The Tao Te Ching

[SHRED]

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Any suggestions on a good translation to get?

Thanks

[Qanisqineq]

1. I would like to hear answers to this, too

I recently ordered: Tao Te Ching: A New English Version by Lao Tzu (Author), Stephen Mitchell (Translator).
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226294410&sr=8-1

I haven't received it yet but would like to know others' opinions on different translations.

[Viva_Daddy]

3. Mitchell's a great translation. Add this to your reading list

Also add "A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are" by Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell. It's a kind of "commentary" on the Tao-Te-Ching from an "experiential" POV from the wonderful lady who wrote "Loving What IS".

[Qanisqineq]

4. Thanks for the suggestion

I can't wait to get the book by Mitchell that I ordered and read that one. It was lost in the mail and is being re-shipped. Just my luck!

I was reading the editorial reviews of "A Thousand Names for Joy" on Amazon.com and read that Byron Katie went through depression. I've suffered from depression for about 15 years, maybe I'll look into her other books, too.

[conscious evolution]

2. As many as possible

I find that sometimes one version will speek to me and sometimes another version of the same passage will say something,also.
Hope that makes sense.

[Brewman_Jax]

5. Richard Wilhelm translation

Richard Wilhelm was the son of German missionairies to China and he grew up there in the 1920's. Being fluent in Chinese and other languages, Wilhelm has an advantage that most translations don't have.

[Oak2004]

6. As someone who has translated the Tao Teh Ching myself (not published),

I agree "as many as possible". There isn't "one" Tao Teh Ching in Chinese, just for starters, and like good poetic writing in general, but classical Chinese especially, there are multiple equally correct ways to translate the language. In fact there are some lines in the original text that I could have translated, equally validly, with any of several apparently quite different English sentences.

But if I were forced to pick just one translation that I thought best captured both the denotative original language, the poetry of the original, and the richness of meaning in English, I'd recommend the one by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. Granted I have not read the Mitchell translation, and if I did it might well be my new favorite.

You may want to do a search as well-- many translations are in the public domain or the authors have allowed them to be published online.

Of course if you want to be insane about it you can always learn to read classical Chinese and translate your own. You get to see all the nuance and poetry and the occasional humorous wordplay for yourself, assuming you want to devote a few years of your life to reading just one short little book, to the bafflement of those around you ;)