"Chookie" wrote in message
news:ehrebeniuk-A0DDC4.23363817012008@news...

The two books you're complaining about

was i complaining? i thought i was just airing my views! sorry about that.

are translations, and a lot depends on
the skill of the translator.

excellent point.

AFAIK most modern translations of the Bible have
not set beauty as an objective, unlike the translators of the KJV.

i like the kjv. there IS no other bible!!!

Most set a
great deal of store on accuracy of translation (resulting in an
academically-useful but wooden text) or accuracy of vibe (where a lot of
the
'foreign' bits are made less foreign -- my favourite example is a Yank
translation where King Saul "went to the bathroom" in the cave!)

oh noooooooooooooooooooo...!
i don't suppose you happen to know what they did about onan "spilling his
seed upon the ground" **. (one shudders to think!)

No doubt
translators of the Iliad have the same problems.

Me, I love poetry. But it has to be something that *sounds* good. Most
hip
new poetry is too hip to last imo.

probably, in the 16th century (etc) there was a lot of hip poetry that
didn't last :-)
kylie
** i must have been about 25 before i even worked out what that _meant_!!