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Comment by exolymph | Hacker News Reader

YES. I'm stoked about David Bentley Hart's New Testament translation for that reason: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/030024844X/ref=ox_sc_sav...

> Reproducing the texts' often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction, he has produced a pitilessly literal translation, one that captures the texts' impenetrability and unfinished quality while awakening readers to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers.

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If you're stoked for that, then I would be remiss to not say something about Robert Alter's one man translation of the Hebrew Bible.

From wiki: "Alter's translation aims to convey the literary style of the original Hebrew text in English, recreating as much as possible its poetic rhythms and metaphors"

I think many of the Psalms and Ecclesiastes in particular are more beautifully rendered in his translation

Agreed - I've found Alter's work to be very helpful and his notes are excellent.

It’s up for conjecture how “pitilessly literal” the DBH translation is. As is the case with most translations, he imports his own agenda (particularly with regard to his universalist soteriology). It’s good, but it’s also not as “pitilessly” objective as he may believe it to be.

Traduttore, traditore, etc.

I'm dubious about any such claim to objectivity.

Sure, caveat emptor.

This might not have been common in the past but it isn't a new thing. I know my dad had a copy of the new testament that had the original Greek on one line and a word by word translation on the next. Not the most readable translation or layout but interesting if you wanted to get closer to the original writing.

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