As I led the service I was translated into Czech. The translator was in the room and non-English speakers had head pieces so they could listen. It was a bit like the United Nations I suppose. I was mostly understood although my Yorkshire vowels can be a little tricky at times. There was an amusing moment when I was asked about one word that I kept using over and over again in one of the stories I shared. The word was hole. Now it seems continuingly repeating the word didn’t help. So, I had to use a hand gesture and they got it. We both laughed about it. By the way one thing that definitely does translate through culture is humour. Regardless of whether you are Czech, British, American, Transylvanian or one two other places. All day after the service and on into the next day several people kept on saying to me “You are always at the other side of the river”, with much laughter. The language of the heart is that wonderful bridge between either side of the river, it never gets lost in translation.
Now I know I struggled somewhat working with an interpreter during the lectures and workshops I led. I think I was somewhat self-conscious. I think if I am offered the opportunity to do so again I will be better prepared and understand the complexities of doing so in the future. How an interpreter does such a role is incredible to me. To listen, absorb and then translate simultaneously is an incredible skill. One way beyond my understanding.
I was certainly worked that day. On the Sunday we began at 8.30am with a workshop that I facilitated on ministry within the congregation. I talked about my understanding of ministry and how if you are a minister it is important to recognise that you are always a minister, at least in the eyes of others. I related something that had happened on the Thursday morning when I was walking across the Charles Bridge, just taking in the beauty of the city. I received a message from a friend. She was at her grandmother’s bedside. Her grandmother’s life was coming to an end. My friend was understandably upset and asked if I could offer some words of prayer for her grandmother to hear. So I stood there on the bridge, offered some prayer for inspiration and prayed some words into a Wattsapp message. I then pressed send. A little later my friend messaged to thank me and to say that her grandmother seemed to respond with her eyes and the look on her face as the words were played to her. It seems that the language of the heart found a way through, thank God for modern technology. The ears of her heart were open and the language of the heart found a way through, it did not get lost in translation.
During the workshop I talked about the etymology of the word minister and that it means to serve. I used the soup metaphor that I find helpful. Now something I realised about the word that does quite translate perfectly is that minister in terms of political office work in both languages, but it doesn’t when it comes to minister of religion. There was another word that also led to some confusion and that was the word “Confidential”. It seems that the most direct translation for this is someone you have a kind of intimate relationship with, like a confident I suppose. It showed to me how important it is to understand that too often things do get lost in translations. Now of course the language of the heart finds a way through, but sometimes not directly. There is so much about ministry that is both a confidence and confidential. This can be a heavy burden at times, but this is the language of the heart, the language of love.
Things do sometimes get lost in translation, articulation can be tricky. Humour though does seem to find a way through. I know some of my struggles have turned into some of my favourite stories. Like the time I was in Transylvania and I conducted worship that was translated by the minister Tamas. There was a local tv news crew there who interviewed Carolyn afterwards. She asked them why they weren’t interviewing me to which they replied, “Oh I didn’t understand a single word that man said”. I related this story to the Unitarian minister who was also lecturing Robert. I spent quite some time talking with Robert Balint and his wife Reka which they found hilarious. They told me of Anna-Maria who had hosted us on our trip to Transylvania, they also related a hilarious story of when their daughter spent a year in England studying at the “Channing Girls School” where she stayed with a wealthy Transylvania family. Apparently, a man came one morning to take the boys to play football. The next day their daughter was walking round London when she saw this huge poster with the very same man on it. It turns out the man who had been at the house the day before was David Beckham. Her youngest brother was heartbroken when he found out as he is a Manchester United fanatic. I shared with them another story of things getting lost in translation like when I led a workshop in Birmingham inspired by Stanley Kunitz poem “The Layers” and how people were confused due to my pronunciation of the word layers. Whenever I say it these days I over emphasise it and say the word very slowly. I had a lovely time with the Balint’s and many other folk sharing stories, speaking heart to heart connecting with each other as story has a way to do so. I experienced the language of the heart in all its glory. It rarely got lost in translation.
Folk even laughed at my terrible jokes, well sometimes, something I love. Although there is one thing that always bugs me “People who cannot differentiate between entomology and etymology. It bugs me in ways that I cannot put into words.
It’s a similar feeling to the one that I had when I found out someone had stolen my thesaurus. I have no words to describe how angry I was.
By the way what is another word for thesaurus?
Articulation and pronunciation can be tricky. We learn to speak by listening to others. We repeat what we hear. This is probably why both accents and dialect are to some degree disappearing. We hear so many different types of speech today than we did in the past. As a minister of religion it is vitally important that people can understand what I am saying, that I can articulate. Now of course it is not just the words I say that need to be heard and understood, more importantly it is meaning beneath the words that mean the most. It is vital that a minister speaks the language of the heart. Sometimes people can hear the words you say and yet somehow they misunderstand completely, things get lost as the mind translates, they get lost in translation. I remember well the times that people have repeated back to me things that they have heard me say, which have been almost the exact opposite of what I meant. Not very often thankfully.
I get frustrated with myself when I cannot articulate what I mean. I also, like most people, have words that I struggle with on a regular basis. One being “regularly”, it just seems to get stuck on my tongue. I have friends who empathise, they have shared their struggles with a variety of words such as “phenomena” or “phenomenon”. I learnt how to over come this by singing along to the Muppet’s song “Ma nom ma na”. Other words have included “Music”, “behavioural”, “statistics”, “disorientated”, “immediately”, “meteorological”, “Tsunami”, “Ibuprofen”, “Cardigan”, “Abominable”, “Hilariously”, “Enthusiasm” and so many more. Apparently Benedict Cumberbatch can’t say penguin, but then who can say Benedict Cumberbatch. I remember the former Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa struggled with Ipswich and Leicester and Americans famously struggle with Worcestershire Sauce. Now you have just heard me struggle with a few of them. We talked about this one evening over dinner as we shared with Czech, American, Transylvania, British and a variety other Unitarians. Pronunciation gets even more difficult if English si not your first language. A Czech friend told me that I was far easier to understand that one of the others who was from Texas. What did not get lost in translation or articulation was what we shared with our hearts. What is clear is that the language of the heart is truly universal it builds bridges between whatever divides us, often with a cheeky smile and a little humour.
I know when I led worship in Prague that people didn’t understand every word I said, sometimes because it was not articulated correctly, others because it got lost in translation. What was clear though is that people got the heart or meaning behind what was said. What was shared heart and soul, reach the heart and soul.
Words matter and the language we use matters too. They can be used creatively or destructively. Minister’s of religion are often referred to as minister’s of the word. This comes from a Greek word that occurs more than 300 times in the New Testament alone. The word is “Logos”. Now traditional trinitarian Christians would see Logos as meaning Jesus Christ, the classic example being in John 1 v 1 and the following line “In the beginning was the word and word was with God and the word was God.”. I don’t believe this is the case. Logos is used in a variety of ways, throughout the Bible. They follow two basic lines of thought though. One is mind and the products of the mind, such as reason, logic is related to logos. The other is an expression of that reason as a word, like a command.
There is something Divine and creative in the way we use words; when spoken in the right way they can be Divine in activity, they do at least if they are spoken with loving and creative extent. This is the language of the heart. The Sufi’s see an association with Divine creative power and words spoken from the Beloved’s lips. So, when you speak such words in love you are part of the Divine creativity. Here is an example from Sana’i
The souls of all the lovers
are mobilized before Your lips;
With You, they are all and everything:
devoid of Your lips, they are nothing.
The ability to speak publicly is a vital tool of ministry, so if a minister loses their voice or ability to speak their effectiveness would be seriously compromised. Well just this did happen to one of the two father’s of British Unitarianism, Joseph Priestley. For many years Dr Priestley struggled with a stammer.
I have a personal affection for Priestley, which has nothing much to do with his actual achievements. No, I have affection for Priestley because he comes from Birstall, in West Yorkshire, where I grew up and he attended Batley Grammar School, where I went. There the comparisons end I’m afraid. I have never been a leading radical, politically and I have never been particularly scientifically minded. That said thankfully I have never suffered from a stammer. I wonder sometimes what Priestley’s accent would have been like. No doubt very different to a man from Birstall these days.
Joseph Priestley struggled with a stammer for years. It must have been terribly difficult to preach with such an impediment. He did overcome it as it did not affect his later career. That said it did cause him much distress although, as he said, it saved him from being “seduced by the love of popular applause as a preacher”.
My tradition lays great emphasis on the word and the preaching of it. Ok today we may not place authority at the door of scripture, this has been replaced by the conscience of the individual. That said the preached word, articulated correctly is still central to our worship.
Is this though the most important element?
Many people can speak well and articulately. I myself have had some training, but I know I will never be perfect and absolutely clear. I do not wish to be. I need to remain true to who I am, to speak my truth in love and in a language that hopefully others will understand.
To truly minister people need to hear what my heart and soul has to say. I need to speak the language of the heart, but not from someone else’s book of life and experiences. No! These experiences must come from my own; otherwise how can I expect others to relate to what I have to say. The language of the heart does not get lost in translation. This works whether here in the communities I serve, other communities in this land or those overseas.
I hope that by continually speaking my truth in love I am able to encourage others to do likewise and that they in turn continue to speak their truth in love. I trust you can understand my intent, my meaning, my logos. I hope that by sharing my truth in love I encourage you to do the same. To me this is the purpose of worship to help you speak and act your truth in love. To me this is what this is all about.
To speak the language of the heart, it is the one language that cannot get lost in translation.
Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "Blogspot"
