Williams Publishes Book of Poems Interpreting Lao Zi's Dao De Jing

[Sparhawk]

Williams is the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies at Hamilton and has been teaching about Chinese thought for 40 years. He has extensively applied his philosophical understanding to the thought of both west and East Asia, having published articles on the I Ching, The Confucian Analects, the Tao Teh Ching, and the Lotus Sutra.

 

[bradford]

Good to see someone admitting it when they're not doing a translation.
So far the most inspired poetic interpretation is by Witter Bynner.
Most other loose interpretations stray pretty far from the meaning.
If someone posts a sample I could comment on how true it is to the
heart of the original.

 

[dobro p]

I used to buy Tao Te Chings the way some people collect something they love, and basically I was looking for a version that was as good as Witter Bynner's. I gave up after a few years.

Coleman Barks talks about translating Rumi, and what he says makes a lot of sense. You don't translate the words, you translate the meaning and the feel of it. That's way harder than mere linguistic translation.

 

[Sparhawk]

Coleman Barks talks about translating Rumi, and what he says makes a lot of sense. You don't translate the words, you translate the meaning and the feel of it. That's way harder than mere linguistic translation.

Amen! I was a freelance translator for many years and is an ungrateful and unappreciated profession. Most people think of translating as "transliterating," and that, I believe, is a huge mistake.

 

[soshin]

Thanks for the tip with Witter Bynner! Already ordered.

Soshin

 

[bradford]

Thanks for the tip with Witter Bynner! Already ordered. Soshin

You should know that you don't really need to buy most Laozi translations anymore.
Bynner is here, along with a hundred more, and in several languages:
http://home.pages.at/onkellotus/TTK/_IndexTTK.html

There are also links at my site where you can compare versions chapter by chapter or line by line

 

[sergio]

On translations and other related issues

Amen! I was a freelance translator for many years and is an ungrateful and unappreciated profession. Most people think of translating as "transliterating," and that, I believe, is a huge mistake.[/Q
UOTE]

Hola Luis! On the subject of translation there is an excellent book by Douglas Hofstadter
called "Le Tomb beau de Marot",highly recommende to everybody interested not only in the procees of translation but on creativity and originality.Among other things he argues that translation,although regarded as a byproduct of the original work,is also a
re-creation of an original work and it should be credited as much as the author is credited for.As an example he provides a short poem to different persons to translate and then compares the results.He also compares translations from many different translators of classical texts(the Divine Comedy for example)A fascinating book indeed
for all of us dealing with a book so sensible to the translator skills as the I Ching.
Sergio

 

[sergio]

The full tittle is 'LE TON BEAU DU MAROT-IN PRAISE OF THE MUSIC OF LANGUAGE"by
Douglas Hofstadter and,since you are there ,also check his excellent 'GODEL,ESCHER BACH-AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID" Imprecindibles.
Sergio