Translation of the Missal: “The principles laid down by Rome prohibit any spirit of poetic creation”

It took great inventiveness to remain faithful to the rather dry Latin language while modernizing these ancient texts and giving them all their relevance for current ears and sensitivity.

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Fortunately, the culture and openness of Paul VI gave some latitude to the teams of translators, and the Pope could tell the participants of the Congress on Liturgical Translations on November 10, 1965: “The translations published before the Council had for the purpose of making the faithful understand the rites celebrated in the Latin language; they were auxiliaries for the people, who do not know this ancient language. But now the translations are part of the rites themselves, they have become the voice of the Church. ”(Paul VI,“ Address to the participants of the Congress on liturgical translations ”, November 10, 1965, La Maison-Dieu, 86, 1966, p. 8).

Any “spirit of poetic creation” is prohibited

The Instruction Liturgiam authenticam of 2001 demanded that the translations in use which the Christian people had gradually adopted as their own, be taken up again. By opening this new liturgical year, we will therefore discover new prayers. The translators of 1970 knew that each generation of Christians would have to reformulate the words of the prayer of a Church charged with proclaiming the Gospel to the world of its time. So today we no longer speak of “men” in the generic sense, but of “human beings”, or “men and women”, in an inclusive language that comes from across the Atlantic.

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But the principles laid down by Rome of a complete and precise translation of the original text, “that is to say without omission or addition, in relation to the content, nor by introducing paraphrases or glosses” (Lit. Auth. N ° 20), henceforth prohibits any spirit of poetic creation and literary equivalent, as well as any pastoral adaptation to the modern mentality. The new rule is to stick to Latin, to trace it as closely as possible to words, their syntax and Latin stylistics.

Thereby, the day of Christmas, the Latin Deus at the beginning of the prayer, had become “Father”, to emphasize the fatherhood of God on this feast of the Nativity. The new translation renders it as “Lord God”. Often the French text timidly copies Latin, sometimes to the point of moving away from the original meaning: on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, solemnis, qualifies an event that takes place only once a year – here Christmas. Was it necessary for all that to translate “to celebrate it solemnly”?

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We should salute the patience and talents of the translators who, constrained by these rigid rules, have spent much of their time in these Latin version exercises, to give these Roman orations the best of themselves. Some translations gain in elegance and precision. For example: “a new light invades us” becomes “we are inundated with a new light” (Christmas, dawn mass). But all, paradoxically, extend to wanting to translate word for word a language naturally concise and dense. The 1970 translation had managed to escape this pitfall by finding formulas equivalent by their own dynamism, made to be heard and prayed for by the assembly of the faithful and not only recorded in a book for the sole intention of the priest.

Too literal a translation

For example on the 1st Sunday of Advent, the 22 Latin words are translated into 35 French words in 1970: “Give your faithful to go with courage on the paths of justice to meet the Lord, so that they may be called, at the time of judgment, to enter into possession of the kingdom of Heaven ”, and by 43 words in 2021:“ Give to your faithful the will to go and meet the one who is coming, Christ, so that they may be admitted to his right and deserve to enter into possession of the kingdom of Heaven. “

Alongside a more precise expression of the mystery celebrated, the happy formulation “to meet the one who is coming, Christ” – in fact “your Christ”, Latin having “Christo tuo”), we find a theological vocabulary which had been abandoned, considered dated because too closely linked to a remote period in liturgical history: “admitted to your right, that they deserve”.

The 2nd Sunday of Advent presented a nice find in the sentence: “Awaken in us this intelligence of the heart which prepares us to welcome it”, translated today by “Form us to the wisdom from above which makes us enter into communion with him ”. The gap is even more noticeable on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday (“Rejoice”): “Your people are preparing to celebrate the birth of your Son; direct our joy towards the joy of such a great mystery ”becomes“ Your people await with faith the feast of the birth of your Son. We beseech thee, grant us to attain the happiness of such salvation and to celebrate it solemnly with a whole new joy. “

These ancient or medieval Latin texts, mostly born from the pen of Church men admirably mastering Latin language and prose to state the Christian mystery, such as Saint Leo, Saint Peter Chrysologue, Saint Gregory, and others, cannot fully find in a too literal translation the homage which is due to them. An inventiveness of which the best poets are capable in their creative freedom would be necessary for the genius of the French language to faithfully render the genius of the Latin language, and for these ancient texts to still nourish the faith and the life of our humanity with their success.

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