by Alan Griffiths<\/p>\n
The aproved translation of the post Communion oration for Wednesday in the weekdays of Christmas time reads as follows:<\/p>\n
May your people, O Lord,
\nwhom you guide and sustain in many ways,
\nexperience, both now and in the future,
\nthe remedies which you bestow,
\nthat, with the needed solace of things that pass away,
\nthey may strive with ever deepened trust for things eternal.
\nThrough Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
The plethora of subordinate clauses in this prayer almost overwhelms the sense and will make it difficult to read even with due preparation. Line 5 is simply impenetrable to this reader and will not stand without a little amplification.<\/p>\n
For the sake of argument, I tried a revision. I tried to rearrange the first four lines in an attempt to make the thread clearer. I took a guess at what line 5 means and have tried to express it in something resembling speakable English.<\/p>\n
My efforts, such as they are, yielded this:<\/p>\n
O Lord,
\nwho guide and sustain your people in many ways,
\ngrant that both now and in the future
\nthey may experience
\nthe healing gifts which you bestow,
\nand as they find support for their needs
\nin the things of this passing world,
\nso they may strive with growing trust
\nfor the things that are eternal.
\nThrough Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
I am sure that this would not be the last word in a revision debate, however.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d be interested to learn what others might propose.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n
Once again, preparing the text below for speaking, the collect for Wednesdays of Christmas season, I was struck by how different the \u2018approved\u2019 version is from its Latin original. A literal version might read:<\/p>\n
Grant to us, almighty God, that your salvation,
\nwhich for the redemption of the world came forth with new light of the heavens,
\nmay always arise in our hearts for their renewal.
\nThrough.<\/p>\n
I saw that this oration has a strong biblical flavour relating to texts used at this time of the year. \u2018Your salvation\u2019 echoes psalms (98) and Deutero-Isaiah. This biblical flavour would be a gift to the homilist at a weekday Mass.<\/p>\n
The approved version is as follows:<\/p>\n
Grant us, almighty God, that the bringer of your salvation,
\nwho for the world\u2019s redemption came forth with newness of heavenly light,
\nmay dawn afresh in our hearts and bring us constant renewal.
\nWho lives.<\/p>\n
I found it difficult to see how this translation accords with the guidelines of Liturgiam Authenticam<\/em>. It is a paraphrase of the Latin and dilutes the biblical flavour of the original.<\/p>\n \u2018Your salvation\u2019 becomes \u2018the bringer of your salvation.\u2019 This (a) removes the biblical connotations of the image and (b) begs the question \u2018why not come straight out and say \u201cChrist\u201d?\u2019 The subtlety of the allusion is compromised.<\/p>\n As often in Roman orations, the long relative clause in line 2 makes it hard (for me at least) to reconnect with the main verb \u2018dawn afresh\u2019 difficult for the speaker.<\/p>\n \u2018Arise\u2019 becomes \u2018dawn afresh\u2019 \u2013 is \u2018afresh\u2019 intended to render \u2018semper?\u2019 If so, then why do we have \u2018constant\u2019 later on in the line?<\/p>\n So I tried to do another version which might fit more closely with the original:<\/p>\n Grant us, almighty God, In lines 2 and 4 I took the liberty of\u00a0 applying a Cranmerian device (cf. Collect in BCP for the Annunciation and cf. the Roman Collect for Advent Sunday 4) with \u2018as\u2019 and \u2018so?\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fr. Alan Griffiths is a priest of of Portsmouth Diocese, UK. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the sake of argument, I tried a revision. I am sure that this would not be the last word in a revision debate. – Alan Griffiths<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[719,572,477],"class_list":["post-17532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-new-missal","tag-comparing-translations","tag-fr-alan-griffiths","tag-translation-issues"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nthat as your salvation came forth
\nwith new and heavenly light for the world\u2019s redemption,
\nso it may ever arise in our hearts to make them new.
\nThrough.<\/p>\n