Translation and Mystical Texts

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TRANSLATION AND MYSTICAL TEXTSNike K. Pokorn aa University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Online Publication Date: 13 October 2005

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0907-676X/05/02/099-7 $20.00Perspectives: Studies in Translatology

2005 N. PokornVol. 13, No. 2, 2005

TRANSLATION AND MYSTICAL TEXTS

Nike K. Pokorn, University of Ljubljana, [email protected]

AbstractThis article discusses the ambiguous issues that translators of religious, spiritual, and mystical

texts may have to face. This is illustrated by means of two Middle English mystical texts that havebeen translated into Modern English and several other languages. In the translation of these (andsimilar texts), the role of translators oen goes beyond that of interlingual mediators of messagesand assumes unexpected functions. Firstly, I discuss the translators unusual role as perpetuatorsof torture and purgatorial assistants in the earliest confessional autobiography in Englishliterature, The Book of Margery Kempe. Secondly, I turn to the question of translator loyaltyin the process of translating a 14th-century mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing. The issuesdiscussed may not be unique to religious writing, but they are highlighted in religious texts.

Key words: Translating religious texts; translating mystical texts; translators ethics;translators loyalty.

IntroductionThe fourteenth and eenth centuries witnessed a great upsurge in lay piety

and mysticism all over Western Europe, including, for example: Mechild ofMagdenburg (d. 1277) in Germany; Jan Ruysbroeck (d. 1381) in Flanders; and

Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306) and St. Catharine of Sienna (d. 1380) in Italy. Infourteenth-century England, there was also a group of spiritual writers whoare nowadays known as the English mystics. Among its members were theanonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing , Julian of Norwich (1343-1413),and Margery Kempe (c. 1373-c. 1440).

Margery KempeMargery Kempe is the most controversial member of the group: she was a

married woman, a housewife, and the mother of fourteen children. Towards theend of her life, she dictated the recollections of her life, thoughts, pilgrimages,and mystical revelations in a book now known as The Book of Margery Kempe.Her devotion was expressed through her weeping aloud and crying out,which repeatedly divided priests, congregations, and fellow-pilgrims (aswell as contemporary readers) into friends and enemies, into supporters and

bier critics. On the one hand, The Book of Margery Kempe tells us that her

fellow townspeople sought to ban her from aending public sermons, evencommunion, and that her fellow pilgrims refused to let her join them at meals.On the other hand, she gained support of some of the most respected religiousauthorities of her time, e.g., Dame Julian of Norwich and the Carthusians ofMount Grace Priory in Yorkshire, where the only extant manuscript of The Bookof Margery Kempe (BL Add. MS 61823) was kept and studied.

When the manuscript was re-discovered in the rst part of the twentiethcentury, Margerys critics were oen very harsh. The rst generation of scholars

judged her to be unconventional, mad, sensational, and hysterical. (Thurston1936; McCann 1937) The second generation was no less condemning, although

they aempted to reassess her achievements. (Knowles 1961: 147-148; Colledge

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2005. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Volume 13: 2

1962; Watkin 1979: 65) Nowadays, Margery Kempes spirituality is connectedwith English popular religion, (McEntire 1987: 87-89) her so-called excesses areparalleled with some continental traditions (Armstrong 1992: 17; Cleve 1992),and her religious experiences and revelations are judged to be less idiosyncraticand more a product of her age (Hirsh 1989: 3).

In The Book,we learn that Margery was illiterate, which obliged her to dictateher life and visions to two scribes. The rst scribe, most probably a son of hers,(Dillon 1996: 135; Windea 2000: 5) produced an unintelligible version; thesecond scribe, most probably Robert Spryngolde, (Hirsh 1975; Dillon 1996:136) was, by his own admission, unwilling at the beginning, but eventuallycontributed an undetermined amount to the task. It is agreed, however, that hewas clearly not passive in penning The Book, and that there are two authors ofthe original manuscript. Nevertheless, it is also strongly argued that Margerys

role should not be downplayed and that the material was presented the way shewished it to be presented. (Glasscoe 1993: 286)The Book of Margery Kempe is full of intimate conversations with God or

spiritually-minded contemporaries, and is at the same time lled with sharpexchanges with her critics and open revelations of her past experience,important events in her life, temptations, and humiliations. As such, the bookresists every generic classication (Windea 1994: 228). It is considered the rstconfessional autobiography in English, although it diers profoundly from thatof St. Augustine. The Book is not a guide to spiritual life, nor is it a medievalpilgrimage narrative, although intermiently it may bear some resemblance

to those genres as well. The reason for the writing of this book is unclear. Ibelieve that Margery Kempe dictated the book because it provided her with thepurgatorial torture she desired, and that she uses her readers and translatorsto provide her with the torture needed for the purication and salvation of hersoul.

It should be noted that besides being translated into French and Italian, TheBook has also been transferred to modern English six times, thus presentingthese modernisers with the same problems that face its translators.

Let us look, for example, at the following passage from The Book:

It was during the second year of these temptations, on the eve of Saint Margaret, thata man I fancied told me just before evensong that he would give anything to sleepwith me and have it o with me. He insisted that if he couldnt be satised now, thenit would have to be another time but it was not for me to choose. He was saying allthis just to see what I would do. But thinking he really meant it, I said very lile inanswer. So we parted and both went our separate ways to evensong; and the churchitself was dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch. But I was so disturbed at what Ihad heard that I did not hear a single word of evensong; I could not even say my OurFather, nor think a single good thought. In that instant, I was in more turmoil thanI had ever been So aer evensong, I went over to tell him he could have his way,fully believing this was what he wanted. To my astonishment, he was completelyevasive so that I couldnt understand him any more. And at that, we parted for thenight. I was in such a state, tossing and turning all night long, that I scarcely knewwhat to do. There I lay alongside my own husband; yet to have made love with him

would have seemed a detestable thought, although it was not sinful. Yet all the while Ikept on thinking of sinning with the man who had tempted me while I was at church.At long last, because the temptation continued unabated and since I was so weak, Iwas overcome and made up my mind. I went o in search of my man to ask him ifhe would have me. He told me straight that for all the worlds wealth he would not

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sleep with me; he said he would rather be chopped up small, just like meat for a stew.(Kempe 1998: 35-36)

This story of sexual desire takes place in a religious context, on St. Margarets

Eve at evensong in a church, which makes it poignant. St. Margaret was a virginwho endured torture and was executed because she rejected a powerful mansadvances. Kempes yielding to carnal lust thus becomes even more humiliating.It seems that these recollections of Margerys past carnal temptations found aplace in The Book primarily because they arouse scorn, laughter, and contempttowards Margery, i.e., the reactions she encountered very oen during herlifetime, and surprisingly enough, reactions that she cherished. In fact, Margery

believed that true spirituality consisted not in withdrawal from the secularworld but in unremiing self-humiliation in it (Dickman 1980: 170; Dickman1984: 164). Instead of undergoing dramatic bodily penance, she deliberately

suers the scorn of her contemporaries as a kind of purgatorial persecution(Mahoney 1992: 41). Thus, for example, in the third chapter of Book I we ndthe following passage: And besides, contempt in this world is the right wayahead so as to win heaven, for Christ himself chose that same path. (Kempe1998: 33) Margery tells us that her particular way of life was also supported

by most prestigious religious authorities of her time, for example by Julian ofNorwich, who gives her the following advice: For the more contempt andshame and insults you have from the world, the more you rise in the eyesof God. (Kempe 1998: 75) To convince us, Margery also quotes the ultimateauthority the words of Jesus Christ addressed to her in one of her visions: the

more ridicule you bear for my sake, the more I am pleased. (Kempe 1998: 59)Christ reassures her more than once that suering shame is her vocation: Andremember, daughter, the more shame, contempt, and rebuke you suer for loveof me, the more I love you. (Kempe 1998: 127) He tells her that she will beslain in one way only, by suering all these sharp words. (Kempe 1998: 127)And Christ adds: Daughter, it is more pleasing to me that you should put upwith scorn and humiliation, with shame and abuse, wrongs and upsets thanif your head were to be chopped o three times every day for seven years!(Kempe 1998: 189)

Bearing in mind that insistence on the importance of humiliation, the

description of her carnal temptations on St. Margarets Eve does not seem soextraordinary any more. It was most probably narrated in order to provokethe same reaction it usually resulted in, i.e., laughter and derision. By makingthose who read her book laugh, she skilfully prolonged her penance. Whenthe present-day translator of The Book of Margery Kempe enables the book toreach readerships in other ages and in dierent cultures, he or she exposesMargery to their scorn and thus provides her with the humiliation she neededfor purication. The descriptions of embarrassing, despicable, and oen funnyevents are not the babblings of a deranged woman - by narrating them, Margeryand her scribes use The Books readership and their response to the narrative as a

means to Margerys salvation. The Book became her purgatory, her scribes - andher modern translators - were the perpetuators of torture, who by exposing herto ridicule, take Margery to her audiences whipping scorn.

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The Cloud of UnknowingTranslators of another fourteenth-century mystical text, The Cloud of

Unknowing , face another problem in the translation of spiritual and mysticalworks. This is a work that has commanded interest not only in Britain, whereit has been transferred into Modern English eleven times, but it has also beentranslated for readers in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Slovenia,and even as far away as Japan.

The Cloud of Unknowing also belongs to the English mystical writings fromthe end of the fourteenth century. It is a work of spiritual guidance, designed tohelp readers reach a union with God. The text circulated in a limited monasticcircle, in particular amongst the Carthusians, the order to which the authorprobably belonged. Despite its Christian origin, the mysticism in the text has

been compared to Oriental mystical traditions, for example to the teachings

of Vedanta (Watson 1982), Buddhism (Smart 1983), Zen Buddhism (Johnston1992), and Tibetan Buddhism (Corless 1986).The Cloud consists of 75 chapters that describe a development in the

contemplatives mind and heart, from the state of scaerednessto that of loveand union with God. This development does not progress in an organisedway, but is full of digressions and repetitions, which corresponds to the worksdidactic nature: The Cloud is a series of leers from a master to his disciple,who has to understand and remember the tenets of their common work, i.e.,contemplation.

Like many other spiritual texts, The Cloud of Unknowing begins with an

entreaty:I charge and beg you, with all the strength and power that love can bring to bear,that whoever you may be who possess this book (perhaps you own it, or are keepingit, carrying it, or borrowing it) you should, quite freely and of set purpose, neitherread, write, or mention it to anyone, nor allow it to be read, wrien or mentionedby anyone unless that person is in your judgement really and wholly determined tofollow Christ perfectly. And to follow him not only in the active life, but to the utmostheight of the contemplative life that is possible for a perfect soul in a mortal body toaain by the grace of God. (The Cloud 1978: 51)

The Cloud is part of the canon of English literature, and as such, as mentioned,

it has been translated oen. However, every translator is faced with thisintroductory prohibition by the author, which is repeated at the end of the book, where the author again entreats that the book be given only to thosewho earnestly want to become contemplatives. Since books are translated inorder to be published, translators inevitably betray the authors trust in that thetranslation is also available to people who do not meet the authors criterion of

being potential contemplatives. At the same time, by breaking the prohibition,paradoxically, translators also repeat and strengthen it by participating in theprocess of reproducing the work in many copies in another language. Theypartially unburden themselves of the responsibility and at the same time widen

the scope of the prohibition as it reaches readerships not only in the sourcelanguage but also in the target languages. But despite this multiplication of theinitial prohibition, sensitive translators are aware that they have broken it. Howcan they aain peace of mind, if they take the authors plea seriously?

On the one hand, translators may follow the post-structuralist claim that a

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translator can never be indebted to the author of the original (Derrida 1985),since the moment a work is published and oered to others, the author losesall power over it. Roland Barthes argues that as soon as a fact is narrated, thevoice loses its origin and the author enters into his own death (Barthes 1977:142). The original and the translation are thus granted new and independentlives that are not dened by their environment and their creators. And whenauthors have no power over their creations, the authors authority and intention

become an illusion. A translation, like its original, also leads a life of its own,independent of its author-translator, as an eternally unstable and changing text.The post-structuralist view of texts and translations thus frees translators fromany responsibility, and consequently from any feeling of guilt.

On the other hand, for translators who share the authors horizon of under-standing and believe in the existence of the nal, transcendental signied ensur-

ing the meaning of the text, which exists but may be hidden and incomprehensibleto human reason, the responsibility cannot be shaken o easily. The presenceof the Transcendental God, of the divine auctor , the source of the ultimateauctoritas, ensures the meaning and also makes the authors prohibition bindingfor translators. But even outside a religious context, translators can decide toaccept responsibility toward the author in translational interaction and upholdthe right of the author of The Cloud to demand respect for his intention and fora special relationship between his text and his readership.

At the same time, translators are bound by other responsibilities: thereis a moral commitment or loyalty that commits translators to the target

side. According to Christiane Nord, translators should not only be loyal tothe original author and make their translation compatible with the originalauthors intentions, but they should feel moral responsibility towards the targetreadership as well (Nord 1997: 123-128). So, when target audiences want to havea text in translation, translators of works like The Cloud may nd themselves at amoral impasse. Either way, they betray one of the parties.

And nally, the text itself has its own demands. The task of a translator issimilar to that of a mediaeval scribe, in that a particular text must be kept alive

by enlarging its potential readership. This is particularly obvious with worksthat do not belong to the cultural capital of the target societies: the Middle-

English mystical texts (among them The Cloud of Unknowing) are not canonisedclassics in any non-English European culture. By re-writing and translatingthese texts, translators keep them alive; they prolong the life of the original andinsure what Walter Benjamin termed Fortleben, a potentially eternal aerlife.(Benjamin 1982)

Translators of The Cloud of Unknowing who reject the notion of the completeindependence of the text become traitors. Although they multiply and widenthe scope of the prohibition that introduces and closes the text, they break itat the same time. Nevertheless, they demonstrate loyalty to their audiences byenabling them to read the text in translation, and, furthermore, they remain

loyal to it by prolonging its life.

ConclusionThe two Middle English mystical texts I have discussed present translators

with conicts in terms of translation practice and translation principles. Here,



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translators are not merely linguistic mediators, conveying a message fromone linguistic code to another, but their role assumes unusual dimensions.Translators of The Book of Margery Kempe are forced into specic and unpleasantroles as perpetuators of a torture that helps Margery purify herself to aainsalvation and eternal life; translators of The Cloud of Unknowing face problemsknown to translators of devotional or mystical texts, regardless of the spiritualtradition to which they belong. Since all translators of mystical writings dealwith texts that are considered precious by their authors and their spiritualcommunities and intended for restricted audiences, translators are, in principle,disloyal to the author when they make the work available to a larger andunknown audience. At the same time, translators are also commied to readerswho want to access the text by means of a translation. By translating the work,they provide potential contemplatives with a text that would otherwise not

be available, but at the same time it will also fall into the hands of readersthat the author considered unworthy. Modern translations of spiritual andmystical texts thus inevitably involve a breach of loyalty to the author, which is,paradoxically, caused by loyalty to the text and its potential readership.

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Book. In: McEntire, Sandra (ed.). Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays. New York &London: Garland. 17-35.

Barthes, Roland. 1977. The Death of the Author. In: Barthes, Roland. Image-Music-Text:Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath. Glasgow: William Collins.

Benjamin, Walter. 1982 [orig. 1923]. The Task of the Translator. In: Arendt, H. (ed.).

Illuminations. London: Fontana.Cleve, Gunnel. 1992. Margery Kempe: A Scandinavian Inuence in Medieval England?In: Glasscoe, Marion (ed.). The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Cambridge:Brewer. 163-178.

Colledge, Eric. 1962. Margery Kempe.Month 28: 16-29.Corless, R. 1986. From Ignorance to Unknowing in The Cloud of Unknowing and the

Guide to the Bodhisavas Way of Life. In: Lagorio, V. M. (ed.). Mysticism: Medievaland Modern. Salzburg: Institut fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universitt Salzburg.118-134.

Derrida, Jacques. 1985. Des Tours de Babel. In: Graham, J. F. (ed.).Dierence in Translation.New York: Cornell University Press.

Dickman, Susan. 1980. Margery Kempe and the English Devotional Tradition. In:Glasscoe, Marion (ed.). The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Exeter: Universityof Exeter. 156-172.

Dickman, Susan. 1984. Margery Kempe and the Continental Tradition of Pious Women.In: Glasscoe, Marion (ed.). The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Cambridge:Brewer. 150-168.

Dillon, Janee. 1995. The Making of Desire in The Book of Margery Kempe.Leeds Studiesin English. New Series XXVI. 113-144.

Dillon, Janee. 1996. Margery Kempes Sharp Confessors. Leeds Studies in English. NewSeries XXVII: 131-138.

Glasscoe, Marion. 1993. English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith. Harlow: Longman.Hirsh, John C. 1975. Author and Scribe in The Book of Margery Kempe.Medium Aevum

44. 145-150.Hirsh, John C. 1989. The Revelations of Margery Kempe: Paramystical Practices in Late

Medieval England. Leiden & New York: E. J. Brill.Johnston, W. 1992. The Mysticism of The Cloud of Unknowing. Hertfordshire: Antony

Clarke.Kempe, Margery. 1998. The Book of Margery Kempe: Translated and with an Introduction by

John Skinner. New York & London: Image Books, Doubleday.Kempe, Margery. 2000. The Book of Margery Kempe. Ed. Barry Windea. Longman

Annotated Texts. Harlow: Pearson Education.Knowles, David. 1961. The English Mystical Tradition. London: Burns and Oates.

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Mahoney, Dhira B. 1992. Margery Kempes Tears and the Power over Language. In:McEntire, Sandra (ed.). Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays. New York & London:Garland. 37-50.

McCann, Justin. 1937. The Book of Margery Kempe. The Dublin Review: 103-116.McEntire, Sandra. 1987. The Doctrine of Compunction from Bede to Margery Kempe. In:

Glasscoe, Marion (ed.). The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Cambridge: Brewer.77-90.

McEntire, Sandra. 1992. The Journey into Selood: Margery Kempe and FeminineSpirituality. In: McEntire, Sandra (ed.).Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays. New York &London: Garland. 51-69.

Nord, Christiane. 1989. Loyalitt sta Treue.Lebende Sprachen 34 (3): 100-105.Nord, Christiane. 1991. Scopos, Loyalty and Translational Conventions. Target 3 (1): 91-

109.Nord, Christiane. 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches

Explained. Manchester: St Jerome.Smart, N. 1983. What would Buddhaghosa Have Made of The Cloud of Unknowing. In:

Katz, S. T. (ed.). Mysticism and Language. Oxford & New York: Oxford UniversityPress. 103-120.

The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works. 1978 [orig. 1961]. Translated by Clion Wolters.London & New York, etc: Penguin.

Thurston, Herbert. 1936. Margery the Astonishing: A Fieenth-Century English Mystic.Month 24: 446-456.

Watkin, E. I. 1979. In Defence of Margery Kempe. In: Swanton, M. J. (ed.).Exeter MedievalEnglish Texts and Studies. Exeter: University of Exeter. 35-65.

Watson, K. 1982. The Cloud of Unknowing and Vedanta. In: Glasscoe, Marion (ed.).The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Darlington 1982. Exeter: University ofExeter. 76-101.

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Windea, Barry. 2000. Introduction to Margery Kempe. In: Windea, Barry (ed.). TheBook of Margery Kempe. Longman Annotated Texts. Harlow: Pearson Education.


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