The Confessions (review)

Under the leadership of John Rotelle, The Augustinian Heritage Institute has conceived an enormous project: a systematic translation of the complete works of Augustine of Hippo. This ambitious undertaking, well under way, has born fruit in a number of volumes, including Edmund Hill’s fine translations of trin., and doctr. chr.

Maria Boulding, a Benedictine who has written a number of books on prayer and spirituality, has produced a clear and pleasant translation of Augustine’s most widely known (even if not always widely read) work. B. acknowledges her debt to J. J. O’Donnell’s “magisterial” commentary (33), a profoundly important contribution which will serve students of Augustine for years to come. Her introduction is helpful without being overly academic and appears geared to an intelligent but non-scholarly readership.

B. avoids the extremes of wooden literalism and loose paraphrase in her translation, and her prose is clear and occasionally beautiful (e.g., her rendering of Augustine’s grief at Monnica’s death and its aftermath, at 9.12.30–33, pp. 231 ff). One might complain about the translation of a particular phrase or sentence. For example, in her decision to render abscondisti enim haec a sapientibus et prudentibus et revelasti ea parvulis (a direct quotation from Mt 11.25; 7.21.27, p. 182) as “and you have hidden these things from the sagacious and the shrewd, and revealed them to little ones,” she seems to have sacrificed the familiarity of the scriptural idiom for the sake of alliteration. Apart from such subjective quibbles, the translation as a whole is accurate and reliable.

B.’s accomplishment, however, is marred by a defective index. It directs the reader to the book, chapter and paragraph number of the text of conf., rather than to the page number of the edition. This pattern is unfortunately found in other volumes in the series, as well. While this approach might be helpful at times in cross-referencing the present translation with other translations of conf., a series of this importance should at least offer a competent index. Moreover, the choice of entries found in the index is itself curious. One discovers entries such as “cattle: chewing cud” and “Victorious (emperor)”—the latter being an index entry for an adjective. Even more perplexing, under the entry “dogs” one finds the sub-entries “astrology,” “Academic position,” “fled away,” “re existence of truth” [sic] and “universal.” There are a number of misspellings and at least one entry out of alphabetical order (“pen, as tongue”). “Monica” is the spelling used in the introduction and index, while in the text the (probably more correct) spelling “Monnica” is given (to her credit, B. notes the variant); one might expect one or the other, but not both. It can be hoped that the index of this volume might be more carefully and competently redone for future editions.

It is a commonplace for reviewers to point out the inadequacy of any translation to convey completely the substance and beauty of an original text. Interestingly, B.’s translation appears not long after Henry Chadwick’s 1991 Oxford translation of conf. The ability to turn simultaneously to the work of Chadwick and of B. will be of help to those (especially undergraduates) who may lack a reading knowledge of Latin: by access to both translations, readers may glimpse the different facets of Augustine’s rich language, which is impossible to duplicate in a single translation.

The volume is handsomely produced and seems well-bound; it is one of the few volumes of the series which is available in both cloth and the less expensive paperback.

Despite its muddled index, this translation is highly recommended.