(via tripadvisor dot com)
It is sometimes asserted that the Quran should be read only in the original Arabic (RABYBAU); this is an accomplishment i do not aspire to. On the one hand, i can understand how in order to truly grasp a poem, in whole or in part, some degree of familiarity with the linguistic material itself is necessary, including grammar, rhythm, genre, and even (while translators know this, most readers of translations remain oblivious) the semantic matrix in which one word was chosen in preference to another--the same, but not the same. Yes, the Quran is among other things a collection of poetry. It is thus like a famous building one must make a pilgrimage to experience, one that no amount of photography can do justice to.
On the other hand, the earth is crowded with architecture; with languages, even. Saying one spot on the globe is the only possible place does a disservice both to the spiritual value of travelling (on foot, as Werner Herzog specifies), and to the necessary illumination of sounding the depths of that unique natal region chance has (to no discernible end) assigned. ...[CX]ar Ni estas pli proksima al li ol lia gorgxvejno (50:16). You cannot privilege a language any more than a nation, a race, a gender, or any other arbitrary human variable; at most you can commit to a single narrative and a single purpose, for the duration of that purpose.
No one yet has been raised with Lojban as a first language. The number of even native Esperantists is minuscule. Thus the Quran in one of these languages, represents an equidistant alienation. It is the black stone none of us saw come down. I have a nice copy of Chiussi's translation, and though i find myself first searching out passages in my old Pickthall in English, it is the Esperanto text i return to. These are the words that hold me.
A joker might say, "You are not a real Muslim, and it is entirely fitting that you want a Quran that is not in a real language." Be that as it may, meaning lives behind the veil of language, and if there is any sense in the attitudes and practices of a religion, it will involve penetrating that veil. Which must first be acknowledged. [O]ndo kovras gxin, super gxi estas ondo, super tiu estas nubo... (24:41). Not to be content with a postcard of the place; or somebody else's definition of "Allah". And in the very effort to reconstitute a sought-out meaning, into a rotavator language without traditions or cliches, there will be built a new Enclosure.
Hoc opus, hic labor est.
