Dear All,

I was struck by a comment Umberto Eco once made about translation: ‘If you consult any Italian dictionary, you will see that among the synonyms of “fidelity” there is not the word “accuracy”. Instead there is “loyalty, honesty, respect, piety”.’

This came to mind when re-reading Pope Francis’ brief, one-page 2017 Apostolic Letter on liturgical translation, Magnum Principium (The Great Principle). And what is the great principle? ‘The great principle, established by the Second Vatican Council, according to which liturgical prayer be accommodated to the comprehension of the people so that it might be understood...’

We have to be very careful when using the adjective ‘faithful’ (or its noun form, fidelity) with regard to translation. The good translator is aware of a truism, namely, that the translation is not the original. And if it is not the original, then it is going to be different, so in what sense is it still faithful?

You see, the problem is that people rather simply conflate  ‘faithful’ and ‘accurate’, without wondering what accuracy might mean in the case of translation. If I am translating the Rector Major, what do I need to be faithful to? His words? His message? His particular way of expressing himself, especially knowing that he is a Spaniard from a particular part of Spain that has a different dialect, and there is quite some difference between how he writes in Italian and how he speaks in Italian (a braccio, off-the-cuff and often ‘ungrammatically’!) Do I need to be faithful to those who are receiving the message or the words, and how can I do that while still being faithful to the author? Then again, how would you translate his simple ‘A presto un grande abbraccio’, which is how the RM recently signed off in a video interview, knowing that this is the last one he will give before finishing in office (so context comes into the translation act too). There are really two sentences there to start with, not one, and a literal ‘See you soon a big hug’ is not going to cut it in English. So I went for: ‘Till we meet again. Cheers!’ (Maybe I could have improved on ‘Cheers’... warm regards, perhaps).

 

There is a need to recognise that the act of translation is quite a subjective thing, and that in the end the translator is always negotiating between two different worlds. Indeed, the translator is almost never translating word-for-word, but is inevitably and always translating world-for-world! We are negotiators between two worlds, the world of the original speaker/writer and his or her culture, and the world of the audience who will be listening to or reading what we translate. Translating pastoral documents, the truths and mysteries of Revelation, key Church documents... yes, ‘accuracy’ has a role to play, but no matter how much ‘fidelity’ it aspires to, no translation can be identical to the original because the translator produces another text. It is in this context one must evoke the difficulty, indeed the impossibility, of judging the accuracy of a translation.

At one level, Pope Francis was adjusting canon 838 to ensure a smoother and less inhibited process for local episcopal conferences when it comes to translation of liturgical materials. But at another level, this handful of paragraphs is quite revolutionary! It is very different in style to Liturgiam authenticam, an instruction by the then Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001. It is not just the opening sentence quoted above, from Magnum Principium, but how it is reinforced. Francis suggests that ‘fidelity’ is a threefold process in the translation task:  a) to the original text, b) to the language into which it is to be translated, and c) to the comprehension of the text by its recipients: ‘attention must be paid to the benefit and good of the faithful’. 

It is easy to see that Francis is looking further back than Liturgiam authenticam to 1969's Comme Le Prévoit (https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Missal/Information/Comme-le-Prevoit.pdf) which says, among other things, ‘it is necessary to take into account not only the message to be conveyed, but also the speaker, the audience, and the style. Translations, therefore, must be faithful to the art of communication in all its various aspects, but especially in regard to the message itself, in regard to the audience for which it is intended, and in regard to the manner of expression.’

The Best Practice is a simple statement of how one translator negotiates world-to-world.

 

---------------

FORMATION TERMINOLOGY

Further to last week’s explanation of the nuances in meaning in the term ‘formazione permanente’, there is yet another quite noticeable change in Salesian formation terminology: ‘spiritual direction’ has largely been replaced by ‘spiritual accompaniment’. Ten or so years ago I remember commenting that ‘accompaniment’ is an emerging metaphor in Salesian language. Well, it is now a fully-fledged metaphor! Where ‘spiritual direction’ generally seems to imply personal, one-to-one direction, ‘spiritual accompaniment’ can be both personal and group, individual and communal. It can also be pastoral accompaniment, the friendly talk with the rector.... (Thanks to Bro. Mon from the Formation Sector for this contribution). But it is also worth noting that ‘accompaniment’ has a wider ecclesial usage too. You may find the attached Laudato Si' Research Institute comment on accompaniment quite interesting in this regard.

 

best_practice_20-_world-for-world.docx

 


List of Articles
No. Subject Author Date Views
30 Translators newsletter No. 30 “TM" Best Practice No. 28 - Using Matecat file tolle 2024.08.17 154
29 Translators newsletter No. 29 “How long does it take to...?" Best Practice No. 27 - Translation time file tolle 2024.08.10 160
28 Translators newsletter No. 28 “Learning Language Through Translation" Best Practice No. 26 - Learning through translation file tolle 2024.08.04 157
27 Translators newsletter No. 27 “Online with saints..." Best Practice No. 25 - TEP file tolle 2024.07.27 180
26 Translators newsletter No. 26 “Lively debates!" Best Practice No. 24 - Terminology file tolle 2024.07.20 171
25 Translators newsletter No. 25 “Voicing the Word" Best Practice No. 23 - Orality file tolle 2024.07.13 183
24 Translators newsletter No. 24 “Dealing with dialect, accent, idiom" Best Practice No. 22 - Dialect file tolle 2024.07.07 170
23 Translators newsletter No. 23 “Pastoral translation - 1” Best Practice No. 21 - FABC file tolle 2024.06.29 182
» Translators newsletter No. 22 “Not word-for-word but world-for-world” Best Practice No. 20 - World-for-world file tolle 2024.06.22 183
21 Translators newsletter No. 21 “When a word makes a difference” Best Practice No. 19 - Glossary file tolle 2024.06.14 168
20 Translators newsletter No. 20 “Be a ‘smart’ translator” Best Practice No. 18 - SDB Resources file tolle 2024.06.08 169
19 Translators newsletter No. 19 “Translating Jesus!” Best Practice No. 17 - Mysticism file tolle 2024.06.03 193
18 Translators newsletter No. 18 “What shoes should a translator wear? Ratio” Best Practice No. 15 - Multimedia translation 1 file tolle 2024.05.25 175
17 Translators newsletter No. 17 “With sighs too deep for words” Best Practice No. 16 - Translators prayers file tolle 2024.05.25 193
16 Translators newsletter No. 16 “Multimedia translation” Best Practice No. 14 - Multimedia translation tolle 2024.05.25 189
15 Translators newsletter No. 15 “Humpty Dumpty” Best Practice No. 13 - Ten tips for Salesian translators file tolle 2024.05.25 164
14 Translators newsletter No. 14 “Turning to the Scriptures” Best Practice No. 12 - Christianese file tolle 2024.05.25 153
13 Translators newsletter No. 13 “YM - quotations, citations” Best Practice No. 11 - Quotations, citations file tolle 2024.05.25 182
12 Translators newsletter No. 12 “Hagiography” Best Practice No. 10 - Hagiography file tolle 2024.05.25 201
11 Translators newsletter No. 11 “C&R” Best Practice No. 9 - Juridical file tolle 2024.05.25 177
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