TTC translations

[GrandTrinity]

What TTC translations do yall like?

I like the Wu translation, English and Feng is good, Mitchell is easy to understand, I just found this version which is nice:

http://www.wudangdao.com/TAOISM/taoism.htm

 

"70

 

My teachings are easy to understand

 

and easy to put into practice.

 

Yet your intellect will never grasp them,

 

and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.

 

My teachings are older than the world.

 

How can you grasp their meaning?

 

If you want to know me,

 

look inside your heart. "

 

 

Also I just ordered the Jon Star book on the TTC:

 

This unique edition of the Tao Te Ching features:

 

* the first comprehensive verbatim translation of the entire text of the Tao Te Ching;

* literal character definitions that allow the reader to create his or her own interpretation;

* a concordance section that enables the reader to track the different ways a single character is used throughout the work;

* grammatical and interpretive notes on individual terms and verses; * a unique commentary on the first verse, which represents a complete spiritual teaching in itself; and

* a literary translation of the Tao Te Ching that can be read on its own or compared with the verbatim translation.

 

Amazon Link

 

Also, I used to have a bookmark to a site which has like 30 translations of the TTC on one website, for comparison. Anyone have that link?

Edited November 26, 2006 by GrandTrinity

[Taoist81]

The Definitive Edition by Star is great. You can use it with your other translations on any chapter you would like more clarity on. Taking the other translators understanding with the literal meanings helps a great deal. I used to have a downloadable version of the 13 or so different translations but can no longer find it anywhere.

[GrandTrinity]

13? there is a like a mill translations.

 

Second most translated book int he world, after the bible.

[Taoist81]

Sorry, that should have read "of 13 or so translations" not "THE 13 or so translations". Yes, there are many, but the program had only some of them. It was probably taken out for copyright reasons. There were some interesting "translations" included like Crowley's "translation". If you haven't come across it, he used multiple translations and adjusted it to fit his "revelation" of Thelema. Strange, but interesting.

[Eric23]

Not knowing anything about the pros or cons of the various translations I randomly picked Hua-Ching Ni. I wasn't all that thrilled with it mainly because it translated Tao as "the subtle reality of the universe that cannot be described" every single time. I recently picked up "A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts" by Robert Henricks. It has a couple of chapters explaining the history and process of the translation. It doesn't read that smoothly (like the Mitchell version I've read on the web) and it has a mystical quality to it (kind of like the King James version of the Bible). It's a fairly literal translation that sometimes doesn't work that good in everyday english, but it's growing on me. BTW, my daily practice is to pick out a chapter to read using a random number generating website.