Approaching other cultures by rendering stories -oral or written- from their own language to ours seems to me a legitimate attempt to start understanding a society that is different from one’s own.
Tales, legends, novels, poems, … that refer to a specific nation, culture or society are oftentimes their reflection, channeling the dissemination of traditions and ideas, which, otherwise, would remain oddities -if not unknown- for many.
Talking, writing and translating about Saint Patrick, fifth-century Roman-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland, known as its primary patron saint, means bringing Ireland’s Christian origins closer to the interested public.
Saint Patrick was apparently the author of several books himself. Two of them -written in Latin- survived and are generally accepted as having been written by him: Declaration (Latin: Confession), a spiritual autobiography, and Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus (Latin: Epistola), a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.
Both written works have even been rendered into the English language by translators such as John Skinner and Philip Freeman. Let us take the latter’s work “The World of Saint Patrick”. This is the new and vibrant translations of Saint Patrick’s life, narrated with great violence, brutality, and even greater faith. It begins with two letters Patrick wrote describing his kidnapping by Irish pirates at age sixteen and his subsequent slavery in Ireland. He later would escape and go back to Britain. However, he returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. The accuracy of some details about his life has been largely debated, though. However, these narrations give the English-speaking reader not only some insights about what living during that time must have been for an individual like St. Patrick, but also the evolution which he had to follow in order to become the spiritual icon that has been recognized as for centuries.
So, how critical do you, as a translator, think this type of translations are for our -and even future- generations? Are they still relevant? Are they “lost in history”? Can they still be influential in our contemporary and “civilized” societies?
Note: “Saint Patrick: Issues of translation and his enduring pastoral Message” (dissertation submitted by Christina Isabella McGrath to Casperson School of Graduate Studies, Drew University, Madison, NY, May 2021). Its chapter 3 is quite relevant to this article.