Translation and Mysticism

The Rose and the Wherefore

Philip Wilson (University of East Anglia, UK)

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English

Routledge
27 October 2025

Philosophy of language; Translation & interpretation; Western philosophy, from c 1900 -; Religion: general; Eclectic & esoteric religions & belief systems

Series: Routledge Studies in Literary Translation

This book examines how mysticism can tell us about translation and translation can tell us about mysticism, addressing the ancient but ongoing connections between the art of rendering one text in another language and the art of the ineffable.

The volume represents the first sustained act of attention to the interdisciplinary crossover of these two fields, taking a Wittgensteinian approach to language, and investigates how mystics and their translators manage to write about what cannot be written about. Three questions are addressed overall: how mysticism can be used to conceptualise translation; the issues that mysticism raises for translation theory and practice; and how mystical texts have been and might be translated. Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Translator’s Task’ is considered in detail as a controversial example of dialogue. Translation examples are given in a range of languages, and six major case studies are provided, including a close reading of Exodus and an analysis of a recent radical translation of Lucretius.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers in translation studies, mysticism studies, theology and literary translation, as well as practising translators.

By: Philip Wilson (University of East Anglia UK)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 380g
ISBN: 9781032182438
ISBN 10: 1032182431
Series: Routledge Studies in Literary Translation
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 27 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Prologue: Gold and Crystal 1. Becoming Present 1.1 Translation and Mysticism 1.2 The Ineffable 1.3 Case study: Reading Mystical Texts for Translation 2. Eternity 2.1 Problem or Mystery? 2.2 Grammar 2.3 Case study: Moses and the Burning Bush 3. The Sounding of the Song 3.1 Translation and Gnosis 3.2 The Translator and the Task 3.3 Case study: Friedrich Hölderlin and Sophocles 4. Light from Darkness 4.1 Discovery, Construction and Declaration 4.2 Translation as Attention 4.3 Case study: Willis Barnstone and John of the Cross 5. Becoming the Script 5.1 Untranslatability 5.2 Translation as Performance 5.3 Case study: Translating the Spell 6. The Rose and the Wherefore 6.1 Problem and Mystery 6.2 Moving On 6.3 Case study: Emma Gee and Lucretius Epilogue: Staying in the Sun

Philip Wilson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Translation at the University of East Anglia, UK, where he teaches Religion and World Philosophies, Philosophy Meets the Arts and Translation Studies.