Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
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Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#2There's a very interesting book related to this called "Christ the Eternal Tao" by Hieromonk Damascene that looks at the Tao Te Ching from the perspective of Orthodox Christianity.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#3Is this in the public domain?
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#4My personal preference in TTC translation is by Gia Fu Feng and Jane English.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#5I love Le Guin's writing in general, and her version of the Tao Te Ching, but it's very misleading to call it a "translation". There's even an endnote saying as much:
> This is a rendition, not a translation. I do not know any Chinese. I could approach the text at all only because Paul Carus, in his 1898 translation of the Tao Te Ching, printed the Chinese text with each character followed by a transliteration and a translation. My gratitude to him is unending.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#6A relevant quote from Harold Bloom (from the introduction to Le Guin’s Collected Poems):
> Le Guin in her version certainly captures the terseness and the aesthetic sensibility of the Tao. Scholars tell me that her work is disputable, but I see nothing to dispute. Her total aspiration is meaning, and her transpositions, as she calls her versions of the text, strengthen meaning.
How true this all is, I really don’t know. Le Guin herself admits that, for the first chapter at least, ‘A satisfactory translation […] is, I believe, perfectly impossible’. I personally like the aesthetics of her version, at least.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#7I love Le Guin's writing in general, and her version of the Tao Te Ching, but it's very misleading to call it a "translation". There's even an endnote saying as much: > This is a rendition, not a translation. I do not know any Chinese. I could approach the text at all only because Paul Carus, in his 1898 translation of the Tao Te Ching, printed the Chinese text with each character followed by a transliteration and a…
Yes this is similar to the popular Stephen Mitchell "translation" in that neither spoke the original language.
That being said, I'm glad both of them exist. They are interesting and feel much different to me than the literal translations.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#8I have a feeling people who love Le Guin love the idea of her and didn't actually read her books.
Her style is impersonal, robotic and kind of boring.
Look at her most famous quotes for a snippet:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/874602.Ursula_K_Le_G...
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#9I have a feeling people who love Le Guin love the idea of her and didn't actually read her books. Her style is impersonal, robotic and kind of boring. Look at her most famous quotes for a snippet: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/874602.Ursula_K_Le_G...
so is KSR's but I still love the worldbuilding and what-if exploration of the scifi.
Re: Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997)
#10I have a feeling people who love Le Guin love the idea of her and didn't actually read her books. Her style is impersonal, robotic and kind of boring. Look at her most famous quotes for a snippet: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/874602.Ursula_K_Le_G...
I strongly disagree. Her essays (?!) and short story might be a good place to demonstrate the breath and width of her style.
The one exeption to this, for my taste, might be Earthsea, parts of it definitely fell short of its reputation as far as I am concerned.