Noli Me Tangere

Noli Me Tangere by Jose P. Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, is the novel with the greatest impact on Filipino political thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the widest influence on contemporary fiction, drama, opera, dance, and film. Its popularity was rooted in its reflection of the times in which it was written, and it has continued because of the characters Rizal created, who are set in situations that still ring true today.

Rizal finished the Noli in 1887 and published 2,000 copies in Berlin. Many thousands more have since circulated, in the original Spanish and in translations into German, French, Chinese, English, Filipino, and other Philippine languages. The best-known translations in English are those by Charles Derbyshire (1912) and Leon Ma. Guerrero (1961).

In this new translation, Soledad Lacson-Locsin, a bilingual writer, has restored the unpublished chapter about Elias and Salome, as well as the entire "Canto de Maria Clara," and wishes her translation to be a faithful rendition of the original.

National Book Awards for translation (1999, Philippine National Book Development Board (NBDB))