The one and only time I read the original version I was lucky to follow the story, let alone judge the technique. But I do remember liking the story and feeling that I was connected to something obscure and allegorical but universal. John's translation overcomes the obscurity and retains the allegory and universality.
Maybe it's the flawed classics that are the best candidates for translation, the ones least likely to lose the precious coherence of form and content because they are least likely to have had it to begin with.
RPW
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