Dear all,
This week's letter is partly prompted by a request I received during the week to translate a contribution by Fr Denis Soro (Provincial AOS, one of the new provinces established recently in Africa). The article, about 11 pages worth, is entitled: L'identité charismatique dans un monde africain en mutation, or Charismatic identity in a changing African world. Let me quote just a paragraph of this excellent reflection on the Salesian charism in Africa:
The Salesian charism must be more imbued with the encounter with African culture, the art of living and being of African populations as well as the languages of Africa. Don Bosco arrived in Africa through the apostolic and missionary impulse typical of the generosity of several Provinces of the Congregation. The contact has long remained with its Provinces of origin so well that they have transplanted their own style of expression of the charism in the countries of Africa. But the "African face of Don Bosco" still remains to be promoted: it would be appropriate for the expressions of the Salesian charism in Africa to espouse more specific features of the culture of values and education according to the ways of life and being in force in the Continent. "The African face of the Salesian charism about which Don Viganò spoke does not consist only in the numerical increase of Salesians of African origin, but even more in the inculturation of our charism in the African world so that it can bring about the transformation of African society according to the vision of the Gospel and in our Salesian style"(AGC 399).Don Bosco would be more African if the pedagogy of the preventive system, the richness of Salesian spirituality, the great concepts such as "the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls"; "pastoral charity"; "Familiarity" (understand Family spirit), the "good Christian and upright citizen"; the trinomial "joy, study and piety"; the "three Ss" (in Italian, French but not English): health, knowledge, holiness.... were translated into the values of African cultures and languages. For the time being, still, no official Communication of the Congregation arrives in Africa in one of the languages of the cultures of the Continent.
Perhaps there is much to reflect on here for the EAO Region too. But take particular note of the final paragraph, where I have replaced the words 'African/Africa' with XXX (= your country) and have highlighted a few phrases:
Don Bosco would be more XXX if the pedagogy of the preventive system, the richness of Salesian spirituality, the great concepts such as "the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls"; "pastoral charity"; "Familiarity" (understand Family spirit) the "good Christian and upright citizen"; the trinomial "joy, study and piety"; the "three Ss" (in Italian, French but not English): health, knowledge, holiness.... were translated into the values of XXX cultures and languages. For the time being, still, no official Communication of the Congregation arrives in XXX in one of the languages of the cultures of the Continent.
Could this raise important questions for us in this Region?
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Let me tell you that Fonti II (Salesian Sources 2) is currently being prepared at the UPS under the general editorship of Fr Aldo Giraudo (and others) with a view to it being published and presented to GC29, as indeed Fonti I was at GC27. Fr Aldo is sending me each Part as it is prepared, for translation into English. I have currently completed the General Introduction (32 pages), and Part Two, Pedagogy (education and schooling), which is 237 pages. I have begun Part Three, on spiritual life and Salesian consecration. This is almost 300 pages. Part One is being revised in its original Italian, so I have not yet received it. Part Four I have in hand, but not yet started, obviously. It is about 90 pages. All up, I think, Salesian Sources 2 will amount to about a thousand pages. Essentially Fonti II deals with the period of Father Rua’s term as Rector Major, from 1888 until his death in 2010. It contains documents produced by Rua himself, mostly his circulars, but you will immediately recognise ones by other names such as Cerruti, Bertello, Barberis, Bonetti, Dalmazzo, Albera... And if Don Bosco's Italian can sometimes be a bit challenging (though really, he had a generally restricted Italian vocabulary), then you can imagine that men like Cerruti, Bertello, etc., are not so easy either, especially given the breadth of their vocabulary, the florid Italian style of the day, their classical tertiary-level education, and the degree to which the language has changed over 120 years or more.
Now, the question is this: are any of you considering producing the 'Fonti' in your own languages? Clearly it is a major project. Those of you who have a team at hand may be considering it. In which case I would be happy to forward you what I have done, so long as you realise that both the original and the translation in English may yet undergo some [minor] changes. My intention of course is to have English finished in time for it to be also available by GC29, but that will depend on a number of factors beyond my control.
Since this clearly falls under the category of 'institutional translation', the attached Best Practice no. 6 offers some guidelines.
Until next week,
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best_practice_6-institutional-T.docx
PS I have just received the Missions 'recipes' for most of our countries in the Region (see last week's letter), so I will be in touch with individuals to asking them to check out the details. I am not including them all here, obviously. It would be too heavy.
