May 10, 2009, at 1:09 am

Category: Music

• Music: Julian Felipe
• Lyrics: Jose Palma (Spanish), Camilo Osias and Mary Lane (English), Felipe Padilla de Leon (Filipino)

This random thought was triggered when I saw this entry from Filipino Voices. Since I am currently studying another language, I had this tendency of translating everything in English. So when I looked at the last line from the Philippine National Anthem, I was a bit surprised.

Allow me to go through the history of the national anthem. The original version was written in Spanish by Jose Palma in 1899, a time when the Philippines just gained independence from the Spaniards’ more than 300-year rule. It was translated in 1919 to English when the Americans took over. Then it was translated to Tagalog in the 1940s, revised in 1956 and again in the 1960s, and the last revision serves as the present national anthem.

Aside from the Tagalog version, I used to sing the Spanish and English versions of the national anthem as well. However, I never noticed this until now. This line,

Ang mamatay ng dahil sa ‘yo.

can be translated as follows:

To die because of you.

Now, isn’t there a negative connotation with this phrasing? It’s as if you are blaming your country for your death (if it ever comes to that). A more proper line would have been:

Ang mamatay para sa iyo.

for it translates to:

To die for you.

If we look at the last stanza of the national anthem,

Lupa ng araw, ng luwalhati’t pagsinta,
Buhay ay langit sa piling mo,
Aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi,
Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

Isn’t it more nationalistic if the last line is “Ang mamatay para sa iyo” instead? That would mean that in the face of aggressors, you are willing to die to defend your country. I can’t help but think that you are blaming your country for your death if you used the words “dahil sa iyo.”

I don’t mean to disrespect the people involved in the creation of the anthem. As I said, this was just a random thought. Hey, if there is a new version of the UP hymn “UP Naming Mahal” to make it more relevant, why not a revision of the national anthem as well?

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Tags: Lupang Hinirang, national anthem, Philippines