Tao Te Ching Translations
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PaxRomana
Tao Te Ching Translations
Post #1What, in your opinion, is the best English Translation of the Tao Te Ching, and why?
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Divine Insight
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Post #2
Some years ago I did a search for as many translations that I could find. My goal at that time was to try to take the best of all these translations and use them (along with my own intuitive impressions) to create a brand new "translation".
This would have actually been a translation of translations. I chose to do this at this particular time because I had been encouraged by other people to do this. They knew that I was interested in Taoism and they felt that I am gifted in my ability to put feelings and thoughts into words. And I confess that I was even thinking of translating the Tao Te Ching into something quite poetic. In fact, I was a member of a poetry and songwriting group at the time.
However, as I began this process, I quickly began to see that people interpret the Tao Te Ching quite differently. In other words, I started to notice how different the translations were that I was finding. So I started to question just how accurate anyone was truly translating the original thoughts and feelings of Lao Tzu.
I might also add for context that I was also reading a lot of Tagore and Rumi at this same time. So I wasn't totally focused on the Tao Te Ching specifically.
But now to get to my main point, what I finally began to realize is that I would probably be better off just starting from scratch and writing my own thoughts on reality and spirituality, etc.
In fact it became apparent to me that I'm no different from Lao Tzu. My views and opinions on life as just as valid as his. He was just a person like you or me expressing his experience of being in harmony with nature.
So rather than create my own version of the Tao Te Ching, I decided instead to go off and write my own poems from scratch in the spirit of Rumi and Tagore.
And so that's what I did, and I wrote some really great poems and shared them with my poetry group. I even wrote some songs too.
That was all some years ago, and unfortunately I didn't bother to print things out nicely and put them into a nice neat binder. Instead I just left them on my hard drive and that computer got a virus and crashed, and I lost all of it.
But I still have the memories of the experience and it was a very enjoyable period in my life.
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By the way, in answer to your specific question:
There was no "best" version of the Tao Te Ching IMHO.
There were some I liked better than others, but more often I liked parts of some and parts of others. I never really found one particular version that really stood out as being exceptional in any dramatic way.
This would have actually been a translation of translations. I chose to do this at this particular time because I had been encouraged by other people to do this. They knew that I was interested in Taoism and they felt that I am gifted in my ability to put feelings and thoughts into words. And I confess that I was even thinking of translating the Tao Te Ching into something quite poetic. In fact, I was a member of a poetry and songwriting group at the time.
However, as I began this process, I quickly began to see that people interpret the Tao Te Ching quite differently. In other words, I started to notice how different the translations were that I was finding. So I started to question just how accurate anyone was truly translating the original thoughts and feelings of Lao Tzu.
I might also add for context that I was also reading a lot of Tagore and Rumi at this same time. So I wasn't totally focused on the Tao Te Ching specifically.
But now to get to my main point, what I finally began to realize is that I would probably be better off just starting from scratch and writing my own thoughts on reality and spirituality, etc.
In fact it became apparent to me that I'm no different from Lao Tzu. My views and opinions on life as just as valid as his. He was just a person like you or me expressing his experience of being in harmony with nature.
So rather than create my own version of the Tao Te Ching, I decided instead to go off and write my own poems from scratch in the spirit of Rumi and Tagore.
And so that's what I did, and I wrote some really great poems and shared them with my poetry group. I even wrote some songs too.
That was all some years ago, and unfortunately I didn't bother to print things out nicely and put them into a nice neat binder. Instead I just left them on my hard drive and that computer got a virus and crashed, and I lost all of it.
But I still have the memories of the experience and it was a very enjoyable period in my life.
~~~~
By the way, in answer to your specific question:
There was no "best" version of the Tao Te Ching IMHO.
There were some I liked better than others, but more often I liked parts of some and parts of others. I never really found one particular version that really stood out as being exceptional in any dramatic way.
[center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
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PaxRomana
Post #3
[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]
Found some echoes of my own experiences in there Divine Insight. Thanks for the thoughtful response!
Found some echoes of my own experiences in there Divine Insight. Thanks for the thoughtful response!
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PaxRomana
Re: Tao Te Ching Translations
Post #5[Replying to post 4 by Wootah]
I'm not sure of an exact number of early copies, but there are three families of texts that I'm aware of:
1-Wangpi
2-Mawangtui
3-Kuotien/Guodian
The third family being the earliest (dating to around 200-300 BCE)
I'm not sure of an exact number of early copies, but there are three families of texts that I'm aware of:
1-Wangpi
2-Mawangtui
3-Kuotien/Guodian
The third family being the earliest (dating to around 200-300 BCE)
