Tao Te Ching - your preferred translation?

There's a vast multitude of takes on Lao Tzu's timeless work out there and no real consensus on which is best, as so much of it comes down to personal preference. Which is your favourite translation?

I like a few - of the more "legitimate" translations my favourite is the Addiss and Lombardo version .

But probably my favourite of all is Ron Hogan's version , which takes a variety of translations and synthesises them into a modern-language snappy dialogue remaster. There's something beautiful about seeing the great leveller Lao Tzu's words presented with such little ceremony, in totally modern language - and, for the most part, the original meaning (or a version of it, which is all that's available in translation anyway) remains pretty much unobstructed:

1

If you can talk about it,
it ain't Tao.
If it has a name,
it's just another thing.

Tao doesn't have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.

Stop wanting stuff. It keeps you from seeing what's real.
When you want stuff, all you see are things.

These two statements have the same meaning.
Figure them out, and you've got it made.

There's room for mysticism and that classic crystalline terseness, but for me there's also room for a little affectionate irreverence.

Additional love for the Derek Lin and Ursula Le Guin translations for their detail and simplicity, respectively.

For reference, this is the best site I've found for links to complete translations .

i was told that like the quran, it is really only useful in the original language. hence why there are so many versions of this thing, with quite a few differences between them.

Well, I'm sure the original is superior in every respect, but not being able to read Classical Chinese I've still learnt a great deal from various translations over the years. The translations have certainly been of practical and spiritual use to me!

Perhaps reading them in this way, being exposed to a variety of different interpretations and then forming our own opinion of what is meant/relevant/valid is more valuable than texts which only maintain a single version?

nah, mostly i was just messing with you, man. i personally dont care which version you use, as it seems to me to be a mental/spiritual rorschach test anyway. you read into it pretty much whatever you want.

I would give my left arm to read the first biblical new testament manuscript in greek. O_O MMMM

Connor

I found this earlier today.

http://www.myriobiblos.gr/bible/default.asp

Connor Lidell wrote: I would give my left arm to read the first biblical new testament manuscript in greek. O_O MMMM

I think I read that once... turns out Jesus's abilities might've been a bit exaggerated...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3rLof2cnzg

Stephen Mitchell
a new english version
1988

1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the
manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

My working version for the past ten years (recommended by a native Mandarin-speaking colleague):

Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Addiss & Stanley Lombardo, Hackett Publishing Company, 1993.

"Names can name no lasting name.

Nameless the origin of heaven and earth.
Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.

Empty of desire, perceive mystery.
Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.

These have the same source, but different names.
Call them both deep -
Deep and again deep:

The gateway to all mystery."

Stephen Mitchell is still probably my favorite, but I am loving having all these new versions to read!! :woohoo:

Not all translations are equal, and even though some are better than others, none is definitive.


All is translation.

Alan wrote: My working version for the past ten years (recommended by a native Mandarin-speaking colleague):

Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Addiss & Stanley Lombardo, Hackett Publishing Company, 1993.

"Names can name no lasting name.

Nameless the origin of heaven and earth.
Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.

Empty of desire, perceive mystery.
Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.

These have the same source, but different names.
Call them both deep -
Deep and again deep:

The gateway to all mystery."

alan, i like this version! i have never read it before. i will have to check this out somewhere.

tzb wrote: I like a few - of the more "legitimate" translations my favourite is the Addiss and Lombardo version .

My favorite one! Nice pick

tzb

Thank you for the recommendation of the online collection of Terebess Asia Online - Daodejing translations (a site new to me). Last week, we studied Daoism in my world religions class, and even though we have moved on, I will recommend the site to my students. Next semester, I'll work it into the lesson plan.

My pleasure Alan, glad to think it may be of use to others

I have rather painstakingly tried every translation on that site at one point or another, just to see which spoke to me most directly - nice to see several of us have settled on the Addiss and Lombardo text as our benchmark translation!

My preference is the one translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English.

http://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html

Connor Lidell wrote: I would give my left arm to read the first biblical new testament manuscript in greek. O_O MMMM

you can...lol, ever heard of the internet?

+1 vote on the OP

1.
If you can talk about it,
it ain't Tao.
If it has a name,
it's just another thing.

Tao doesn't have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.

Stop wanting stuff;
it keeps you from seeing what's real.
When you want stuff,
all you see are things.

Those two sentences
mean the same thing.
Figure them out,
and you've got it made.

http://www.beatrice.com/TAO.pdf

^ You can also get it as a book now, with extended commentary by the author. Who is a really nice guy, by the way. Heh, Taoist puns.



It forms part of my small and nerdy collection: