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Val V. Barbara (V.V.B.), elder son of Grazio and
Catherine née Micallef, was born at Cospicua, Malta,
on the 29th March 1920. He received his education at
the State Primary School and at the Lyceum of
Valletta. He studied philosophy and theology at St
Thomas Aquinas College of Rabat, Malta. Graduated
B.C.G. at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
in Rome. He was teacher of Maltese (1948-1962) at St
Albert the Great College, Valletta. Started writing
poems in 1943; in 1944 he was accepted as a member
of the Akkademja tal-Malti, and now and again
was member of its Council. Some of his poems were
included in various antologies, others were
translated in Italian by Notary V.M. Pellegrini and
included in his book Orizzonte senza fine -
Xefaq bla tmiem.
Later he concentrated his literary work translating
several books from Latin, English, Italian, French
and Spanish. With regard to this work Prof. Oliver
Friggieri of the University of Malta wrote to him
saying: I have no doubt that you have made for
yourself a name as one of the leading Maltese
translators of all times and you are well at par
with Saydon. Your work shall always stay to witness
the widest cultural horizons attained by our
language. You deserve the admiration and gratitude
of all the Maltese. The well-known poet Ruzar
Briffa, a personal friend of Barbara whose poems
were very much appreciated by Briffa, entrusted him
with the very first publication of his poems (R.
Briffa, Poeziji, Lux Press, Malta 1960).
Barbara was a member of the Liturgical Commission of
the Ecclesiastical Province of Malta and official
translator of most of the new liturgical books
issued after the II Vatican Council, in recognition
of which work he was awarded the Pontifical
decoration Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (P.E.P.);
he also translated liturgical and other books for
the Dominicans of Malta. He helped the Dominican
Sisters of Malta in re-organizing and updating their
Constitutions in order to obtain the Decretum
laudis from the Holy See. He was one of the
translators appointed by the Maltese Biblical
Society for the translation of the Bible into
Maltese from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
texts.
In 1974 he emigrated to Australia where he continued
his literary work. He was one of the Maltese
translators for various Federal and State
Departments, co-founder and president of the
theatrical company T.O.M.M. (Theatre of Maltese
Migrants), and for so me years literary editor in
the Maltese programme of the ethnic radio 2EA,
Sydney. He is a Justice of the Peace for the State
of New South Wales. He was awarded the 1993 Cultural
Award from the Maltese Cultural Association of N.S.W.
He is married to Mary Agnes Leong B.Sc .(Liv.),
P.G.C.E. (Lond.), Maths teacher in a Sydney Catholic
Senior College.
Among his works are:
Intietef - a collection of his poems (still
unpublished).
Innijiet Liturgici - a collection of the
liturgical hymns translated by himself for the
Liturgy of the Hours, 1991.
Innijiet Liturgici (6 volumes) - a collection
of 529 hymns translated by himself and others and
used in the liturgy of the Maltese islands and of
the Religious Orders in Malta (still unpublished).
Min Kienu - exegetical notes on each and
every person mentioned in the Bible (Media Centre
Publications, Malta 1997).
Persons in the Bible - an English
translations of Min Kienu (still unpublished). |
