“The Book of Revelation: New Translation” Review

This month Mike Morrell and Speakeasy has supplied me with, The Book of Revelation: New Translation, in exchange for an honest review no matter how critical. This book is in fact a translation of the Book of Revelation normally found in the Bible and is the co-laboring effort of Michael Straus (translator) and Jennifer May Reiland (illustrator). 

Jennifer May Reiland, a graduate of Cooper Union, is based in New York where she is a resident artist of Open Sessions as-well-as the Drawing Center in Soho.

Michael Straus practiced law in New York, but left to pursue his Masters degree in classical languages. He then worked to finish his PHD in ancient Greek from Cambridge University. Michael Straus took on this project because he wanted to give the Book of Revelation something it has been in desperate need of: A literary interpretation. 

Translation

Most people are unaware of the complexity of the book’s literary composition because translators are often more interested in finding adequate words that will convey old language to modern readers, but it does so at the cost of losing its artistic sophistication and can diminish its enigmatic yet prolific vision. If that does not seem like a big deal, it is and here’s why. Words can rarely bear the weight of what someone feels, or experiences, or has become conscious of, in a visionary capacity or otherwise, so it requires something more of the language to convey what it must to its audience.

Thus the original text is comprised of three genres: It is primarily in “letter” format, but utilizes “apocalyptic” language, styles and fantastical imagery which often flow between prose, poetry and even song; and thirdly it operates out of the tradition of “prophetic” critique (of empire).

Michael’s translation in some sense captures all three genres, but much like the work of Robert Alter, he has recaptured the poetry, wordplay and at times irony that so often get “left-behind” in translations. To illustrate, here are some excerpts:

(Rev. 18:14-16) The very fruits your heart craved are wrenched from you, your fashions and splendor, all gone, not a feather to be found. And the traders and dealers enriched with these goods keep themselves far apart from her now, trembling wailing weeping in terror of her woes with nothing more to say than

Ay, ay, great Babolonia,

dressed in fine satin and lace

purple and crimson   

encrusted with gold

gemstones and pearls-

sic transit Gloria mundi! (p. 46)  

  

(Rev. 21:3-6) Behold, God’s tabernacle is with mankind and he shall abide in their midst and they will be his people and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, he will swallow up death in victory, there will be no more pain or weeping or suffering-for the things that were no longer are.

He that sat upon the throne said, Look! I have made everything new. And he said, Write! For these words are faithful and true. Then he said to me, It is done. Eu sou o Alfa e o Omega, no inicio e no final. I will give to all who are thirsty freely to drink from the fountain of the Water of Life. (p. 56)

Much of the work flows like this including his use of other languages to help phrasing and flows (from Greek, to Latin, to Portuguese, to Icelandic just to name a few) which adds to its texture and it honestly works well.

My biggest complaint is that this is just translation, void of foot notes or addendums to talk about translation decisions or other interesting points about the text.

Illustration

As for the illustration, Jennifer Reiland’s work does display her talent and creative thought process as an artist. I must say that its graphicness is not going to be for everybody and is certainly not suitable for children. With that said, for me the accompanying art both succeeds and fails in a number of ways. I cannot begrudge Jennifer’s attempt at an honest provocative rendering and honestly I would be more upset if she had not artistically taken the risks she did, but it offers an interpretation on the text that I don’t fully agree with.

Where it succeeded is in the way Jennifer captures apocalyptic images and shows Babylon as present threat within earth’s power structures. And in some instances, she links from the past to present well; from pyramid slavery to modern sex slavery and universal subjugation of women are common themes.  

However, where it failed for me was that it at times felt like a foretelling literalistic interpretation of the text rather than a picture of how empire operated in Rome and remanufactures itself in every global superpower. Although I must leave room that I could be misinterpreting the art.

But more importantly, it also seemed to miss how the text uses apocalyptic imagery in a way that, with irony, subverts normal apocalyptic violent portraits and offers a way to live humanly in the midst death’s rein (Rome’s only “moral” power). So I felt a more blatant political satirizing that coalesces into a picture of hope with deaths undoing, in the art, would have been more faithful to the text. But, in its end the scene is still furnished by death. 

With that said, and despite my critiques, I was genuinely pleased with the overall work.