OT my only reply

>
> ..and that list is not exhaustive and does not include versions from the
> US. One can only wonder what planet Chris Bates inhabits.
>
I don't go looking for Bibles. :) The only examples I've seen are ones
that have crossed my path, like the New Testament we were all given in
school by a charity, which was certainly one of the densest worst
written books I have ever had the misfortune to try to read. About the
only thing that was clear were the page numbers.

>
>> So how can you have a universally applicable
>> book which contains concepts which can't be properly translated?
>
>
> Why just pick on the Bible? Why not the Upanishads, Vedas & other
> scriptures of the Hindus? Why not the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Avesta of
> the Zoroastrians or the Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs?
>
I said Bible where I probably should have said scripture... my intention
was to focus on religious literature of that kind not the particular
christian Bible.

>
>> Poetry (broadly) is at once universally applicable and entirely local.
>> The best of it is the more applicable as it is the more local.  This
>> is paradoxical, but the whole subject is paradoxical."
>
>
> In my not inconsiderable experience, poetry has _far more_ difficulties
> when it comes to translation than most parts of the scriptures have.
> Indeed IMSHO true poetry is both universally applicable and impossible to
> translate properly.
>
>> But I think this thread would better die; it's OT, and potentially
>> inflammable.
>
>
> Yes, it is certainly OT. When answering Henrik's original questions, I
> strove hard to keep on topic. Ill-informed stuff about priests keeping
> the
> Bible difficult and all the rest is quite IMO tantamount to trolling.
>
Again, it has been my experience that compared to the Bibles I have seen
and the one I was given Shakespeare, Chaucer and the like are positively
easy to follow. And I wasn't trolling, since the intent of a troll is to
stir up flame wars and the like... I was presenting an honest opinion
and clearly said at the bottom of the email that if any wanted to start
a debate on the subject it would be better off-list, but since everyone
replied onlist so did I.

Reply