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Comment by _urga | Hacker News Reader

Ecclesiastes is powerful in any human language, and belongs to the whole world, every nation, tribe and tongue. It would be a mistake to make it the sole property and possession of the KJV:

"Siehe an die Werke Gottes; denn wer kann das schlicht machen, was er krümmt?"

"Aanmerk het werk Gods; want wie kan recht maken, dat Hij krom gemaakt heeft?"

"Regarde l'oeuvre de Dieu: qui pourra redresser ce qu'il a courbé?"

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Honestly, in Dutch (the second quote you posted) that phrasing will leave few impressed with the text due to its extremely archaic formulation and the pompous capitalisation of that god's pronouns (which is kind of modern in a sense, but surely not quite what the authors intended).

A better translation that will be more readily understood by readers of Dutch born in the last 70 years reads:

„Bezie het werk van God: wie maakt recht wat hij krom heeft gemaakt?”

Thanks! I am second-generation Dutch living in South Africa. I speak Afrikaans, so that translation sounded fine to me. Your translation does sound much more flowing.

I hope my point still stands, that what's important ultimately in Ecclesiastes is not so much any superficial style or dialect, but the substance being conveyed.

Of course, Ecclesiastes is full of beautiful poetry, and I appreciate it on that level, but the book is my favorite because of the ideas and lessons being taught, which I think transcend language and culture.

Not my translation of course, this one is the NBV (Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling) from 2004.

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