With France and, in particular, attitudes to religion in that country being in so much the news, Rorate Caeli has what might be described as something of a scoop or exclusive in publishing an article written in 1904 by Marcel Proust about what seemed the likely fate of French cathedrals and churches under the impending Law of Separation, which was enacted in 1905. The article has not been available in English hitherto, but has been translated specifically for Rorate Caeli by Dr John Pepino.
Proust's fears may not have been entirely realised - though not a few great churches in France do feel like cold and dead museums these days - but he makes many telling points in his prescient and insightful article, which can be read at THE DEATH OF CATHEDRALS - and the Rites for which they were built - by Marcel Proust (first full English translation)
4 comments:
We were contacted about other translations: the Rorate translation was completely made by Dr. Pepino at our request exclusively based on the original French text, published at Le Figaro (Thursday, August 16, 1904, edition, pages 3-4) and freely available at the Gallica digital library of periodicals of the Bibliothèque National de France. It has no relation whatsorver to any other translation, partial or otherwise, in English or in any other language, available elsewhere. So the attirbution remains exclusively to the author and the Rorate translator, irrespective of who else may have translated it elsewhere.
Post a Comment