I have successfully produced a surah equal to that found in the Koran

[FearGod]

I will have to admit I cannot help with Arabic, and I should have thought of it. Forgive me.

Never mind, but i don't know why it's hard to search for it, it's very easy to search the bible in English as well as Arabic by chapter and verse number,
which isn't the case for the Bahai books.

 

[Smart_Guy]

It's interesting how ~1,400 years ago the Quraan mentions:
"And it is not the word of a poet; little do you believe" (Quran 69:41)
"And We did not teach Prophet Muhammad poetry, nor is it befitting for him. It is not but a message and a clear Qur'an" (Quraan 36:69)
and we are having the Quraan compared to poetry in this thread

My farvorite recite of Maher Mueaqly, almost every night I listen to it,before I sleep

He's my favorite. Check out how he changes the tone in around ~4:00. It becomes really sad and touching.

 

[arthra]

Never mind, but i don't know why it's hard to search for it, it's very easy to search the bible in English as well as Arabic by chapter and verse number,
which isn't the case for the Bahai books.

I'm not sure I should be a party to this discussion but there are ways to find the original Arabic and Farsi of the Baha'i Writings... in this case the Kitab-i-Iqan was originally revealed in Farsi Persian with quotes from the Qur'an in Arabic

See:

http://bahai-library.org/resources/tablets-notes/kitab-iqan/outline.html

It was translated by Shoghi Effendi the great grand son of Baha'u'llah and a descendent of the family of the Bab as well. His translation in English is accepted by Baha'is as authoritative.

The Kitab-i-Iqan can be downloaded at

http://reference.bahai.org/ar/t/b/

 

[-Peacemaker-]

How?



That's not the point. Arabic is from a completely different language family than English.

Heck, English didn't even exist when the Qur'an was written, in any form.



Fine. I'll play along. Let's compare your work to an English translation.

It still fails.

I don't know a single word of Arabic. However, the English translation of the Qur'an that I first read, and always cite, is Yusuf Ali's. Because when I read it, there's a very real power there, far moreso than any other translation I've read. Your verse had absolutely no power to it. And frankly, I don't even think it's that great of English poetry. It's quite dull and dry, in fact. What cadence? Just looking at the first two lines:

The Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Blessed is the one​

The meter seems to flow like this (- for unstressed, ^ for stressed)

-^^-^--^--^-
--^--^-^--^-^-^-^​

It's all over the place. Also, in what dialect has "righteous" ever rhymed with "one"??

Modern English's poetic equivalent to the Qur'an is Shakespeare. And NOBODY has matched Shakespeare to date.

The meter really does flow in its own unique way. Sing the verses to a melody. I think the you'll be able to appreciate the cadence and understand why I chose to use this stress pattern. That's the key, you have to sing it

 

[-Peacemaker-]

You spoke of cadence in your verse, as well as rhyme, where I saw none. If you regard yourself to be more skilled in judging verse, perhaps you could explain where I had erred?

The verses are meant to be sung. You must sing the verses to a melody in order to appreciate why I chose this stress pattern

 

[Riverwolf]

The meter really does flow in its own unique way. Sing the verses to a melody. I think the you'll be able to appreciate the cadence and understand why I chose to use this stress pattern. That's the key, you have to sing it

The verses are meant to be sung. You must sing the verses to a melody in order to appreciate why I chose this stress pattern

It's meant for singing? How? Did you intend it for a tune that you assume I'd know?

 

[-Peacemaker-]

It's meant for singing? How? Did you intend it for a tune that you assume I'd know?

It's open to improvisation

 

[-Peacemaker-]

It's meant for singing? How? Did you intend it for a tune that you assume I'd know?

I was improvising a little earlier with the verses and I was going with a Gregorian chant type of melody. It worked even better than I expected

 

[Riverwolf]

It's open to improvisation

Well, I'm afraid that just makes it subjective. I am not the best at tune improvs.

...a Gregorian chant type of melody.

Afraid I don't know what that means, my friend.

And can you tell what I am doing now?

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Well, I'm afraid that just makes it subjective. I am not the best at tune improvs.



Afraid I don't know what that means, my friend.

And can you tell what I am doing now?

Check out these monks. This is the type of melody that my verses go best with. I'm not sure I want to know what you're doing right now

 

[Riverwolf]

Check out these monks. This is the type of melody that my verses go best with.

The thing is that I'm pretty sure that Uematsu-type of music could be used to make whatever verse you wanted good.

I'm not sure I want to know what you're doing right now

Well, if you really knew some basic poetry, you would have noticed it by now, I'm sure.

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Listen to the Gregorian monks and just imagine them singing my surah. Only a biased person would say that recitation of the Koran is head and shoulders better. I consider them equally beautiful

 

[Riverwolf]

Only a biased person would say that recitation of the Koran is head and shoulders better.

Oh, by the Gods! This matter is inherently about our biases. I mean, Liberi Fatali is cool and all, but yes! we Westerners will tend to like our own musics over another's tunes.

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Oh, by the Gods! This matter is inherently about our biases. I mean, Liberi Fatali is cool and all, but yes! we Westerners will tend to like our own musics over another's tunes.

Off topic but if you like Final Fantasy 8 they put an album with about ten tracks played by a real orchestra, nothing digital. The version of Liberi Fatali is gorgeous. The album is an import. You can find it online though

 

[Riverwolf]

Off topic but if you like Final Fantasy 8 they put an album with about ten tracks played by a real orchestra, nothing digital. The version of Liberi Fatali is gorgeous. The album is an import. You can find it online though

Yes, I know of this album.

 

[Jumi]

I'm not sure how much non-Arabic speakers will be able to appreciate it, but I suspect it's not impossible for at least some non-Arabic speakers to get a sense of Qur'anic poetic flow from it. (I wouldn't blame them if they didn't, though.)

I think you have to understand Arabic for this or to have a cultural ear for the language. I'll take your word for it though!

 

[Kirran]

The Bhagavad Gita's pretty beautiful, too! Quite the linguistic masterpiece.