“A Lump in the Throat”

“Poetry is what gets lost in translation,” according to Robert Frost, and the same might be said of religious faith.   Religious faith gets lost in its translations, because like poetry, it has always been wrapped up in such.  How does one talk about the Christian faith for example, without dealing with its translations, which include the institutional church, the Bible, ethics, rituals, dogmas, etc?  Whenever I begin to talk with someone about my religious faith, I find myself having to contend with its myriad translations rather than its essence.  The heart of my belief gets smothered by the other person’s feelings, thoughts, and experiences with the translations:  the church, the Bible, traditions, etc.  These “translations” become the focal point rather than the “faith” itself—thus, faith, like poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Something very similar has happened in recent days with “patriotism,” which is also a kind and form of faith.  Patriotism, too, is getting lost in the various translations now attempting to define it.  One can hardly talk about the essence of patriotism without getting hung up in the translations—flag, national anthem, disrespect of veterans, etc.  These translations are not what patriotism is, just as the translations about religious faith are not what faith is, and the translations of poetry are not what poetry is—the essence of all three get lost in the translations.

Robert Frost tries to get at the heart of what poetry really is by saying, “A poem begins as a lump in the throat…” and this applies as well to religious faith.  It, too, starts with a lump in the throat at the sight of a burning bush, a flock of geese flying overhead, a bud bursting forth into flower, or some other mystic experience in which one senses a “Love at the heart of all things” or Something or Someone beyond oneself.  Patriotism, too, begins with a lump in the throat as one ponders the American dream, “holding these truths to be self-evident: that all men (girls, boys, all people—not just here, but everywhere) are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain  unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  We have to get back to the “lump in the throat” and never let either poetry, religious faith, or patriotism be defined or get lost in the translations.

Stone Mountain, GA