Friday, February 12, 2010
Style Versus Substance
(5)
I have never read 'The Koran.' I never will read 'The Koran.' But I understand that The Koran can only be 'understood' when read in the original Arabic. Translations of The Koran do not serve to express the 'Word of God' correctly.
The English Koran is not the Real Koran. It is missing something. That is to say that 'literal translations' of The Koran tend to be bizarre. This suggests that the Koran and The Bible are 'Stylistic works,' each making about as much logical sense as the other to a modern logical readership steeped in history. Poetry and Logic appear to be opposites, but not necessarilly. Appearance is everything in poetry. Really. But logic eventually emerges as the skeleton of thought. Poetry is flesh, flourish. Beautiful but not essential. Logic is essential. Without logic you die. (Beautifully, of course.)
I have never read 'The Koran.' I never will read 'The Koran.' But I understand that The Koran can only be 'understood' when read in the original Arabic. Translations of The Koran do not serve to express the 'Word of God' correctly.
The English Koran is not the Real Koran. It is missing something. That is to say that 'literal translations' of The Koran tend to be bizarre. This suggests that the Koran and The Bible are 'Stylistic works,' each making about as much logical sense as the other to a modern logical readership steeped in history. Poetry and Logic appear to be opposites, but not necessarilly. Appearance is everything in poetry. Really. But logic eventually emerges as the skeleton of thought. Poetry is flesh, flourish. Beautiful but not essential. Logic is essential. Without logic you die. (Beautifully, of course.)
