Fazlollah Nikayin, The Quran; The First Poetic Translation (2000)
Foreword
"Indeed We rendered Al-Quran
Easy for recollection..."
(54-17)
How often may people, who speak no Arabic, have come across such comments concerning the Holy Quran:
"...that intimate symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstacy...the Koran cannot be translated: that is the belief of old-fashioned sheykhs and the view of the present translator!"1
" The rhetoric and rhythm of the Arabic of the Quran are so characteristic, so powerful, so highly emotive, that any version whatsoever is bound in the nature of things to be but a poor copy of the glittering splendour...and the radiant beauty of the original...it is neither prose or poetry but a unique fusion of both."2
"...much of the power of the original is lost in translation; indeed most Muslims believe that the Qur'an cannot be translated properly...”3
1. Pickthall, M., the Glorious Koran, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1957.
2. Arberry, A.J., The Quran Interpreted, Cambridge, 1962.
3. Jones A., in Foreword to the Koran, translated by J.M. Rodwell, Everyman, J.M. Dent, London 1994.
