Το προσκύνημα

by Jennifer Lash, Evi Routoula (Translator)

Συχνά ανησυχούσα πώς θα τα κατάφερνα με την ξένη γλώσσα ή πώς θα μπορούσα να περιγράψω την αρχιτεκτονική, επειδή είχα περιορισμένες γνώσεις πάνω σε αυτό το θέμα. Αλλά καθώς καθόμουν πάνω στις ζεστές πέτρες, ένα ηλιόλουστο απόγευμα, και καθώς ατένιζα τον χώρο μέσα σ' αυτήν την ακινησία, συνειδητοποίησα με λύπη μου, ότι τελικά αυτή ήταν η εμπειρία που δε θα μπορούσα να περιγράψω.

Μέσα σου, στην καρδιά σου, ξέρεις ότι δεν χρειάζεται να πεις "θα ξαναέρθω εδώ", ούτε χρειάζεται να πάρεις μαζί σου λουλούδια ή πέτρες για να θυμάσαι το μέρος. Απλά πρέπει να χαρείς την στιγμή που είσαι εκεί, ακριβώς όπως είναι. Εκείνη την στιγμή νιώθεις μπερδεμένος και βαθιά συγκινημένος.

Genres: Travel, Memoir, Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Spirituality, Spain

359 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 1998

About the author

Born at Chichester, Sussex on 27 February 1938 to Joan Mary Moore, who was of Irish Catholic descent, and Brigadier Henry Alleyne Lash, a British colonial officer, Jennifer Lash lived in India where her father was stationed until the age of 6. When her family returned to England, they settled down in Surrey. Raised a Roman Catholic, Lash attended boarding school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and continued on to Farnham Art School. When she was 16 years old, her studies were cut short by family problems. She discontinued her education and moved to London where she supported herself with odd jobs to support her artistic pursuits.

In 1962, she published her second book The Climate of Belief and married Mark Fiennes with whom she raised 7 children: actors Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes, film makers Martha Fiennes and Sophie Fiennes, composer Magnus Fiennes, Jacob Fiennes, a conservation manager, and a foster son, Michael Emery, an archaeologist. The family frequently relocated and lived in Suffolk, Wiltshire, Ireland and London. Lash went on to write four more novels over the next twenty years. They are: The Prism (1963), Get Down There and Die (1977), The Dust Collector (1979) and From May to October (1980).

Lash's haunting paintings were featured in several exhibitions in places such as The Penwith Galleries in St Ives, The Halesworth Gallery and Westleton Chapel Galleries in Suffolk.

In the late 1980s Lash was diagnosed with breast cancer. While in remission from the disease, she travelled to Lourdes and Saintes Maries de la Mer in France and to Spain's sacred Santiago de Compostella. During this time she wrote her only non-fiction book, On Pilgrimage. Jennifer Lash lost her fight to cancer on 28 December 1993 at Odstock, Wiltshire, aged 55. Her final novel Blood Ties was published posthumously in 1997 and is widely regarded as her finest work.

Reviews

[Evi Routoula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είναι η δεύτερη μεταφραστική μου δουλειά που εκδόθηκε το 2008. Τι να πω για αυτήν; Είναι ένα βιογραφικό έργο της συγγραφέως Τζένιφερ Λας, ένα υπέροχο ταξίδι στη Γαλλία και στην Ισπανία, σε γνωστούς προσκυνηματικούς χώρους όλων των εκκλησιών σχεδόν. Ξεκινάει από την Αλανσόν με τα υπέροχα κεντήματα και καταλήγει στο περίφημο Σαντιάγκο Ντε Κομποστέλα. Αρχιτεκτονική, ιστορία, θρύλοι των τόπων, θρησκεία, πίστη, ασθένεια, αγάπη, αναζήτηση του εαυτού μας λίγο πριν το τέλος μας. Είμαι περήφανη για αυτό το βιβλίο και όσο κι αν ακούγεται υπερφίαλο και εγωιστικό, είμαι περήφανη για τη μετάφρασή μου.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's a different kind of pilgrimage book than others that I've been reading lately. Jennifer Lash spent some time (unclear how much) taking busses and trains and taxis through France to visit various relics and convents, finally making her way (by train) through Spain, to Santiago.

I had this one out from the library at the same time as The Year We Seized the Day, and -- despite the almost identical covers and my twin three-star ratings -- they're very different books. Where The Year We Seized the Day (and pretty much all the others I've read so far) is about physical pilgrimage, about getting from Point A to Point B and learning something about oneself along the way, On Pilgrimage is much more, well, about Point A and Point B and Point C. Just a different focus, really.

It sounds like a sort of mini Grand Tour of holy sites, and as such there's a lot of information packed in -- the usual memoir details about where she stayed and what each place was like for her, but a far heavier focus on religious history. I ended the book with very little more understanding of Lash than I'd started with, or what particular drive pushed her on to make her pilgrimage. (A cynical part of me wonders how her experience would have been different -- or how she would have approached it differently -- had she not already been under contract to write the book -- but the same could be said of numerous others on the topic.)

The author (Ralph Fiennes' mother -- huh) died of cancer not too long after the publication of this book, and I wonder whether in some ways the trip was a last hurrah for her -- she was in remission when she made the trip, but perhaps one of those now-or-never things. It's not likely to be a book that I come back to (too much push through to the next thing; mostly religious history of a sort that doesn't hold any particular interest for me), but I hope it was the experience she was looking for.

A bit more on this book here.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed this book on pilgrimage by Jennifer Lash. I picked it up because I thought it was about a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. Though her journey ends in Santiago de Compostela, this isn't the typical Camino pilgrimage. First she didn't walk, but traveled by train and bus. Her pilgrimage was mostly around France to the great spiritual centers: Lisieux, Bussy-en-Othe, Le Puy, Taize, Vezelay, Nimes, Rocamadour, Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, Lourdes and finally, just at the end, Santiago de Compostela. What I loved most about this book were the author's great powers of observation, her beautiful writing, and her honesty. She didn't hesitate to write tellingly of her anxiety and her disappointment at Lourdes: "Thousands and thousands of people, all with inward looking eyes as they stare out. I felt nothing but increasing alienation and dread." Yet, in addition to making these observations, she doesn't hesitate to ask herself why she feels in such a way: "Why did it seem so to me? Was it muddled belief?" She doesn't judge, she observes, not only what is happening in the spaces she inhabits, but her own inner awe or turmoil about what she sees.

I read much of this book in the middle-of-the-night hours when I couldn't sleep, and it always made me feel an overall peace and a feeling that faith was weaving its way through me. I wanted to make such a pilgrimage myself.

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this quote: “I suddenly thought, what if God witnesses in every man a divine spark, which flies within us blindly, like that bird, crashing in terror, punched and pounded from wall to wall, blinded by obstacles and dust, and yet, God knows, that there is a way for natural freedom and ascending flight. What an extraordinary pain that witness would be.”

[Evi Routoula · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that i realy loved. This is why i translated from English into Greek. I am very proud of my translation and i am very fond of the original text. Strongly recommend it.

[Karen Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read all (15) reviews, I understand how many readers criticize Lash's random observations and vague narrative of personal growth, but I experienced these so differently. Having learned of this out-of-print book as a lifelong follower of Ralph Fiennes, (RF is Lash's son), I ordered a used copy from Amazon and started it even before cancer took over our house. I took it in intermittently, diving deep at the point that our medical experiences converged. It's not a book about cancer. Traveling El Camino while in remission, its tired narrator doesn't craft a typical, easily satisfying account of inner and geographical pilgrimage. The realism of the traveler's consciousness-disconnected details about lodging, landscape, religious icons, pilgrims revealing themselves- these glimpses of a journey are the remnants of any pilgrimage (even of Life). Incoherent images (or scents, or tastes, or sounds) that, in the end, point toward a greater truth. As she says on her final page, "it is something to do with leaps in the dark," and then she quotes Thomas Merton: "We do not see first and then act; we act, then see."

[Mary Karpel-Jergic · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting read with full descriptions of places visited on her selective route to Santiago De Compostela along with a range of personal observations and insights about life and meaning, faith and belief. Jeni Fiennes had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was in remission when she undertook this journey (she died aged 55 in 1993). However, and disappointingly her health and her feelings about it were not considered directly. Nevertheless, reading between the lines it becomes apparent that she is struggling to understand herself, her experience and her beliefs. Although a catholic and undertaking a religious pilgrimage, she is not religious and by the end of the book I don't think anything changed for her in this respect.

"It is something to do with leaps in the dark. Recognising that truth is hidden. But transformation towards truth is something else."

[Katie Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so drawn to memoir and specifically books on pilgrimages and long-distance hikes like this because of the inward journey that goes along with the outward journey, but this was focused almost exclusively on the outward journey. Jennifer is clearly a talented writer and paints a beautiful picture of the places she visits, and she goes in depth into the history of the saints and such, but there's almost no inward reflection at all. It was really difficult to read even though there were some beautiful sections. Best for someone who is more interested in learning about the historical sites and their histories, almost like a very colorful guidebook, rather than someone interested in seeing how a pilgrimage or similar experience can affect or transform a person.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned about this book while reading the biography of Penelope Fitzgerald and thought I'd give it a go since I would some day like to pilgrimage to Compostela myself. Her pilgrimage was actually not the hike you usually associate with Compostela, but because of a bad back, she took buses and trains to the different Mary sites in France then her final two destinations were Lourdes and Compostela. I enjoyed the read, primarily because I am currently living in France for 3 months and found her thoughts interesting and relevant. The book is narrative and at times is filled with minutia, but overall I liked the book. I am hoping to visit a few of the spots she visited. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in doing some sort of pilgrimage, as it will inspire you in that direction.

[Voracious_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

On Pilgrimage by Jennifer Lash details a journey from Caen to Santiago de Compostela conducted by Lash over the course of a couple of weeks. She travels alone, largely, and speaks frankly and lovingly of the places she visits and the people she meets along the way. I liked it, but I did find portions of it to be very wordy and in need of editing in some places; for example, it used some words interchangeably, like paramount and tantamount etc., that were not the best choices. Having not read travel/personal pilgrimage books before, I don't know how it compares. Also, I think it would have been easier to follow if I had been more familiar with the places being visited. Also, the mood set by the writer was one of perseverance, but she sounded so tired as she forged on.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have read by Jennifer so far. After reading Blood Ties, I had no idea what to expect.She wrote the most vibrant descriptions of the places she visited and the people she met while on pilgrimage. Her writing about the places she visited does not leave much to the imagination. She virtually takes you to places like Lourdes and gives a brief and interesting history of each place. She did such a good job, I want to go where she traveled. Not only is this a good read, it is kind of a travel guide.

[Theadra Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I'd enjoy this more if I were actually Catholic. It seems more written for this specific audience. However, I am enjoying the idea of traveling to find peace and comfort and silence. I'm very drawn to that, I think most of us are.
I'm going to try to finish this. I don't know if that's going to happen though, I have a new "either read it or set it free" policy to my books. I have too many in my to read list just sitting there not being read. A travisty.

I didn't finish it

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jennifer Lash goes to places of religious significance in France and Spain and describes them. Sadly, this is all I got out of it. I was certainly wishing for more.

[Elizabetmarshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like pilgrimage books, and I liked this one. My favorite line is "...we resist unity, by always pleading identity."

[Peter Ralston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly memorable, and not only for the cover. The author is able to relate reflectively the inspiration for pilgrimage from beginning to end. I have not read this volume for years, but I still know that her writing helped me to be a better Christian, even by planting an interest in European pilgrim routes and Christian pilgrimage as a way of life.