Chris, I think I was actually agreeing with you but adding my two-cents that a translator has more "liberty" when the original is funny, since funny is the most important thing that has to be translated. It becomes subjective, of course, whether the translator's liberties in terms of the literal sense are excessive, but none of us here is naive enough to think that translation is a process that can be evaluated with complete objectivity.
This particular translation takes a tremendous liberty, however much you and I approve of the result. I suspect that the original poem can be quoted pretty much whenever someone wants to say, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," or as a put-down of committees, etc. The translation, however, could not be quoted in the same context at all. Both the original and the translation close with a moral, but the morals are different. To the extent that the poem hinges on its moral, the original and the translation could not be more different.
My view is that the moral is less important than the entire paradoxical concept of the singular/plural multi-headed creature(s) biting each other's heads off. The moral is just there to provide humorous closure, I think, and its exact meaning is less important.
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