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Yvain comments on Of the Qran and its stylistic resources: deconstructing the persuasiveness Draft - Less Wrong
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Do you speak Arabic?
I've heard it said many times by Arabic-speakers that the Quran is an incredible book, unbelievably well-written and beautiful, and that its poetry is one of the factors responsible for the success of Islam.
I've also heard them say that no existing English translation is remotely as good. I would agree; I find it unbelievably boring, basically the same couple of lines about believe in Allah or you'll go to Hell over and over again (disclaimer: I've read chunks of it but not the whole thing). In terms of literary value I vastly prefer the Bible and some of the Hindu scriptures. But those have generally had better translators.
To get an objective opinion, you'd ideally need to hear that from Arabic-speakers who were never believers.
Yes, that would be it. The next best thing would be Jewish or Christian Arabs, of whom there are greater numbers than one might think. The Qran is repetitive. However, almost every time it says something that can be translated as "Allah is Great" or "All Mighty" or "All Knowing" or "Awesomecool", it says it in a different way, with different connotations: there's a lot of subtlety to it. However, yeah, unlike the Bible and the Torah wich are apparently prose, meant to be studied, the Qran is very much poetry, kind of like a gigantic mantra that likes to repeat himself. Think of Frank Miller (who once knew how to write awesomely), only with even more repetition and much less whores. Which isn't much like Frank Miller now that I think of it.
If you look at the site I have provided, you will notice that many transliterations are at your disposition. By clicking on them, they appear on the page at the corresponding Surah, and you can therefore compare and contrast them. The Qran is full of implied subtext and ellipses, and some of them try to bring it out. The result is more prosaic, but also more precise and informative.
That's a very impressive Dissimile. ;)