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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Translations of Augustine's Confessions and Pascal's Pensees
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I would like to reacquaint myself with these two works. I have translastions from my student days, Augustine in Penguin Classics translated by Pine Coffin and Pascal in Everyman hardback, translated by John Warrington.
Are these still reliable and what current translations are the goods?
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I was intrigued by seeing them both on the Church Times top 10 of 100 Christian books.
http://www.ct100books.co.uk/
Since Church House Bookshop was doing discounts on them I've ordered Henry Chadwick's Augustine and Pascal translated by Krailhammer (?)
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
Not read any translation of Pascal, though I did read the Chadwick translation of Confessions (Oxford World Classics) recently and found that eminently readable.
I couldn't tell you if it's a faithful translation or not, but it was a very helpful introduction to Augustine.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Chadwick is one of the two current standard English translation of Augustine; the other one is John K. Ryan's. Ryan is more favored among people who remember it when it was newer and are a bit more traditionalist (so my grad school profs); I prefer the Chadwick. They're both fairly scholarly, though the Chadwick has better notes and a more flowing translation.
Pine-Coffin is aptly named. Avoid. Ditto the Fathers of the Church translation, which is by far the absolute worst Augustine translation in the FOTC series. The fact that it's not the worst translation of the Confessions says more about the other translations than anything else.
If you're looking to move beyond the C's, but don't want to delve into any one particular work of Auggie's (Civ Dei is a beast, one we'd certainly all tackle if we had more than one lifetime, but unfortunately our days are numbered), I'd recommend the late William Harmless, SJ's Augustine in His Own Words. Fr. Harmless's bibliographies alone are worth the price of admission, and his selections, translations, and adaptations of Augustine's texts are masterful.
Pascal...Pascal is a problem. The best translation on the market right now is the Penguin Classics edition—the notes could use some work, but the translation captures the spirit of Pascal's French beautifully. However, it's based on the Lafuma edition of the P's—and the Sellier edition is the currently accepted standard, although there are a few Lafuma holdouts left. There are a few passages in crucial areas that are missing from the Lafuma, as well as some minor reordering of fragments; basically, it's the more complete edition, although, to be fair, the differences are usually pretty minor.
The problem is that the Hackett edition, which is the only one that uses the Sellier, could be better. It's a bit stodgy sometimes, and the book itself (like most Hackett editions) could really be better organized and produced. Frankly, it's a bit of a toss-up between a better version of an older edition and a lesser version of a better edition.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Gosh, I remember Dean Henry Chadwick at Evensong at Christchurch when I was an undergraduate. You would not credit the feeling he could put into the words "Here endeth (sniff) the second lesson". Or indeed the feeling in the phrase "O foolish Galatians".
The spine of my Pine Coffin Penguin is broken so I need a new one in any case. It can be my Advent reading.
Any commments on the 60s Warrington Pacal?
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Thank you very much, Ariston, for your thoughtful reply. I really appreciate it.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
As an RC, it makes me want to make me think about reading it; I studied art at university. Is there an accessible version for lay persons?
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
As an RC, it makes me want to make me think about reading it; I studied art at university. Is there an accessible version for lay persons?
]
Henry Chadwick's version is meant to be OK. Why on earth can't a layperson read it?
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Ahleal V
Shipmate
# 8404
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Posted
As regards the Confessions:
The modern Maria Boulding translation by New City Press/Vintage Books comes with the imprimatur of +Rowan if that helps. I found it a delight - accessible to all.
I am told the James O'Donnell translation (OUP) is considered the standard for undergraduate work.
However, the latest translation by C Hammond (Harvard/Loeb) is hot off the press, but only vol 1 is available as yet.
As regards wider texts, I found Peter Brown's biography to be very readable. I'm told that Miles Hollingworth's recent biography is a tour de force.
x
[ 29. November 2014, 18:47: Message edited by: Ahleal V ]
Posts: 499 | From: English Spires | Registered: Aug 2004
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