Jeff Pepper Posted February 6, 2018 Hi everyone, this is my welcome message. I'm Jeff Pepper, a writer and publisher living in Pittsburgh PA. My publishing company is Imagin8 Press (www.imagin8press.com), and the only thing we do, at least for now, is publish Chinese-language books for English speaking readers. We've published a 6-book series based on Journey to the West, plus a standalone children's book. My focus for this year is to create a new translation of the Dao De Jing. Our goal is to express its wisdom in simple clear (non-scholarly) English, and to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so that readers can see how the original Chinese was translated into English. My co-author Xiao Hui Wang and I are wrestling every day with coming up with accurate and reader-friendly translations of the DDJ's verses. I'm hoping to share some of our translation challenges with you all, and would appreciate any insights you can provide! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted February 7, 2018 Hello, Jeff Pepper and welcome. Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go. Please take the time to read the post pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum Terms and Rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started. For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day. Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you, Marblehead and the TDB team Hi Jeff, Nice to have you here. Sounds like a challenging project with the DDJ. There are a few of us here who will be very interested in the project. You are welcome to jump right in ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forms to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started. May you enjoy your time here. Marblehead 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Limahong Posted February 7, 2018 5 hours ago, Jeff Pepper said: Our goal is to express its wisdom in simple clear (non-scholarly) English, and to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so that readers can see how the original Chinese was translated into English. Breadcrumbs - interesting trail. Good luck. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spotless Posted February 8, 2018 Tell us more about yourself and your partner - this is quite an undertaking and we all wish you the very best in this endeavor. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeff Pepper Posted February 16, 2018 (edited) Thanks for the kind words of welcome! So, here's some more background on the project. The book's working title and subtitle are "Dao De Jing in Clear English, Including A Step-By-Step Translation". Obviously there's no shortage of DDJ translations already, but I think there are a couple of things we can accomplish by doing yet another one. First, I want to create an easy to read, easy to understand translation for general, non-scholarly, readers, one which is clear, concise, accurate, written in straightforward contemporary English, and which matches as much as possible the rhythms of the original Chinese. IMHO, there are too many translations where extraneous stuff is inserted by the translator, serving only to obscure the meaning. We're taking a minimal approach, trying really hard not to insert anything that's not already there. Second, I thought it would be fun and useful to give readers a way to peek behind the curtain and see for themselves how the original Chinese is converted to English, so they can understand some of the deeper/multiple meanings of the text, and also see why translations can turn out so incredibly different. Here's how we're doing it: for each chapter, we first show our translation. Then on the following 2 or 3 pages we show each line of the original text (using Bruce Linnell's consensus version as the original), then the pinyin so the reader can "sound it out", then a literal word-for-word translation, then any notes that might be needed to explain how we got from that to the final version. It sounds complicated, but it seems to be working very well so far. We're about 2/3 finished with the first draft. Then we have lots of review, cleanup and layout work, plus at least one round of scholarly review. Hope to have something published by late spring! Edited February 16, 2018 by Jeff Pepper 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
