George Orwell vs The Message
Categories : Bible, Quotes |
I’ve been reading a bit of Ecclesiastes recently so this quote from George Orwell I came across today was timely. It’s his transalation of Ecc 9:11
into “modern English”…
I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Here it is in modern English:Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
Now that proves that big words aren’t always best. It’s almost like a complete opposite of The Message - an anti-Message if you like. I’ve noted online, in reading, and in conversation recently quite a bit of antipathy towards The Message. While I accept the reservations about it being one person’s paraphrase, rather than an accurate translation, I still think it can be quite a useful adjunct, to help get a fresh spin on things. You wouldn’t want to use it as your sole version of the Bible though. Personally for me I’ve been combining the NLT and NRSV of late which is a nice mix.
Anyway you can read more about the Orwell quote and the writing principles it illustrates on Steve Addison’s excellent blog World Changers (yet another one to keep an eye on…)
