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Re: NATLANG/TRANS/ETC: The Daode Jing (Tao Te Ching) of Laozi (Lao Tzu)

From:J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 4, 2004, 8:59
In a message dated 2004:05:03 08:22:52 PM, jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM writes:

>J Y S Czhang scripsit: > >> http://www.hku.hk/philodep/courses/EWEthics/ttc.htm > >I gotta say, I think this translation is absolutely detestable: it makes >"words easy to understand" into impenetrable and cacophonous jargon.
In a message dated 2004:05:03 08:48:26 PM, Kou (latinfrench@SAGESCHOOL.ORG) writes:
>I quite agree. I don't think it resonates on a literal translation >level, a slightly-more-liberal-but-more-artistically-friendly-English >translation level, or any combination thereof. And it certainly >doesn't capture the zing of the original. What the hell is >'deem-acting"?
In a message dated 2004:05:03 09:56:08 PM, jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM writes:
>So far my favorites are Le Guin, Feng & English, and Binner; the latter >two tend to swap places, but the Le Guin version has my heart.
Personally I like the multiple approaches that Jonathan Star uses * * _Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition_ by Lao Tzu, translation and commentary by Jonathan Star, 2001, Tarcher/Putnam, hardcover ISBN 1-58542-099-9 One of the approaches Star uses creates a _verbatim_ version of the original Chinese text: the closest translation that the English language can pull off and still be both semantically accurate (or reasonably approximate) and still be strikingly-&-oddly poetic/imagistic... "literal character definitions that allow the reader to create {their} own interpretation"... (BTW Star _cites_ both Bynner's and Le Guin's poetic translations as sources/inspirations as well as merely _mentioning_ Hansen's klunky Borg-style one for comparison purposes) "... It clarifies the the meaning of the text without in the slightest reducing its mystery...." - Jacob Needleman's review of Star's edition --- º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º º°`°º ø,¸~-> Hanuman "Mister Sinister" Zhang, Sloth-Style Gungfu Typist - "the sloth is a chinese poet upsidedown" --- Jack Kerouac {1922-69} <A HREF="http://www.boheme-magazine.net">=> boheme-magazine.net</A> "Poems are sketches for existence." - Paul Celan "One thing foreigners, computers, & poets have in common is that they make unexpected linguistic associations." --- Jasia Reichardt "There is no reason for the poet to be limited to words, & in fact the poet is most poetic when inventing languages. Hence the concept of the poet as 'language designer'." --- O. B. Hardison, Jr. "At some point in the next century the number of invented languages will probably overtake the number of surviving natural languages." - Cullen Murphy “Linguistics is our best tool for bringing about social change and SF is our best tool for testing such changes before they are implemented in the real world, therefore the conjunction of the two is desirable and should be useful.” — Suzette Haden Elgin 1996.

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Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>