Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
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Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#2Read this translation back in 8th grade (~2005?) and it blew my teenage mind. Have read a few more - perhaps it's sentimental, but none quite seem to do it for me like this version.
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#3What is the license on this translation?
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#4I've said this here before, but Ursula Le Guin's rendition is one of the best
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#5I remember reading Stephen Mitchell's version waaaay back in 1991, when I was still young and impressionable. There was one line that really blew me away in his translation, and I might be remembering it slightly incorrectly: "The Tao is older than God".
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#6What is the license on this translation?
[deleted]
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#7My personal favorite is Kerson and Rosemary Huang's translation, which includes some of the historical background for the hexagrams and is a very spare rendition that always seemed to me the closest in spirit to the original.
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#8I remember reading Stephen Mitchell's version waaaay back in 1991, when I was still young and impressionable. There was one line that really blew me away in his translation, and I might be remembering it slightly incorrectly: "The Tao is older than God".
https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html
4
The Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present. I don't know who gave birth to it. It is older than God.
My favorite, although my favorite depends on the season
9 Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#9I remember reading Stephen Mitchell's version waaaay back in 1991, when I was still young and impressionable. There was one line that really blew me away in his translation, and I might be remembering it slightly incorrectly: "The Tao is older than God".
It's not perfect, but Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Tao is wonderful. A wrong translation being perfect is the eternal Tao.
Re: Tao Te Ching – Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English Translation (1989)
#10I've said this here before, but Ursula Le Guin's rendition is one of the best
I started by reading Michael LaFargue version, and it is pretty good delivering a basic understanding of the text. I can understand acient Chinese text pretty well, and the original, somehow still feels different from all these translations, but I guess this does not matter that much to a taoist.