Gospel of the Witches
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:45 pm
I've been wanting insight on this seminal and foundational piece of our liturgy. I really do love it, particularly the first chapter. But there's this one line that always make my teeth itch:
First, I am wondering how those of Jewish or Romani descent feel about the passage and how they contend with it?
Second, is the text calling these people wicked or is it referring to the conditions of their treatment?
I've been studying Italian over the last two years (unrelated) and my skills are rudimentary at best but I noted that the original Italian (Non devi essere come la figlia di Caino, / E della razza che sono devenuti / Scellerati infami a causa dei maltrattamenti....) can be translated as "You must not become like Cain's daughter nor like the race that has become infamously villainous because of their mistreatment like the Jews and Zingari".
And I'm also obviously not a professional translator, particularly of floridly fancy works but in the original Italian the last two lines aren't necessarily a clause of the one preceding it. Tutti ladri e briganti / Tu non divieni... translates to "All thieves and bandits, you will not become." The word "who" that Leland uses to between lines 4 and 5 doesn't exist in the Italian. But perhaps his translation is more accurate despite this as some literary conventional way of writing I'm not familiar with.
Still not the nicest descriptions but one that seems to be speaking more of the conditions society has put them in versus a racist commentary on the inherent moral tendencies of these people?
But maybe this is all an egotistical way to wash clean a piece I otherwise adore.
It seems so out of place for the piece to call these two peoples, Jews and Romani, "wicked" and it is a mar on an otherwise lovely work.Yet like Cain's daughter thou shalt never be,
Nor like the race who have become at last
Wicked and infamous from suffering,
As are the Jews and wandering Zingari,
Who are all thieves and knaves; like unto them
Ye shall not be....
First, I am wondering how those of Jewish or Romani descent feel about the passage and how they contend with it?
Second, is the text calling these people wicked or is it referring to the conditions of their treatment?
I've been studying Italian over the last two years (unrelated) and my skills are rudimentary at best but I noted that the original Italian (Non devi essere come la figlia di Caino, / E della razza che sono devenuti / Scellerati infami a causa dei maltrattamenti....) can be translated as "You must not become like Cain's daughter nor like the race that has become infamously villainous because of their mistreatment like the Jews and Zingari".
And I'm also obviously not a professional translator, particularly of floridly fancy works but in the original Italian the last two lines aren't necessarily a clause of the one preceding it. Tutti ladri e briganti / Tu non divieni... translates to "All thieves and bandits, you will not become." The word "who" that Leland uses to between lines 4 and 5 doesn't exist in the Italian. But perhaps his translation is more accurate despite this as some literary conventional way of writing I'm not familiar with.
Still not the nicest descriptions but one that seems to be speaking more of the conditions society has put them in versus a racist commentary on the inherent moral tendencies of these people?
But maybe this is all an egotistical way to wash clean a piece I otherwise adore.