Wednesday writing

One of my favorite stories -- this one true, in fact -- from the publishing world is about the publisher who was bringing out several volumes of writings by a holy European nun. Some of them were quite moving, although she had not written a great deal. The idea was to publish all of her writings, including letters and some short verses.

The publisher, in dealing with the well-educated modern nun who was doing the translations, kept referring to the poetry of the deceased nun. The translator finally, in a gentle but firm voice, said, "I think it would be more honest for us to call them poems, not poetry."

My beloved John of the Cross wrote poetry, although most of it must be read in Spanish to get the full taste of that fact. There are some excellent translations, but as the Italian saying goes. "Traddutore, traditore" -- to translate is to betray. As one who has published translations and overseen the publication of the work of other translators, I know that even in the best cases, there is an element of truth to this cynical remark.

Which is a very long intro to what I meant to say. (The danger with writers is that we ... well, write too much and say too little!) I worked on the novel today and got a crucial scene written. It is one that I had in my head but was having trouble getting down on the page. With it in place, I think the remainder -- which is essentially just wrapping up the story -- should be fairly fast work.

On the other hand, there is also a story about John of the Cross being asked by a nun about his writing. She wanted to know if he found it difficult to write his poetry or if it came without struggle. He responded that sometimes the words were given, but sometimes he had to search for them. When one sits down to write, one never knows which it will be -- an easy flow or a difficult dig. I can only hope for the best.

I note that John did not indicate whether the words he struggled to find were better or worse than those that were given. One school of thought might be that the easy flow indicated inspiration and therefore something superior to human craft. I am not so sure about that. And unlike John, I don't think I can count an heavenly inspiration in any case!