I’m pleased to see that seminars concerning the forthcoming Missal appear to be increasingly upfront about the reality: the current (lame duck, as Fr. Z says) translation is deeply defective whereas the forthcoming translation is corrected. There’s no reason to be shy about saying so, even given the implicit admission of error. This workshop sponsored by the St. Louis Archdiocese essentially says this. As Christopher Carstens of the Office of Sacred Worship in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., puts it “we have a new missal and a new set of translation principles that have grown and matured over 50 years that weren’t there the year after the Second Vatican Council or five years or 10 years after the Council.”
Another point made in this workshop is extremely important: the need for a special language for worship. “Think of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,'” Carstens said, reciting, “‘Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?’ We don’t speak like that.” It is a more formal, elevated style of language. So, too, is the language of the Liturgy.
We might add another point that follows: so too is the music of liturgy.
The Star Spangled Banner (1970 ICEL Version)
Look over there, see that flag this morning?
It's the same flag that was there last night, stars stripes and all. The same flag we were looking at while being shelled and shot at. But the fact that they kept shooting at us meant that we were still in the game, so we assumed the flag was still up there.
By the way is it still waving up there?
There's a difference between comprehension and meaning that requires words specifically suited to the context you wish to create. Comme le prevoit tried to claim that such a difference doesn't exist and that plain meaning is everything. They ended up translating the Mass as though it were a technical manual for assembling a bicycle.
Typo?
"….the current (lame duck, as Fr. Z says) translation is deeply defection whereas the forthcoming translation is corrected."
Chironomo,
That is the best spoof of a 1970 ICEL translation I have seen yet!
Chironomo's version is too faithful to the original.
Very good, Chironomo!
Magnifico, Chironomo!
Unfortunately the music breakout session at this conference was quite disappointing. We sang through the ICEL Sanctus, but that was the extent of our exposure to the setting that the bishops hope the English-speaking world will all come to know. It felt too much like a commercial for the major publishers and all their new/revised settings. Sadly, there was no mention of the work that Fr. Samuel Weber is doing with the St. Louis Gradual, a significant musical work related to the new translation. I wrote the Office of Worship to offer my feedback.