Tao Te Ching

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With great poetry, the freest translation is sometimes the most faithful. “We must try its effect as an English poem,” Dr. Johnson said; “that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation.” I have often been fairly literal — or as literal as one can be with such a subtle, kaleidoscopic book as the Tao Te Ching. But I have also paraphrased, expanded, contracted, interpreted, worked with the text, played with it, until it became embodied in a language that felt genuine to me. If I haven’t always translated Lao-tzu’s words, my intention has always been to translate his mind. Mendelsohn, Daniel (October 8, 2013). "What Do You Look for in Modern Translation?". The New York Times. In this space I just want to focus on what Ursula K. Le Guin brings to the table and what exactly makes her rendition of the classic, unique from the plethora of other translations and renditions that are available. Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings: Three Tales from the Arabian Nights (illustrated by Tom Pohrt), Walker & Co., 2007, ISBN 0-8027-9639-7 Putting down his knife, Ting said, “I follow the Tao, Your Highness, which goes beyond all skills. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox. After three years, I had learned to look beyond the ox. Nowadays I see with my whole being, not with my eyes. I sense the natural lines, and my knife slides through by itself, never touching a joint, much less a bone.

Stephen Mitchell’s Version of the Tao Te Ching: A Spiritual

Really enjoyed Mitchell's translations (notably his Tao Te Ching and Bhagavad Gita) and this second book of the Tao is absolutely no different. It contains a lot of timeless advice on living and really complements my buddhist research.

The student was silent. Soen-sa said, “What color is this?” The student said, “You have eyes.” Soen-sa said, “Eyes? These are not eyes. They are holes in my face.” (Laughter.) “I ask you once again—what color is this door?” The student was silent. Soen-sa said, “It is brown.” “But if I'd said brown, you would've said I'm attached to color!” Soen-sa said, “Brown is only brown.” Then, pointing to a glass of water, “What is this?” “Water.” “Yah. Water is water. This is not thinking. When you said ‘water’—this mind. This mind is very important. It is a clear mirror. Red comes, the mirror is red. Yellow comes, the mirror is yellow. Water comes, there is water. A door comes, there is a door. If you are not thinking, your mind is the same as a mirror. It is only like this. So true emptiness is clear mind. In original clear mind there is no name and no form. Nothing appears or disappears. All things are just as they are. If you are thinking, you are in a dream. You must cut off all your thinking and wake up.”

The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell | Goodreads The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell | Goodreads

a b "It's Not All Greek to Him". The Wall Street Journal. September 20, 2011. Archived from the original on October 25, 2013 . Retrieved October 22, 2013.How could they forget their beginning? That’s where they were constantly centered, in the moment before a thought. They had returned to the primordial: mind hovering over its own abyss, objectless, serene. No wonder their nights were dreamless and their skies full of stars. Gratitude makes no distinctions. It precedes its occasion. It is the magic well that never runs dry, the still waters where you kneel and see your own face, more beautiful than you could have imagined. I have delved deeper into the ‘Tao Te Ching’ in my review of the more scholarly translation by D.C.Lau which you can find HERE. Gross, John (September 25, 1987). "Books of The Times: The Book of Job". The New York Times . Retrieved 2013-10-23. As to method: I worked from Paul Carus’s literal version, which provides English equivalents (often very quaint ones) alongside each of the Chinese ideograms. I also consulted dozens of translations into English, German, and French. But the most essential preparation for my work was a fourteen-years-long course of Zen training, which brought me face to face with Lao-tzu and his true disciples and heirs, the early Chinese Zen Masters. Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue this long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are able to continue and endure."

Tao Te Ching - TEOTS

From the book description: Drawing on meticulous study of multiple sources, this fresh but authoritative reading of Lao Tsu's timeless classic combines the poetry of the Tao Te Ching with a wealth of additional material: an introduction to the enigmatic Lao Tsu and his times; a discussion of the many challenges facing the translator; 81 illustrative Chinese characters/phrases, selected to highlight key themes in each chapter; separate commentary and inspirational quotes, as well as room for you to record your own impressions, section by section. Read more With all due apology to Stephen Mitchell, who's translation was the basis for this, and, of course, Lao Tzu.One of the qualities I most treasure in Chuang-tzu is his sense of the spontaneous, the uncapturable. This makes it easy to follow in his footsteps. Since there are no footsteps, all you can follow is what he himself followed: the Tao. He had confidence that in being true to his own insight he was being true to his teacher Lao-tzu. There was nothing to say and no way to say it, yet it had to be said. As a Zen poet-descendant of his wrote more than a thousand years later, Thus the Tao cannot be expressed, it has no name, it is indivisible, inaudible and immutable but also the origin of multiplicity that gives way to ambivalent interpretation, which in turn engenders the befuddling suspicion that the more one wants to unravel the Tao the less one masters it because its aim relays precisely in attaining unforced wisdom. The Tao Te Ching is not just a book about a way for the individual to live in sync with the Tao. Lao Tzu also likes to comment on the dangers of wealth and living beyond ones most basic needs, as well as expressing his opinions on governance and anti-violence sentiments. Lao Tzu was an anti-capitalist and anarchist before these things even existed. The book is split in half; the left side is the translated version of the Tao Te Ching while the right side is the author's commentary.

The Second Book of the Tao – Stephen Mitchell The Second Book of the Tao – Stephen Mitchell

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, Random House, 1983, ISBN 0-679-73245-4 Tao Te Ching (pronounced, more or less, Dow Deh Jing) can be translated as The Book of the Immanence of the Way or The Book of the Way and of How It Manifests Itself in the World or, simply, The Book of the Way. Since it is already well known by its Chinese title, I have let that stand.I thoroughly enjoyed this rendition of the Tao Te Ching and am pleased I started my Ursula K. Le Guin journey here. She reveals in the ‘Sources’ section that the title for her 1971 Science Fiction novel, ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ came from an incorrect translation of a passage from the Chuang Tzu(Another essential Taoist text) by James Legge. Joseph Needham, the great scholar of Chinese Science and Technology would later explain to her that when the Chuang Tzu was written, the lathe hadn’t been invented. I’m very curious to read ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ to see how much of an influence Le Guin’s lifelong study of Taoism had on the work. The book's message is simple, the prose spare with plenty of natural imagery. The wisdom (the Tao) of the book is feminine, yin in balance with the yang (while in Confucianism the yang seems sometimes bit heavily-leaned on). If I had a dollar for every 30-something pommy hipster I’ve seen on YouTube, repeating Lau Tzu’s 1st chapter with a self-satisfied smirk… I'm an unbeliever and have been since the first time I played hooky from Sunday services and the Eye in the Sky didn’t say boo. So it may seem strange that I’m reviewing the Tao Te Ching, the widely known and influential Taoist text, written by Lao-Tzu and poetically translated in this edition by Stephen Mitchell. For me, the Tao Te Ching is more folk wisdom than religious treatise and is more useful than a million sermons. This is a fun, gender-pronoun-flopping version of several Daoist(Taoist) classic poems and stories attributed to the sage Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) and to Confucius' grandson, Tzu-ssu.