A Commentary on the “Canticle”

Abstract

It is often said that poetry is what gets lost in translation, implying that in translation we read only verse—or worse. Like many truisms, this proposition is only half-true. Something inevitably gets lost in translation: the rhythms and the rhymes, the nuances and the overtones. But experience shows that much survives the process of transposition from one language to another. This is especially true when a common culture—in this case, Christian belief and the Bible—can be carried over from the original to the translation. The Italian of Francis’s “Canticle” has, in addition, the advantage for the modern English-language reader of being relatively simple, so that those with only a smattering of the language and a modicum of goodwill are able to enjoy reading it in the original, with the aid of a translation. This chapter therefore takes the form of a line-by-line commentary on the poem in both the original Italian and English translation. It deals with points of language and style, sometimes drawing attention to problems of translation; parallel passages in Francis’s other writings, to illustrate the consistency of his thought; and biblical echoes and allusions.