A first-draft English translation of the 1939 edition of Norbert Fabián Čapek’s “To the Sunny Shore: A Guide to Living Joyfully” (K slunnému brehu: Prúvodce do radostného Zivota)
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| Picture detail from Sunny Beach at Fécamp, 1934, by the Czech artist Tavik František Šimon (1877-1942) |
A first-draft English translation of the 1939 edition of Norbert Fabián Čapek’s “To the Sunny Shore: A Guide to Living Joyfully” (K slunnému brehu: Prúvodce do radostného Zivota) can be read at the following link:
“To the Sunny Shore: A Guide to Living Joyfully” (K slunnému brehu: Prúvodce do radostného Zivota)
The original Czech text can be found at this link
And a short piece explaining why I undertook to do this, as well as a book chapter I wrote back in 2006/7 about Čapek and the Religious Society of Czech Unitarians, can be found at the following link:
A project to translate “Norbert Fabián Čapek’s “To the Sunny Shore: A Guide to Living Joyfully” (“K slunnému brehu: Prúvodce do radostného Zivota”)
Comments
It would be interesting to understand him better
Thanks for the question.
In all my reading about Čapek I have not come across any mention of something like a worship book, however, he did write a great many hymns, translations of a few of which have made it into various Unitarian hymnals in the UK and US. From my reading, it seems that Čapek's pre-WWII meetings in Prague centred primarily on lectures/talks and, given that he wrote so many hymns, presumably also some singing. What I do know is that the Flower Communion was written as a response to those who felt there needed to be, at least on certain occasions, some more obviously religious ritual present in Czech Unitarian gatherings.
This state of affairs reminds me very much of the situation that existed within Imaoka Shin'ichirō’s post WWII Yuniterian (sic) community, the Tokyo Kiitsu Kyōkai (the Returning-to-One Fellowship), which also centred primarily on a lecture/talk. However, in this case there was no singing of hymns but, instead, before the service began, there was an opportunity for people to join Imaoka-sensei in a time of Quiet Sitting (Seiza).
It’s interesting to me to have discovered that, towards the end of his long life, Imaoka-sensei acknowledged that there needed to be more ritual in the Kiitsu Kyōkai - i.e. some kind of liturgy - and, in 1979, he gave a short address in which he said:
"The church should also become more religious. I would like something more than just lectures and discussions. For example, music. Music is important in religion. I would like to incorporate music not only at the beginning, like “Law of the Deep Mountains” (法の深山 Hō no Shinzan), but also in the middle and at the end. Talks should last 30–40 minutes, followed by silent meditation and music, with question and answer sessions held afterward."
For what it is worth, it was a lack of ritual that led, some 20 years ago, to the creation of a liturgy for the Cambridge Unitarian church’s evening service, which following the COVID-19 pandemic, has now become the community’s main, morning service. Quite coincidentally, but felicitously, it ended up being a service somewhat like that which Imaoka-sensei seems to have hoped for.
Should you be interested in seeing that click on the following link:
Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation, Music and Conversation
But the question of why neither Čapek, nor Imaoka-sensei, developed liturgies remains unanswered. I have some thoughts about why this was the case, but they are, perhaps, for another time!
All the best,
Andrew
Your comment stimulated my curiosity and I fond something: one of the numbers of the RSCU's magazine was somewhat devoted to the Capek's liturgy: https://unitaria.cz/tvurci-zivot/4349-TZ_23-01_web.pdf
It looks (at least from what I understood using MTL) there was responsive readings, hymns, the sound of the organ, silent meditations, prayers, special festivals.
Unfortunately the author wrote that surviving liturgical material is very scarce, so we our knowledge is only partial. And living east of the iron Curtain only degraded the liturgical life of the community and their collective memory.
Also searching I found a photo from an ordination service (https://unitaria.cz/tvurci-zivot/4216-TZ-21-3.pdf pag 41) but there are no information about the order of the service. So which was the theology and comprehension of the event?
The survival and diffusion of the Flower Communion was literally a 'fortunate case' before the 'collapse' of a community or the loss of the collective narrative.
Unortunately this is somewhat common in liturgical history...
Our rites are the 'glue' of the life of the community, but somewhat they are frail and easy to lose...
And, yes, like you I think rites/liturgies are vital to the life of any community and are, indeed, easily lost.
Lastly, I hope that over the next couple of weeks you are able to find some restful time.
All the best,
Andrew
So, I've just translated the historical one and posted it on my blog (link below). It is VERY interesting. I've also translated the other article about more recent practices, as well as the one containing early responsive prayers. I'm very happy to share those with you and, if you email me at caute.brown@gmail.com, I'll send them on.
The Liturgy of Spiritual Gatherings in the Early Days of Czech Unitarianism by Kristýna Ledererová Kolajová