system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
At what point will the English language have evolved far enough that it's necessary to translate classic texts? 

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gpt
I would say it's already reached that point. While literature written over the last couple hundred years is still readable in its original form, Shakespeare is starting to become a bit of a stretch for the average person to read or listen to. English literature goes back much farther than that, though, and once you get into Middle English and earlier, it reads like a completely foreign language. For example, the following is a selection from the twelfth century English work, Ormulum,

>Forrþrihht anan se time comm
  þatt ure Drihhtin wollde
ben borenn i þiss middellærd
  forr all mannkinne nede
he chæs himm sone kinnessmenn
  all swillke summ he wollde
and whær he wollde borenn ben
  he chæs all att hiss wille.

And its translation into modern English

>As soon as the time came
that our Lord wanted
be born in this middle-earth
for all mankind sake,
at once he chose kinsmen for himself,
all just as he wanted,
and he decided that he would be born
exactly where he wished.