Notes on translation are as necessary with respect to the Qur'an as they are futile. No single translation in English satisfies. The closest is Thomas Cleary, The Qur'an: A New Translation (Starlatch Press, 2004), often cited, or paraphrased, in the chapters above. It completes his earlier, condensed effort, The Essential Koran (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), which some may still prefer, if only because it, unlike the 2004 rendition, offers an introduction and partial commentary. The most satisfying English translations with commentary and/or textual apparatus are A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Macmillan, 1955) and M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an: A New Translation (Oxford University Press, 2004). For those who want both an English translation and the Arabic original with which to compare it, Ahmed Ali has provided Al-Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation (Princeton University Press, 1988).
The Qur'an exceeds the efforts of the most skilled and dedicated translators. It must be heard to be appreciated in its Arabic cadences, its inexpressible rhythms, its calibrated scales. The most available partial recitations can be found in the audio CD that accompanies Michael Sells' original, evocative study, Approaching the Qur'an: the Early Revelations (White Cloud Press, 1999).
For an insider's introduction to the elements of traditional and progressive interpretation of the Qur'an, consult Farid Esack, The Qur'an: A Short Introduction (Oneworld Publications, 2002), and for the delights and dilemmas of teaching the Qur'an in the modern European or American university, see Jane D. McAuliffe, 'Disparity and Context: Teaching Quranic Studies in North America' in Brannon M. Wheeler (ed.), Teaching Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 94–107.
Jane D. McAuliffe is also the General Editor for what will be the major reference work in English on the Qur'an for at least the next fifty years: Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an (E. J. Brill, 2001–2005). Its five volumes total slightly less than 2,700 pages, and include extensive cross-referencing as well as some illustrations in volume 2.
