austraLasia
1522
DMA is in our DNA:
Part 1 for Passion Sunday
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ROME: 9th April 2006 -- It is apparent to the
ear - and the eye - that the Rector Major speaks of a certain idea as he moves
around provinces, speaks to confreres, preaches homilies, writes for the
Salesian Bulletin, addresses gatherings from the academic to the ordinary,
speaks with the young. The idea can be characterised in a word:
passion. What follows refers to the English word even though the
texts examined are in Italian. No difficulty should arise in translation -
except that English can choose a range of words to gloss 'passione' if it wishes. I'll come to
that. We are using a total of 70 texts; by and large every major text the
RM has created since 2002 across the range indicated. He rarely employs
the plural form, so it is the singular 'passion' we are considering. That today
is also Passion Sunday is incidental - any connections may be serendipitous!
Using the grossest of
all measures - word frequency - we have 85 appearances of 'passione'. That
means little of itself...except for two things: the highest relative frequency
of any term (function words like 'of') is 3.9%, and 'passione' comes in at .03%,
which puts it at a high relative frequency (most words don't even score);
secondly, the 85 appearances are in 31 of the 70 texts - roughly half. The
term is in all but 4 of the 15 major AGC letters.
However, these are 'surface' statistics. It is more useful to accept that
human speech ties words together and that real meaning comes out of phrases,
sentences, paragraphs, so across 70 texts, what other terms does 'passion' link
to most frequently? We use a measure of 5 words either side of 'passion'
as the central term - anything wider stretches the commons sense understanding
of meaningful linking. In fact there is a useful statistical calculation called
the Mutual Information Score. When we calculate this for all 70
texts, the 'winner' is clear and outright - mihi animas. 'Da'
is not included as a preposition which potentially has too many
connections. At this point we can draw a simple conclusion: Da Mihi
Animas (DMA) is what gives us the meaning of 'passion' as used by Pascual
Chávez, or turn that around if you wish - passion is what explains DMA. We
also learn that 'passion' keeps good (statistical) company with pedagogy,
freedom, growing, disciples, experiences, accompaniment, solidarity, salvation,
poverty, fidelity, challenges.... we are beginning to identify an
interesting scenario here which could have implications as we move forward to
2008, who knows?
Now, digging a little deeper, and
describing the 'passion-DMA' link other than by statistics, we discover that the
reference, when first directly made (in the RM's second letter) is to n.20 of
GC25 which in the Italian reads: Ogni comunità è formata da uomini....che
esprimono la passione evangelica del 'da mihi
animas'... The English renders the key phrase as the gospel
ardour of... ; the translator made a choice other than 'passion', something
he is entitled to do, though in hindsight 'passion' may be the way we should
read it, for there is absolutely no doubt now that 'passion-DMA' was the link in the Rector Major's
consciousness from the beginning, and he has not let go of it; it is elaborated
in phrases like 'for the word', 'for God's holiness', 'for Christ', 'for human
beings', 'for our mission, 'of Don Bosco', 'educational passion', 'Gospel
passion', 'pedagogical passion', 'intense passion' (using subsequent
translations of the term).
Incidental to this but
supportive of it is the fact that the International Congress of Religious in
Rome two years ago took 'Passion for Christ, passion for humanity' as its main
theme. Serendipity, or other forces at work? What is clear is that the
RM's focus predates the Congress and is not the result of
it.
Perhaps one good reason why the translator avoided
glossing 'passione' with 'passion' earlier on is that we cannot assume that
moderns, including we Religious moderns, are fully aware of the Rector Major's
now much clearer direction for the term; 'passion' has had a rough
post-Enlightenment ride, after all. What he wants us to accept is that 'passion'
is part of our Salesian DNA precisely because of the
centrality of 'da mihi animas' to our Salesian being. Why 'passion' needs
a re-assessment and a recall of cultural memory will be the topic of
#1523. Keep tuned.
GLOSSARY
serendipitous(adj): serendipity - the capacity to discover things by accidental
connection. An old name for Sri Lanka, coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 based on
the poem 'The Three Princes of Serendip' whose heroes were always making
discoveries by accident, of things they were not in quest of.
gloss:
in this context 'to translate', though the term 'gloss' used
by linguists could also refer to a single language. Both noun and
verb
DNA: The item that contains the genetic prescriptions for
life as we know it: Deoxyribonucleic Acid
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