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 Post subject: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 07 Jun 2009, 08:19 
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Suggested translation1,2:


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1This translation may have been updated from the original suggested translation as a result of the discussions that follow.
2Click on the {verse number} of a translation to see other good translations of the verse.

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 Post subject: Re: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 19 Aug 2009, 18:00 
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Quote:
{2:163} And your god is one God. There is no deity [worthy of worship] except Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

The interjection "worthy of worship" is redundant.

Quote:
{2:164} Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the [great] ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what God has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [His] directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason.

The interjection "great" is unnecessary. Small ships too are a sign from God!

The interjection "kind of" is a good one, because it conveys the sampling implied in the Arabic, من كل.

The last interjection "His" is unnecessary. I'd translate that clause just like the Arabic says, i.e., "and the directing of the winds..."

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 Post subject: Re: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 19 Aug 2009, 19:14 
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Linguistic wrote:
Quote:
{2:163} And your god is one God. There is no deity [worthy of worship] except Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

The interjection "worthy of worship" is redundant.

Continuing my psychoanalysis of why they translated things the way they did :), I think they thought a third use of the word "god" will not sound good so they opted for "deity" and elaborated to make it closer to "god." I don't see a problem with using "god" a third time, like it was done in Arabic.

However, I see a problem with the capitalization in the second use of the word, so I suggest

{2:163} And your god is one god. There is no god except Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

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 Post subject: Re: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 19 Aug 2009, 20:42 
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Pragmatic wrote:
Continuing my psychoanalysis of why they translated things the way they did :), I think they thought a third use of the word "god" will not sound good so they opted for "deity" and elaborated to make it closer to "god." I don't see a problem with using "god" a third time, like it was done in Arabic.

However, I see a problem with the capitalization in the second use of the word, so I suggest

{2:163} And your god is one god. There is no god except Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I'm with you here, though "deity" is a good translation. Only modification is to change "Him" to "He" since the pronoun is subjective not accusative.

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 Post subject: Re: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 20 Aug 2009, 03:41 
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Linguistic wrote:
Only modification is to change "Him" to "He" since the pronoun is subjective not accusative.

There will be spots like this where "proper" English is different from commonly used English and we have a choice between being correct and funny-sounding or being not-exactly-correct but smooth and understandable. For instance, few people will say "There is no one here except I" even if it is more correct than "There is no one here except me."

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 Post subject: Re: Verses 2:163-164
PostPosted: 07 Feb 2014, 16:12 
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OK, I suggest then:

{2:163} And your god is one god. There is no god except He, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

{2:164} Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the ships which sail through the sea with what benefits people, and what God has sent down from the sky of water, reviving thereby the land after its death and dispersing therein of every beast, and the directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the sky and the earth surely are signs for a folk who reason.

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