Translation and Mystical Texts

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TRANSLATION AND MYSTICAL TEXTS Nike K. Pokorn a a University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Online Publication Date: 13 October 2005

To cite this Article Pokorn, Nike K.(2005)'TRANSLATION AND MYSTICAL TEXTS',Perspectives,13:2,99 — 105 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09076760508668978 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09076760508668978

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TRANSLATION AND MYSTICAL TEXTS Nike K. Pokorn, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia [email protected] Abstract

This 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 have been translated into Modern English and several other languages. In the translation of these (and similar texts), the role of translators o�en goes beyond that of interlingual mediators of messages and assumes unexpected functions. Firstly, I discuss the translators’ unusual role as perpetuators of torture and purgatorial assistants in the earliest confessional autobiography in English literature, The Book of Margery Kempe. Secondly, I turn to the question of translator loyalty in the process of translating a 14th-century mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing. The issues discussed may not be unique to religious writing, but they are highlighted in religious texts.

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Key words: Translating religious texts; translating mystical texts; translator’s ethics; translator’s loyalty.

Introduction The fourteenth and fi�eenth centuries witnessed a great upsurge in lay piety and mysticism all over Western Europe, including, for example: Mechild of Magdenburg (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. In fourteenth-century England, there was also a group of spiritual writers who are nowadays known as the “English mystics”. Among its members were the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich (1343-1413), and Margery Kempe (c. 1373-c. 1440). Margery Kempe Margery Kempe is the most controversial member of the group: she was a married woman, a housewife, and the mother of fourteen children. Towards the end 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 (as well as contemporary readers) into friends and enemies, into supporters and bi�er critics. On the one hand, The Book of Margery Kempe tells us that her fellow townspeople sought to ban her from a�ending public sermons, even communion, 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 religious authorities of her time, e.g., Dame Julian of Norwich and the Carthusians of Mount Grace Priory in Yorkshire, where the only extant manuscript of The Book of Margery Kempe (BL Add. MS 61823) was kept and studied. When the manuscript was re-discovered in the first part of the twentieth century, Margery’s critics were o�en very harsh. The first generation of scholars judged her to be unconventional, mad, sensational, and hysterical. (Thurston 1936; McCann 1937) The second generation was no less condemning, although they a�empted to reassess her achievements. (Knowles 1961: 147-148; Colledge 0907-676X/05/02/099-7 $20.00 Perspectives: Studies in Translatology

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1962; Watkin 1979: 65) Nowadays, Margery Kempe’s spirituality is connected with English popular religion, (McEntire 1987: 87-89) her so-called excesses are paralleled with some continental traditions (Armstrong 1992: 17; Cleve 1992), and her religious experiences and revelations are judged to be less idiosyncratic and more a product of her age (Hirsh 1989: 3). In The Book, we learn that Margery was illiterate, which obliged her to dictate her life and visions to two scribes. The first scribe, most probably a son of hers, (Dillon 1996: 135; Windea� 2000: 5) produced an unintelligible version; the second scribe, most probably Robert Spryngolde, (Hirsh 1975; Dillon 1996: 136) was, by his own admission, unwilling at the beginning, but eventually contributed an undetermined amount to the task. It is agreed, however, that he was clearly not passive in penning The Book, and that there are two authors of the original manuscript. Nevertheless, it is also strongly argued that Margery’s role should not be downplayed and that the material was presented the way she wished 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 filled with sharp exchanges with her critics and open revelations of her past experience, important events in her life, temptations, and humiliations. As such, the book resists every generic classification (Windea� 1994: 228). It is considered the first confessional autobiography in English, although it differs profoundly from that of St. Augustine. The Book is not a guide to spiritual life, nor is it a medieval pilgrimage narrative, although intermi�ently it may bear some resemblance to those genres as well. The reason for the writing of this book is unclear. I believe that Margery Kempe dictated the book because it provided her with the purgatorial torture she desired, and that she uses her readers and translators to provide her with the torture needed for the purification and salvation of her soul. It should be noted that besides being translated into French and Italian, The Book has also been transferred to modern English six times, thus presenting these ‘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, that a man I fancied told me just before evensong that he would give anything to sleep with me and have it off with me. He insisted that if he couldn’t be satisfied now, then it would have to be another time – but it was not for me to choose. He was saying all this just to see what I would do. But thinking he really meant it, I said very li�le in answer. So we parted and both went our separate ways to evensong; and the church itself was dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch. But I was so disturbed at what I had heard that I did not hear a single word of evensong; I could not even say my Our Father, nor think a single good thought. In that instant, I was in more turmoil than I had ever been … So a�er evensong, I went over to tell him he could have his way, fully believing this was what he wanted. To my astonishment, he was completely evasive so that I couldn’t understand him any more. And at that, we parted for the night. I was in such a state, tossing and turning all night long, that I scarcely knew what 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 I kept 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, I was overcome and made up my mind. I went off in search of my man to ask him if he would have me. He told me straight that for all the world’s 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. Margaret’s Eve at evensong in a church, which makes it poignant. St. Margaret was a virgin who endured torture and was executed because she rejected a powerful man’s advances. Kempe’s yielding to carnal lust thus becomes even more humiliating. It seems that these recollections of Margery’s past carnal temptations found a place in The Book primarily because they arouse scorn, laughter, and contempt towards Margery, i.e., the reactions she encountered very o�en during her lifetime, and surprisingly enough, reactions that she cherished. In fact, Margery believed that true spirituality consisted not in withdrawal from the secular world but in unremi�ing self-humiliation in it (Dickman 1980: 170; Dickman 1984: 164). Instead of undergoing dramatic bodily penance, she deliberately suffers 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 find the following passage: “And besides, contempt in this world is the right way ahead so as to win heaven, for Christ himself chose that same path.” (Kempe 1998: 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 of Norwich, who gives her the following advice: “For the more contempt and shame and insults you have from the world, the more you rise in the eyes of God.” (Kempe 1998: 75) To convince us, Margery also quotes the ultimate authority – 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 suffering shame is her vocation: “And remember, daughter, the more shame, contempt, and rebuke you suffer for love of me, the more I love you.” (Kempe 1998: 127) He tells her that she “will be slain in one way only, by suffering all these sharp words.” (Kempe 1998: 127) And Christ adds: “Daughter, it is more pleasing to me that you should put up with scorn and humiliation, with shame and abuse, wrongs and upsets than if your head were to be chopped off 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. Margaret’s Eve does not seem so extraordinary any more. It was most probably narrated in order to provoke the same reaction it usually resulted in, i.e., laughter and derision. By making those who read her book laugh, she skilfully prolonged her penance. When the present-day translator of The Book of Margery Kempe enables the book to reach readerships in other ages and in different cultures, he or she exposes Margery to their scorn and thus provides her with the humiliation she needed for purification. The descriptions of embarrassing, despicable, and o�en funny events are not the babblings of a deranged woman - by narrating them, Margery and her scribes use The Book’s readership and their response to the narrative as a means to Margery’s salvation. The Book became her purgatory, her scribes - and her modern translators - were the perpetuators of torture, who by exposing her to ridicule, take Margery to her audience’s whipping scorn.

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The Cloud of Unknowing Translators of another fourteenth-century mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing, face another problem in the translation of spiritual and mystical works. This is a work that has commanded interest not only in Britain, where it has been transferred into Modern English eleven times, but it has also been translated 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 from the end of the fourteenth century. It is a work of spiritual guidance, designed to help readers reach a union with God. The text circulated in a limited monastic circle, in particular amongst the Carthusians, the order to which the author probably 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 (Johnston 1992), and Tibetan Buddhism (Corless 1986). The Cloud consists of 75 chapters that describe a development in the contemplative’s mind and heart, from the state of sca�eredness to that of love and union with God. This development does not progress in an organised way, but is full of digressions and repetitions, which corresponds to the work’s didactic nature: The Cloud is a series of le�ers 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 keeping it, carrying it, or borrowing it) you should, quite freely and of set purpose, neither read, write, or mention it to anyone, nor allow it to be read, wri�en or mentioned by anyone unless that person is in your judgement really and wholly determined to follow Christ perfectly. And to follow him not only in the active life, but to the utmost height of the contemplative life that is possible for a perfect soul in a mortal body to a�ain 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 o�en. However, every translator is faced with this introductory 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 those who earnestly want to become contemplatives. Since books are translated in order to be published, translators inevitably betray the author’s trust in that the translation is also available to people who do not meet the author’s criterion of being potential contemplatives. At the same time, by breaking the prohibition, paradoxically, translators also repeat and strengthen it by participating in the process of reproducing the work in many copies in another language. They partially unburden themselves of the responsibility and at the same time widen the scope of the prohibition as it reaches readerships not only in the source language but also in the target languages. But despite this multiplication of the initial prohibition, sensitive translators are aware that they have broken it. How can they a�ain peace of mind, if they take the author’s 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 offered to others, the author loses all power over it. Roland Barthes argues that as soon as a fact is narrated, the voice loses its origin and the author enters into his own death (Barthes 1977: 142). The original and the translation are thus granted new and independent lives that are not defined by their environment and their creators. And when authors have no power over their creations, the author’s 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 from any responsibility, and consequently from any feeling of guilt. On the other hand, for translators who share the author’s horizon of understanding and believe in the existence of the final, transcendental signified ensuring the meaning of the text, which exists but may be hidden and incomprehensible to human reason, the responsibility cannot be shaken off easily. The presence of the Transcendental God, of the divine auctor, the source of the ultimate auctoritas, ensures the meaning and also makes the author’s prohibition binding for translators. But even outside a religious context, translators can decide to accept responsibility toward the author in translational interaction and uphold the right of the author of The Cloud to demand respect for his intention and for a special relationship between his text and his readership. At the same time, translators are bound by other responsibilities: there is a moral commitment or loyalty that commits translators to the target side. According to Christiane Nord, translators should not only be loyal to the original author and make their translation compatible with the original author’s intentions, but they should feel moral responsibility towards the target readership as well (Nord 1997: 123-128). So, when target audiences want to have a text in translation, translators of works like The Cloud may find themselves at a moral impasse. Either way, they betray one of the parties. And finally, the text itself has its own demands. The task of a translator is similar 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 works that do not belong to the cultural capital of the target societies: the MiddleEnglish mystical texts (among them The Cloud of Unknowing) are not canonised classics in any non-English European culture. By re-writing and translating these texts, translators keep them alive; they prolong the life of the original and insure what Walter Benjamin termed Fortleben, a potentially eternal a�erlife. (Benjamin 1982) Translators of The Cloud of Unknowing who reject the notion of the complete independence of the text become traitors. Although they multiply and widen the scope of the prohibition that introduces and closes the text, they break it at the same time. Nevertheless, they demonstrate loyalty to their audiences by enabling them to read the text in translation, and, furthermore, they remain loyal to it by prolonging its life. Conclusion The two Middle English mystical texts I have discussed present translators with conflicts in terms of translation practice and translation principles. Here,

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translators are not merely linguistic mediators, conveying a message from one linguistic code to another, but their role assumes unusual dimensions. Translators of The Book of Margery Kempe are forced into specific and unpleasant roles as perpetuators of a torture that helps Margery purify herself to a�ain salvation and eternal life; translators of The Cloud of Unknowing face problems known to translators of devotional or mystical texts, regardless of the spiritual tradition to which they belong. Since all translators of mystical writings deal with texts that are considered precious by their authors and their spiritual communities and intended for restricted audiences, translators are, in principle, disloyal to the author when they make the work available to a larger and unknown audience. At the same time, translators are also commi�ed to readers who 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 readers that the author considered unworthy. Modern translations of spiritual and mystical texts thus inevitably involve a breach of loyalty to the author, which is, paradoxically, caused by loyalty to the text and its potential readership. Works cited Armstrong, Elizabeth Psakis. 1992. ‘Understanding by Feeling’ in Margery Kempe’s 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 Influence 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 Bodhisa�va’s Way of Life. In: Lagorio, V. M. (ed.). Mysticism: Medieval and Modern. Salzburg: Institut fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg. 118-134. Derrida, Jacques. 1985. Des Tours de Babel. In: Graham, J. F. (ed.). Difference 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: University of 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, Jane�e. 1995. The Making of Desire in The Book of Margery Kempe. Leeds Studies in English. New Series XXVI. 113-144. Dillon, Jane�e. 1996. Margery Kempe’s Sharp Confessors. Leeds Studies in English. New Series 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 Kempe’s 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 Sel�ood: Margery Kempe and Feminine Spirituality. In: McEntire, Sandra (ed.). Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays. New York & London: Garland. 51-69. Nord, Christiane. 1989. Loyalität sta� Treue. Lebende Sprachen 34 (3): 100-105. Nord, Christiane. 1991. Scopos, Loyalty and Translational Conventions. Target 3 (1): 91109. 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 University Press. 103-120. The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works. 1978 [orig. 1961]. Translated by Cli�on Wolters. London & New York, etc: Penguin. Thurston, Herbert. 1936. Margery the Astonishing: A Fi�eenth-Century English Mystic. Month 24: 446-456. Watkin, E. I. 1979. In Defence of Margery Kempe. In: Swanton, M. J. (ed.). Exeter Medieval English 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 of Exeter. 76-101. Windea�, Barry. 1994. English Mystics of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Windea�, Barry. 2000. Introduction to Margery Kempe. In: Windea�, Barry (ed.). The Book of Margery Kempe. Longman Annotated Texts. Harlow: Pearson Education.