Page:Raccoltaorcolle00raccgoog.djvu/18

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xiv
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

ward Caswall, of the Birmingham Oratory, who also has kindly given him a new translation of two other hymns which were not in the Lyra, viz. the Viva! viva! Gesù, and the hymn to St. Joseph, Dei qui gratiam impotes. The Very Rev. Canon Morris's translation of the Indulgences attached to Medals, Crosses, &c., for the publication of which he had already obtained special leave, has also been made use of by his kind permission, and the translation of the Anima Christi is also the work of a very dear friend. All the rest is his own. He has to apologise for having been so long in bringing out this translation, which was advertised several years ago, when he had already translated the whole of it, and was about printing it; he was, however, advised by a friend to put it by for a time, as it was thought probable that, on more mature consideration, many changes might be desirable. The translator has much reason to be thankful for this advice, as when he came to look at his former manuscript, after a lapse of nine years, he found so much to be altered, that he for the most part retranslated it, especially in the prayers. Thus he has really translated the book twice; besides which, the many alterations which he deemed necessary have made the work much more laborious than would be imagined from the size of the volume.

In conclusion, he has only to express a hope that the pious reader will pardon the homeliness of his language, which, besides being more natural to himself, he has freely permitted himself on principle, as the best for prayer. He was well aware how arduous a task it was to put into the mouths of others words which they were to address to God; but he has ever considered that the more like little children we are, both in thought and word, when we speak to God, the more acceptable we are to Him, and the more likely are our own minds to be attuned at the same time to feelings of reverence and awe. In some of the prayers to our Blessed Lady, especially the Novenas, which are of a poetical cast, he has somewhat varied his style to correspond more closely with the original. But with these exceptions, all has been rendered in the simplest words he had at his command.

The reader will find that some prayers which are only re-