Reflecting on the project, Professor Emeritus Alunan said that she strived to make the poems sound like poetry, not just a translation. Tapia’s genius, said Alunan, is her ability to extend a narrative beyond itself and transform folklore into metaphors. The translator must “own the poem…as if [they’re] the one writing it, but not violate the process of the poem.” Alunan also emphasized opportunities for translation from English to Waray, and from one Visayan language to another.
