatatawa na,
At hindi maging sakit,
matapos ang ginhawa.
Sa payapa kong gabi, huwag maging bagyo,
Patagalin pa lalo ang bubog sa aking puso.

William Shakespeare

Kung iiwanan mo lang din ako, gawin mo na

ngayon,
Unahin mo na, sinta,
Pinakamatinding sampal sa aking pagkatao.
Kung ginawa mo ito, mamamanhid ako;
Anumang ibato sa akin ng mundo,
Kailanmay di matutumbasan ng sakit
ng pag-iwan mo.

William Shakespeares Sonnet 90 was dedicated to an unnamed youth whom, for a

time served as the great poets lover. It revolves around the themes of agony, misfortune,
love, and fear of being hurt. In the sonnet, it is seen that during a time of severe depression,
Shakespeare still harbors a passionate love for the youth. He, however, believes that along
with the reversal of fortunes he was consecutively being pelted with, this good thing he has
that is their affair would be taken away from him, as well, and soon. He pleads to the boy that
if he plans to end their relationship, he should do it now, while he is still mourning. He does
not want to recover from his depression one day, only to have it again the moment the boy
breaks his spirit. At the end of the sonnet, Shakespeare admits that no pain could ever equal
that from the boys leaving. According to him, however, the agony will lead him to surface as
an emotionally stronger person, since he will have already experienced the worst.
I was tasked by Professor Chaves to translate Shakespeares Sonnet 90 to Tagalog. At
first, I thought it would be too difficult, since I grew up in Nueva Ecija, and Filipino is my
native tongue. I found myself very fortunate, but at the same time, I still had my doubts, since
being able to talk fluently in Filipino does not entail being able to write effectively with it.
Writing in Filipino wasnt really a strength of mine.
I started my translation work by reading several interpretations of Shakespeares
Sonnet 90 found online. My resources didnt always interpret the lines in the same manner,
and so I had to average out the explanations I had.
I compiled the best interpretations from varying sources in one sonnet and juxtaposed
it against Shakespeares original Sonnet 90 in one document.
I read the simplified version once more, and I finally got the gist of it, I started with
my translation.
Lines I and II in the original sonnet are:

Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,

Now while the world is bent my deeds to cross;
There, Shakespeare starts to plead to the youth to break his heart while he is being
pelted with misfortunes. Here is how I translated the lines to Filipino:
Kamunghian mo na ako, kung balak mo rin lang,
Habang galit pa sakin ang kapalaran;
Kamunghian is a word that comes from munghi, which can be likened in intensity to
the word spite. It is a far stronger word for the more commonly used Filipino word galit,
which has the same degree as hatred.
Kapalaran, on the other hand, means fate. A lot of Filipinos tend to blame daily
occurrences on fate, misfortunes often so. I didnt translate world directly to mundo since
kapalaran, for me, is better poetic word.
Lines III to VI in the Shakesperean sonnet are:
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah, do not, when my heart hath scaped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquered woe.
It can be seen there that Shakespeare is insisting on the boy to leave him while he is
mourning and not when he has already recovered fully, doing otherwise would only give him
fresh wounds.
I translated these lines to:

Dumagdag sa pasanin, akoy paluhurin sa bigat;

Nang hindi tumulo ang luha, kung ako'y nakatatawa na,
At hindi maging sakit,
matapos ang ginhawa.
Pasanin means burden, while paluhurin means kneel. Since Shakespeare was already
burdened immensely at that time, the pain of having the boy leave him would be more than
enough have his knees buckle from the weight of it.
Tumulo means to fall, and luha means to cry, and tawa means to laugh. I used the
idea of laughing after crying as a reference to the after-loss that Shakespeare mentioned in
Line IV.
Sakit matapos ang ginhawa also refers to after-loss.
Lines VII-VIII are:
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
I translated these to:
Sa payapa kong gabi, huwag maging bagyo,
Patagalin pa lalo ang bubog sa aking puso.
I used the word payapa which means peaceful, instead of mahanagin, which
directly translates to windy, since a windy night in for the common Filipino, with reference
to rain, usually entails an incessant banging of roofs before a storm, or bagyo.

Instead of using the idea of overthrowing a higher power, which is a foreign concept
for most Filipinos, with the Philippines being a Democracy, I used bubog or glass shards.
The same idea of hindering a sense of relief could also be seen there.
The last six lines of the sonnet are:
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortunes might;

And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,

Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.

Here, Shakespeare clearly admits that the loss of the youth in his life would be the

most sickening blow he would ever receive, and yet he yearns to experience it as soon as
possible. He sees the light in this severe agony in that it would make him an emotionally
stronger person, since he believes that every pain hell feel after the youth breaks would
become petty to him.
I translated is as:
Kung iiwanan mo lang din ako, gawin mo na ngayon,
Unahin mo na, sinta,
Pinakamatinding sampal sa aking pagkatao.
Kung ginawa mo ito, mamamanhid ako;

Anumang ibato sa akin ng mundo,

Kailanmay di matutumbasan ng sakit ng pag-iwan mo.

Pinakamatindi means most severe, and sampal means slap with sampalin meaning
to slap. A sampal sa aking pagkatao is a commonly used Filipino phrase that refers to a
blow to ones being. In the Filipino mindset, it doesnt get any worse than that.
Mamamanhid ako on the other hand, loosely translates to I will feel numb. This is
in reference to the emotional numbness he knows he will feel after being served with, in his
opinion, the greatest agony possible. The last two lines further strengthen this point. They say
that whatever misfortune the world decides to throw at him would be forever be
incomparable to the suffering he would feel once the youth leaves him.