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IntraText Library
St. Teresa of Avila
Autobiography
IntraText CT - Text
Translator's Preface
I
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Translator
's
Preface
I
For some
time
after
completing
my
translation
of the
Complete
Works
of
St
.
John
of the
Cross
, in the
year
1935
, I had no
thought
of
preparing
a
similar
edition
of the
works
of that other
great
Carmelite
, to whom he
owed
so much,
St
.
Teresa
. Even when the
welcome
given
to the
works
of
el
Santo
in their
new
dress
showed
what an
unexpectedly
and
encouragingly
large
public
there now was for this
type
of
literature
, it seemed to me that
la
Santa
was on the whole
sufficiently
well
served
by the
translations
already in
existence
. But many
readers
of
St
.
John
of the
Cross
were not of this
opinion
: not all
St
.
Teresa
's
works
, they
said
, had been
satisfactorily
translated
; not all of them, even, were
based
on an
up-to-date
Spanish
text
; and, in any
case
, there was
ample
room
for a
fresh
,
modern
version
of the
Complete
Works
, made by a
single
hand
, with
footnotes
of an
elucidatory
rather than a
piously
discursive
type
-- an
edition
,
furthermore
, which would
facilitate
individual
study
by
providing
comprehensive
indices
.
As
time
went
on, this
point
of
view
was
increasingly
pressed
upon me, and by a
great
variety
of
people
. In
Spain
, a
well-known
Academician
asked
me when a
complete
St
.
Teresa
was to
appear
in
English
; in the
American
Southwest
, a
remote
community
of
Carmelite
nuns
whom I
visited
put
the same
question
; in
England
, the
remark
became almost a
commonplace
. At last I
began
to
reconsider
the
position
. The only
easily
accessible
versions
of the
Life
and the
Foundations
were still, though they had been several
times
revised
,
essentially
the
versions
made by
David
Lewis
in
1870
-
1
: as
regards
both
language
and
interpretation
they could
certainly
be
greatly
bettered
. The
Stanbrook
Benedictines
'
translation
of the
Interior
Castle
, the
Way
of
perfection
and the
Minor
Works
(in
prose
and
verse
)
dated
from the beginning of this
century
and were much
superior
to
Lewis
; yet since these
volumes
had first
appeared
P
.
Silverio
de
Santa
Teresa
had
published
his
comprehensive
and
critical
Spanish
edition
of the
Complete
Works
, which would make it
possible
to
add
a
good
deal
,
especially
in the
Way
of
perfection
, to what was already
available
. The most recently
published
translation
was that made by the
Benedictines
of
Stanbrook
of the
Letters
(
4
vols
.,
1919
-
24
). This
excellent
piece
of
work
was
unfortunately
completed
before
P
.
Silverio
's
three-volume
edition
of the
Letters
appeared
, and, though in
1927
its
editors
brought
out an
appendix
to their
final
volume
consisting
of
twenty
two
letters
and some
fragments
to which they had not
previously
had
access
, there is a
good
deal
in
P
.
Silverio
's
three
volumes
which it would be
worth
while to
pass
on to the
English
reader
. None the less, the
Letters
presented
the least
urgent
part
of the
problem
.
After
full
consideration
, I
decided
to
undertake
an
edition
of the
Complete
Works
,
publishing
them all, in one
series
, as
soon
as might be, with the
exception
of the
Letters
, a
new
edition
of which it seemed
better
to
postpone
for the
present
, since it would be
strange
if the recent
years
of
upheaval
in
Spain
did not
lead
to
fresh
discoveries
.
Accordingly
, the
work
was
begun
in the
summer
of
1939
,
continued
throughout the whole
period
of the
War
and is only now
completed
.
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