Categories: linguistics, reading, hymns
Date: 23 September 2004 09:59:48
I'm listening to a CD of Western hymns (don't tell the Orthodox! ;-) ) at the moment, and I am filled with wonder at and thanks for the many translators responsible for giving us English versions of so many wonderful hymns.
The Reverend John Mason Neale is quite well-known both as a hymn translator (he translated the Eastern liturgies also) and hymn writer, and he is responsible for many of my favourites: O what their joy and their glory must be, The Day of Resurrection, Of the Father's Love Begotten and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel -- among many others. The Cyber Hymnal has a list of his hymns and a biography here. Catherine Winkworth was also a rather prolific translator; her speciality being German hymns.
And thanks and praise to God must also go to those faithful souls who translate the Bible for us. A quick glance around my room reveals the existence of at least 6 Bibles. This would have been unknown before the printing press, and probably also for a great deal of time after it sprang onto the scene. Yet having my own copy (well, copies) of the Bible is something I often take for granted.
And then there are books: theological and secular. Authors on my shelves range from St Athanasius to St Teresa of Avila to Goethe to J. K. Rowling -- a span of around 1600 years and all translated (I have Harry Potter Book I in German).
I consider myself very blessed to be an inheritor of all of this.