Lao Tzu

[randy_byers]

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

-- Lao Tzu (trans. S. Mitchell)

When I find myself in times of trouble, Taoist masters come to me. A few years ago I read several translations of Chuang Tzu. Now I'm starting to look at Lao Tzu more closely. One thing that immediately becomes apparent is that the Chinese text is a kind of Rorschach test for English translators. The sense of it varies vastly from one translation to another, and every translator projects their own preoccupations. There are also a huge number of English translations of Lao Tzu. Does anybody have any favorites? I've got one by Moss Roberts that includes commentary on the Chinese words, which I think is the kind of thing I'm looking for at the moment. I want to get a sense of the problems/ambiguities the translator is wrestling with. Some interesting comments on various translations here.

Comments

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oops! Yup, Tao te, rather than I. Not that I'm qualified to comment on the latter, either.

But yes, Chinese (& also Japanese) Literature tends to be packed with puns, ambiguities, and allusive references (with the latter being particularly difficult -- or impossible -- to appreciate unless you're steeped in The Classic Literature and almost subconsciously recognize that some particular phrase implies other aspects of the work (poem, usually) with which cultured people associate it. For me, poring over a word-by-word Commentary would be necessary for anything approaching real understanding & appreciation.