Letter from Beverly Clifford

My Translation of Voice Still and Small (Pequeña Voz)
by Bev Clifford:

This piece concerns my translation of Voice Still and Small (Pequeña Voz, as I named it), that I wrote especially for our Spanish-speaking Ministry congregants after September 11, and which expresses exactly how all of us were feeling during that week of horror and fear. Therefore, the Spanish words that I chose for the song mean a tremendous amount to me! Let me tell you a bit more of the story.

When that awful day happened, my husband was in Chicago for his job with United Airlines, and after the event they needed somebody to work at night so the employees with families in the area could go home. He volunteered to do this, and consequently he was away for over a week before he could come home to me, and I was by myself, having basically no one around to help me process the horror of the whole thing.

Before September 11, Lindi Ramsden (our former Senior Minister) had asked me to sing Voice Still and Small for a Memorial Service which was to have taken place the Saturday after it happened (but was, of course, postponed). Not knowing this, however, at about 10 PM on the Thursday night after September 11, I sat down with my baritone ukulele and started practicing the song, to limber up my voice and figure out the right chords. And as I sang that beautiful, simple hymn, I realized that something was happening. I was starting to feel calmer, less agitated, a bit more relaxed. So I kept on singing it over and over again. I must have sung that song for at least an hour – I don't know how many times! As long as I was singing it, I felt better.

I was slated to sing for the Spanish-speaking service that Sunday-which I used to do once a month come hell or high water – and at some point as I was singing, it hit me!: If this little song could take from me some of the anxiety and terror of what had just happened to us all, then perhaps it could ease their pain, too. And on the spot, without agonizing over it in the least, I started translating it – not strictly literally, but attempting as best I could to imbue it with the spirit and serenity that I felt were embodied in the words of the song. I knew from experience, having sung the translations of our hymns that Ervin Barrios had done for us (such as Spirit of Life), and from my study of Latin American literature, that a translation didn't have to be precisely literal to be a good translation – that it was the meaning that counted. I didn't even worry if it was good or not, I just knew I had to do this so I could sing it where it was needed.

The next morning, I called Lilia Cuervo (our Spanish-speaking minister at that time) to run it by her, and she was thrilled; so I did sing it for that service on that Sunday. Later on, I asked Smitty (whose opinion I trusted because of his incredible grasp of Spanish) for his valuable input, and he gave me some suggestions which I was glad to have. (That's Gaylord Smith, host of this website, and former FUCSJ member who had a particular interest in translating our hymns into Spanish.) Understand: I had absolutely NO expectation of my little translation going any further than our congregation, although we were already using it in our little Spanish hymnal that the church was putting together, with Smitty's untiring help. So when I received an email from somebody up in UU echelons requesting permission to put it into an official UU Spanish hymnal, I was greatly honored and very excited that they thought it worthy, and that my little off-the-cuff attempt would fly out into the UU world to help calm and console other Spanish speakers. That is the only translation I have ever done, and most likely the last – it was just one of those little miracles.