Prior to my family’s departure for Australia late in 1958 I had grown up in a most pleasant and culturally rich childhood ambience in the then rural village of Attard, right in the centre of that most beautiful island of Malta. Involved as I always had been in the local village life, most of which centred around the religious, I found myself participating in all the frequent ceremonies happening throughout the ecclesiastical year.
As an altar boy and a seminarian I even took a lively interest in the liturgical side of things in accordance with the Church calendar and other matters liturgical. But that wasn’t enough for a young lad like me, eager always to participate in most other ongoing activities of local village interest. Hence, my membership of the local Society of Christian Doctrine, the MUSEUM (Il-Mużew tar-raħal), which became one of my main cornerstones in forming the individual I am today.
For it was, to a large degree, the Society of Christian Doctrine that firmly set me on the path to a life of self discipline, both spiritual and intellectual. To this very day, now in my twilight years, I am ever so grateful to that Society where among so many personal benefits in personality formation, I recall with deep gratitude, the respect I acquired towards my Maltese language together with the rich upbringing this same language afforded me.
It was there, at the MUSEUM, where I so convincingly heard of the great linguist Peter Paul Saydon whose grasp of language was to leave an everlasting indelible mark upon my approach to language in general and our own indigenous Maltese tongue. At the MUSEUM we used to read long passages from Saydon’s Biblical translations while I sat there, ever so attentively absorbing every syllable from this wise man’s linguistic outpouring.
Several decades later, after spending my youth and middle age in this distant land Down Under, cast among what even today remains to me a totally alien social and cultural environment, I finally found myself, during one of my return visits to Malta, setting out in search of Saydon’s intellectual retreat. His private secluded hideaway in the Maltese countryside cut off from the hustle and bustle of our contemporary existence in the solace of that remote corner of Malta: Bengħajsa!
In days gone by I had heard so much about Saydon’s virtual hermitage where he found his solitude and peace of mind. And where he became so engrossed in his life-time pursuit of translating the entire 72 books of the Catholic Bible; all from the original languages of Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.
And for evermore, until my final days, I will treasure the rich Saydonian language he so deeply embraced; the Maltese language which recognises me for the fortunate individual I am in having savoured and treasured the virtues passed on to me by Saydon’s learned wisdom and forceful example.
When I first landed in Sydney (January 1959) I recall how I used to listen so eagerly to the Sunday biblical excerpts read out in Maltese, every Sunday morning, over the then Sydney Catholic broadcaster Radio 2SM, solely to rejoice in the richness of Saydon’s quasi classical Maltese. And yet, many decades later one professor was heard rhetorically declaring with a sarcastic air in his intonation, to a fellow academic across the university campus at Tal-Qroqq “who reads Saydon these days?!” Such a negative attitude towards our national treasure – our own Maltese language – is akin to a scholar of Italian deriding Dante Alighieri, an Englishman William Shakespeare, a Greek Homer, a German Goethe, a French Beaudelaire, a Russian Dostoyevsky et al!
If we Maltese were ever deserving of a sophisticated classical Maltese literature, the Saydon translation of the Bible is such a living national treasure, on equal par with any other nation’s coveted literary masterpiece! I say this not from a religious appreciation – as this is readily available in most other languages – nay, it is the beauty and richness of our Maltese language bequeathed to us as a proud nation. A masterpiece that ought to be included in the curricula of all secondary and tertiary courses in Maltese studies!
Through the auspices of this fine newspaper, I submit to the Maltese public, these token photos, with apologies for their poor quality, of the country retreat where Professor Peter Paul Saydon laboured for the better part of four decades with the fervour of a true scholar and a sense of national pride.
Hopefully the relevant authorities, possibly Heritage Malta, can look into the dilapidated state of Saydon’s former retreat at Bengħajsa, limits of Kalafrana, for the restoration of this significant site for our nation’s posterity. Hopefully this humble contribution will receive its due attention in celebrating Saydon’s intellectual labour of a lifetime.