A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON TRANSLATING THE MASS
by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS
IN 1981, I went to Coláiste na bhFiann for the first time. This was not in the Gaeltacht, but rather was an Irish-medium summer boarding school operated along modified military regulations. Though it was not a Catholic institution, Catholic students had to attend daily Mass and rosary in Irish and to know all the Mass responses and mysteries of the rosary in Irish.
I quickly realised that there were differences between the Mass in Irish and in English. As a 12 year old, I reasoned English was a major international language and Irish was a minority language even on its own turf, so the universal Church would ensure that English was correct, but Irish would probably fall under the radar.
One factor did strike me. I read Scripture as a schoolboy. Among my favourite Gospel stories was the healing of the centurion's servant (Matt. 8, 5-13). I never made any connexion between this and "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed", but the correct Irish, A Thiarna, ní fiú mé go dtiocfá faoi mo dhíon, ach abairse an focal agus leigheasfar m'anam, automatically brought this into my mind. Even non-goidelophones will probably identify m'anam with anima mea.
I learned Latin in school, but it was a very long time before I attended any Latin liturgy. However, after school (1986-88), I spent two years in an Augustinian community where a Polish novice announced that the English rendering of the Mass was a poor translation. Our confreres didn't see the issue, but I took a vinyl recording of a Mozart Mass which gave parallel texts of the ordinary form in Latin and several other languages in its sleeve cover. I looked at English and French and could see that the French was closer to the Latin than the English and, as far as I could see, this was the case with Spanish and Italian. My memory of Mass in Irish confirmed that I was mistaken as to which language gave a better translation.
Closer to the Latin
Two years later (1989), I went to Germany for the first time and began to learn German. I lived in the cathedral parish in Stuttgart and attended Mass there several times a week (work permitting). I saw that the German Mass was also much closer to the Latin proto-Mass than the English. I returned to studies in Maynooth where I made the acquaintance of a retired New York businessman, originally from Clones, who had studied for the Pallottine society in Thurles 50 years before. He frequently made the point that the English translation of the Mass was very poor. This man, now deceased, made many friends among the student body and was very generous towards the college's deacons. I don't believe I was the only one who heard this argument.
From 1990 to 1991, I was publicity office of Maynooth Students' Uinon and my principal duty was the production of a student journal. I followed the principle that this magazine was for all Maynooth students rather than just a few vocal, radicalised and promiscuous lay students in the Arts Faculty. This meant having a religious affairs column. The English translation of the Mass was one of the first targets in a moderately conservative opinion piece. This can be seen in St Pat's Chat, Volume 3, No.1 in the John Paul II Library in Maynooth. This was over 20 years before the emergence of the new English translation.
Over the next decade I became acquainted with the late Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin SJ, a Monaghan-born linguist and historian. An tAthair Ó Fionnagáin told us that he studied the draft of the English Mass following its publication in 1971 and then wrote to his provincial to tell him that he was prepared to say Mass according to the 1969 Missal in Latin, in French and in Irish, but he was not prepared to do so in English as the translation departed too far from the Latin original.
Ambiguous phrase
At the same time, I did some work on assisting the translation of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom into Irish under the direction of the late Archimandrite Serge Keleher (for reference rather than liturgical use, though the Irish has been used from time to time). Mgr Keleher insisted that the translation be as literal as possible in regard to the Greek and Old Church Slavonic typical editions. Translations into English, French, German and Italian were looked at, but none was followed as a model. The archimandrite's view of the English version of the Roman Mass was that it was a model of how not to do things.
Versions of the Mass in other languages are often far form perfect, but English has been particularly egregious in its departure from Latin. This has been accentuated by the use of English rather than Latin as a template for new translations in mission territory. But other versions have their problems. For example, German renders pro multis as für alle, which is the same as the inaccurate English "for all"; für viele* would be correct. The committee who drew up the Irish translation of the Mass wished to use ar son chách, which is "for all". (Father Benedict** used ar son na sluaighte-"for the hosts"-in the Latin-Irish missal in use before the liturgical changes. This is ambiguous.***)
At the time the draft Irish missal was in circulation, the then Archbishop of Tuam, Mgr Joseph Cunnane announced he would not permit this version of the Mass to be said in his diocese. Tuam has the largest Gaeltacht of any Irish diocese and Archbishop Cunnane held a masters of arts in Irish as well as an earned doctorate in divinity****. The compromise formula was ar son an chine dhaonna which literally is an ambiguous "for the human race", which seems to follow the French pour la multitude. French is the only major European language which does not translate pro multis as "for all". One suspects it is more than a coincidence that several translation committees made the same deviation from the Latin.
Impoverished version
After four decades of discussion, the new missal in English is ready and is being rolled out in a piecemeal manner, which varies considerably from diocese to diocese. In Meath, this has been more progressive than in Armagh or Dublin. In Meath, one could remark on the similarity between the English and the German Masses at a very early stage. The translation goes beyond mere accuracy. The language of the new missal is more sacral and formal than previously. It has also evoked the anger of an ageing generation of clerics who seem to think nobody wanted this. I wrote this piece to illustrate how that has never been my experience.l
Anglophones are not renowned for learning other languages, but the monoglot nature of the opposition to the new translation astounds me, especially in a country where there are two vernacular languages, one of which is more faithful than the other to the ordinary form Latin Mass. A cursory comparison between the Confiteor or Gloria in English with that in Latin or another language will show not only how inaccurate, but also how impoverished the current English version is. It has been pointed out that the arguments against the new translation have been very patronising towards the majority of the faithful. However the main issue seems to be the alleged exclusivity of the language.
Inclusive Turkish
This is a case of déjà vu. Similar arguments were brought out in relation to the tardy English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church nearly 20 years ago. But the arguments regarding exclusivity/inclusivity are themselves products of a monoglot mentality. Most other languages have a marked tendency towards so-called exclusivity. German is particularly "bad". I am informed Turkish on the other hand is a model inclusive language. How many people would entertain the argument (which no doubt has been made from time to time) that women in Turkey are in a better position that women in Germany or Austria? The females among Germany's large Turkish community certainly have not said much about this.
In our own country, one of the most prestigious positions in the Irish public service is that of Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. The current Chairman is a woman and there are no deafening cries to call her "chairperson". I also recall informal situations where females addressed mixed audiences as "guys" or "lads" with no objection, but although "men" was accepted formally in the same sense into the late twentieth century, this is no longer the case. My own view is that this should not be an issue and the translators might have considered there was little point in allowing an argument to develop.
For all that, there are problems with the new English translation. It is not one of the glories of the English language. The proclamations "The Word of the Lord", "The Gospel of the Lord" and "The Mystery of Faith", though common for a long time in the United States, grate on this writer's ears, as the announcement seems to have little connexion with anything. The flow of the words is not as natural as in the case of Irish or German.
The previous translation was hardly beautiful either, though I suspect that the older translators were more familiar with English literature, especially English poetry, than those who worked on the current version. The trouble is that the original translators let the English-speaking world down badly. Much was lost and in an era where Catholics were allegedly being persuaded to turn more toward Scripture, many of the biblical allusions in the Mass were contorted beyond recognition-even the Anglican communion service was closer to the Latin than the English Mass. One hopes this is now addressed.
Protestant experience
However, one must understand that it is not at all easy to render the Mass in the vernacular, especially in a language so widely spoken as English. The more liturgically-focused Protestant denominations have plenty of experience of these problems. Our experience shows that revising something temporary is not easy and one still hears people using the responses introduced in superseded translations. It will take a long time to get used to this one.
FOOTNOTES
* This is the translation given in the Schott Missal. Father Anselm Schott was a Benedictine monk who compiled the most popular German-Latin missal in use prior to the liturgical changes. Pope Benedict traces his interest in liturgy to receiving his first Schott missal as a young boy.
** Father Benedict of the Mother of God OCD who compiled the Latin-Irish missal in 1958 for Irish-speaking Catholics.
*** The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in Irish, a translation from Greek and Old Church Slavonic, uses ar son móráin, "for many". This is the most accurate Irish version. I have not seen any eastern Catholic liturgy of any linguistic origin using any formula other than "for many".
**** I am indebted to John Heneghan for this information. He has done postgraduate research into the contribution of priests working in Maynooth to the Irish language, which includes the translation into Irish of the Missale Romanum and the Bible. This was carried out in the years following the Second Vatican Council and merits an academic paper in its own right. John was also able to tell me that the editor of the Bible translation, Rev Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was dismissive of the Jerusalem Bible as a translation model. This is typically used for readings at Mass in English in Ireland and Britain.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 117, November-December 2011.
I learned Latin in school, but it was a very long time before I attended any Latin liturgy. However, after school (1986-88), I spent two years in an Augustinian community where a Polish novice announced that the English rendering of the Mass was a poor translation. Our confreres didn't see the issue, but I took a vinyl recording of a Mozart Mass which gave parallel texts of the ordinary form in Latin and several other languages in its sleeve cover. I looked at English and French and could see that the French was closer to the Latin than the English and, as far as I could see, this was the case with Spanish and Italian. My memory of Mass in Irish confirmed that I was mistaken as to which language gave a better translation.
Closer to the Latin
Two years later (1989), I went to Germany for the first time and began to learn German. I lived in the cathedral parish in Stuttgart and attended Mass there several times a week (work permitting). I saw that the German Mass was also much closer to the Latin proto-Mass than the English. I returned to studies in Maynooth where I made the acquaintance of a retired New York businessman, originally from Clones, who had studied for the Pallottine society in Thurles 50 years before. He frequently made the point that the English translation of the Mass was very poor. This man, now deceased, made many friends among the student body and was very generous towards the college's deacons. I don't believe I was the only one who heard this argument.
From 1990 to 1991, I was publicity office of Maynooth Students' Uinon and my principal duty was the production of a student journal. I followed the principle that this magazine was for all Maynooth students rather than just a few vocal, radicalised and promiscuous lay students in the Arts Faculty. This meant having a religious affairs column. The English translation of the Mass was one of the first targets in a moderately conservative opinion piece. This can be seen in St Pat's Chat, Volume 3, No.1 in the John Paul II Library in Maynooth. This was over 20 years before the emergence of the new English translation.
Over the next decade I became acquainted with the late Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin SJ, a Monaghan-born linguist and historian. An tAthair Ó Fionnagáin told us that he studied the draft of the English Mass following its publication in 1971 and then wrote to his provincial to tell him that he was prepared to say Mass according to the 1969 Missal in Latin, in French and in Irish, but he was not prepared to do so in English as the translation departed too far from the Latin original.
Ambiguous phrase
At the same time, I did some work on assisting the translation of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom into Irish under the direction of the late Archimandrite Serge Keleher (for reference rather than liturgical use, though the Irish has been used from time to time). Mgr Keleher insisted that the translation be as literal as possible in regard to the Greek and Old Church Slavonic typical editions. Translations into English, French, German and Italian were looked at, but none was followed as a model. The archimandrite's view of the English version of the Roman Mass was that it was a model of how not to do things.
Versions of the Mass in other languages are often far form perfect, but English has been particularly egregious in its departure from Latin. This has been accentuated by the use of English rather than Latin as a template for new translations in mission territory. But other versions have their problems. For example, German renders pro multis as für alle, which is the same as the inaccurate English "for all"; für viele* would be correct. The committee who drew up the Irish translation of the Mass wished to use ar son chách, which is "for all". (Father Benedict** used ar son na sluaighte-"for the hosts"-in the Latin-Irish missal in use before the liturgical changes. This is ambiguous.***)
At the time the draft Irish missal was in circulation, the then Archbishop of Tuam, Mgr Joseph Cunnane announced he would not permit this version of the Mass to be said in his diocese. Tuam has the largest Gaeltacht of any Irish diocese and Archbishop Cunnane held a masters of arts in Irish as well as an earned doctorate in divinity****. The compromise formula was ar son an chine dhaonna which literally is an ambiguous "for the human race", which seems to follow the French pour la multitude. French is the only major European language which does not translate pro multis as "for all". One suspects it is more than a coincidence that several translation committees made the same deviation from the Latin.
Impoverished version
After four decades of discussion, the new missal in English is ready and is being rolled out in a piecemeal manner, which varies considerably from diocese to diocese. In Meath, this has been more progressive than in Armagh or Dublin. In Meath, one could remark on the similarity between the English and the German Masses at a very early stage. The translation goes beyond mere accuracy. The language of the new missal is more sacral and formal than previously. It has also evoked the anger of an ageing generation of clerics who seem to think nobody wanted this. I wrote this piece to illustrate how that has never been my experience.l
Anglophones are not renowned for learning other languages, but the monoglot nature of the opposition to the new translation astounds me, especially in a country where there are two vernacular languages, one of which is more faithful than the other to the ordinary form Latin Mass. A cursory comparison between the Confiteor or Gloria in English with that in Latin or another language will show not only how inaccurate, but also how impoverished the current English version is. It has been pointed out that the arguments against the new translation have been very patronising towards the majority of the faithful. However the main issue seems to be the alleged exclusivity of the language.
Inclusive Turkish
This is a case of déjà vu. Similar arguments were brought out in relation to the tardy English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church nearly 20 years ago. But the arguments regarding exclusivity/inclusivity are themselves products of a monoglot mentality. Most other languages have a marked tendency towards so-called exclusivity. German is particularly "bad". I am informed Turkish on the other hand is a model inclusive language. How many people would entertain the argument (which no doubt has been made from time to time) that women in Turkey are in a better position that women in Germany or Austria? The females among Germany's large Turkish community certainly have not said much about this.
In our own country, one of the most prestigious positions in the Irish public service is that of Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. The current Chairman is a woman and there are no deafening cries to call her "chairperson". I also recall informal situations where females addressed mixed audiences as "guys" or "lads" with no objection, but although "men" was accepted formally in the same sense into the late twentieth century, this is no longer the case. My own view is that this should not be an issue and the translators might have considered there was little point in allowing an argument to develop.
For all that, there are problems with the new English translation. It is not one of the glories of the English language. The proclamations "The Word of the Lord", "The Gospel of the Lord" and "The Mystery of Faith", though common for a long time in the United States, grate on this writer's ears, as the announcement seems to have little connexion with anything. The flow of the words is not as natural as in the case of Irish or German.
The previous translation was hardly beautiful either, though I suspect that the older translators were more familiar with English literature, especially English poetry, than those who worked on the current version. The trouble is that the original translators let the English-speaking world down badly. Much was lost and in an era where Catholics were allegedly being persuaded to turn more toward Scripture, many of the biblical allusions in the Mass were contorted beyond recognition-even the Anglican communion service was closer to the Latin than the English Mass. One hopes this is now addressed.
Protestant experience
However, one must understand that it is not at all easy to render the Mass in the vernacular, especially in a language so widely spoken as English. The more liturgically-focused Protestant denominations have plenty of experience of these problems. Our experience shows that revising something temporary is not easy and one still hears people using the responses introduced in superseded translations. It will take a long time to get used to this one.
FOOTNOTES
* This is the translation given in the Schott Missal. Father Anselm Schott was a Benedictine monk who compiled the most popular German-Latin missal in use prior to the liturgical changes. Pope Benedict traces his interest in liturgy to receiving his first Schott missal as a young boy.
** Father Benedict of the Mother of God OCD who compiled the Latin-Irish missal in 1958 for Irish-speaking Catholics.
*** The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in Irish, a translation from Greek and Old Church Slavonic, uses ar son móráin, "for many". This is the most accurate Irish version. I have not seen any eastern Catholic liturgy of any linguistic origin using any formula other than "for many".
**** I am indebted to John Heneghan for this information. He has done postgraduate research into the contribution of priests working in Maynooth to the Irish language, which includes the translation into Irish of the Missale Romanum and the Bible. This was carried out in the years following the Second Vatican Council and merits an academic paper in its own right. John was also able to tell me that the editor of the Bible translation, Rev Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was dismissive of the Jerusalem Bible as a translation model. This is typically used for readings at Mass in English in Ireland and Britain.
The Brandsma Review, Issue 117, November-December 2011.
I was not the editor of the Brandsma Review when I wrote this, and it was carried under the title "Irish version of the Mass superior to English". This was not my point, though I think it was clearly the case before 2011. I wrote this because I tired of hearing self-designated liberal clergy and religious saying nobody wanted a new translation of the Mass in English. I did not regard myself, nor any of the friends described above or many others besides, as nobody.
ReplyDeleteThree years on the new translation is established. I am so used to "For many" in English that the German "für alle" is positively trying.