Review of Wilson (2024): Translation and Mysticism: The Rose and the Wherefore

Translation Studies (TS) has always looked outwards to other academic disciplines for ideas, methods, and conceptual frameworks.Indeed, Bassnett and Johnson (2019, 181) argue that this is the basis on which the discipline operates: "If TS functions in any meaningful way, it is as the enriched palimpsest of the ideas and methods of writers and philosophers, of theorists and practitionersfrom a range of disciplinesacross time and space." But in turning to mystical texts, Philip Wilson is taking a direction that many TS scholars would regard with suspicion.Long before Wilson began calling for interaction between TS and mystical studies, Bellos (2010, 206) had, as Wilson himself observes (14, 78), already complained about the "mystical nonsense" (i.e., abstruse theorising) supposedly infecting TS.Wilson's monograph, his most sustained contribution on this topic to date, adopts a more positive stance, arguing that research at the interface of mystical studies and TS is not only "inherently interesting" (3) but also that it illuminates rather than obfuscates the conceptualization and praxis of translation.What is Wilson aiming to achieve, to what extent is he successful, and how could his project be developed?Although Wilson's book focusses on translation, its intended audience of TS scholars, translators, theologians, philosophers, literary theorists, and scholars of mysticism underscores the project's interdisciplinary scope: "Investigating mysticism will help us to understand translation better, and investigating translation will help us to understand mysticism better" (1).To this end, Wilson's discussion is both theoretical and practical.His six core chapters each address theoretical issues linked to mystical texts (e.g., ineffability, the nature of language, equivalence, untranslatability, and performativity) and conclude with a case study.This reflects Wilson's conviction that "any attempt to divorce theory and practice is ultimately artificial" (3).Many of Wilson's examples are poems, and his analysis frequently probes how meaning is created by form and content, which are seen as interwoven and mutually supporting.While Wilson (26) rejects the view that any text can be read as mystical, his appeal to James's ([1902] 1985) hallmarks of mystical phenomena (i.e., experiences that are ineffable, noetic, transient, and passive) enables him to move beyond those that are religiously grounded.As a result, Virginia Woolf,