One of the most famous speeches involving Caesar in Shakespeare’s works is Mark Antony’s funeral oration in Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2), which begins with the iconic line: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!”
This speech is a masterclass in rhetoric, irony, and persuasion, as Antony turns the Roman public against Caesar’s assassins while pretending to honor them.
Here is a Tagalog translation of Mark Antony’s oft-quoted lines.
Mga kaibigan, mga taga-Roma,
mga kababayan, dinggin ninyo ako;
Ako’y naparitong ang aking layuni’y
Ilibing si Caesar, di upang purihin
Ang samang sa mundo’y ginawa ng tao
Ay nagpapatuloy kahit mamatay siya
Datapwa’t ang buti na kanyang ginawa’y
Malimit mangyaring
kasama-sama niya sa pusod ng lupa.
— Talumpati ni Marco Antonio sa libing ni Caesar (“Julius Caesar” ni William Shakespeare)
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Ito ay para sa mga nais maintindihan kung ano ang ibig sabihin ni Mark Antony nang magtalumpati siya nang ganito sa dulang Julius Caesar.
