Translation Review - The University of Texas at Dallas

current story lines, or a story line and two or
three parallel commentaries. . . It is a good
example of form expressing meaning, provided
one manages to steer all the way to the
end! (96-97)
To translate Guibert’s prose into comprehensible
English, Silvas had to divide such sentences into
two. She notes that, to break Guibert’s sentences
apart, she bypassed various “colouring particles”
and the participial form of certain verbs. She
describes “long pondering and consultation needed
to unravel” the dividing of one particularly complex
sentence, which contained word-plays and rhymes—
pungerent quam ungeret—and a variety of sub-plots
and sub-sub-plots. She finally found a way to divide
the sentence, but did so “very reluctlantly, only as a
last resort” (97). Silvas’s translation resulted in two
lengthy but certainly comprehensible English sentences:
Instead, just as salt when sprinkled in suitable
measure tempers the acrid taste of anything it
seasons, and just as an excellent wine exhilarates
its drinkers by its natural dryness rather
than repels them, so whenever this consummately
prudent virgin was associated with
anyone through friendship or conversation,
she did not less stimulate her hearers than
soothe them by her words and writings fitted
to the occasion, for she had a vivid quality,
devoid of flattery. Thus, as I say, she caused
the minds of all who came into contact with
her to ferment with the leaven of divine righteousness.
(113)
Silvas saves her discussion of the nuances of bringing
select words from their medieval texts into
English for her translation comments in the introduction
to the Vita S. Hildegardis, which forms the
central core of the book. “After ‘living’ with these
documents over a period of time,” she writes, “the
translator may be allowed to offer some observations
on translating… .” Among the words she targets is
visio, which can refer to particular instances of such
paranormal experiences as visions and revelations or
to the visionary gift itself—a type of “waking clairvoyance
which can be tapped at will.” Silvas notes
that she maintains the double meaning of visio with
the single English word “vision” (129). She includes
a detailed discussion of both anthropological and
religious issues involved in translating various Latin
terms for “woman”: virgo, which connotes a sense
of the holy; puella, for a girl, a young woman, an
unmarried or newly married woman, or a maiden;
matrona for a married woman; and mulier or femina
as a generic term for woman. She includes the same
type of discussion for translating homo, which
Hildegard often uses in reference to herself as an
object of divine revelation. Silvas describes her
treatment of homo when it is in juxtaposition with
spiritual beings, either explicitly or implicitly, as
requiring a specific, rather than broad, translation.
Here the distinctly human character of
“homo” must be brought out … In such
cases, standard English is followed…and the
singular homo is translated as the generic (i.e.
inclusive) “man” without article. When homo
is used of a particular person, then in the case
of a woman, notably Hildegard, I translate it
as “human being” or in one particularly hieratic
situation… “human creature”….(131)
Silvas expands her translator’s insights with similar
discussions of words such as frater, soror, cenobium,
monasterium, obsessa, and amicita.
From a translator’s perspective, Silvas’s comprehensive
work would have been made even more
complete if it had included, perhaps in another
appendix, facsimile reproductions of a sampling of
the original 12th-century manuscripts with which
she worked. Notwithstanding this single possible
addition, Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical
Sources succeeds in its mission to bring these
medieval documents into eminently readable standard
English. In so doing, it also represents a multifaceted
achievement in a variety of fields as disparate
as medieval and feminist studies. In this way,
Silvas’s Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical
Sources could be considered a reflection of the vastly
multifaceted life of Hildegard of Bingen herself.
Translation Review 83