Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Shambhala (1998), Edition: New edition, 125 pages
Description
No other English translation of this greatest of the Chinese classics can match Ursula Le Guin's striking new version. Le Guin, best known for thought-provoking science fiction novels that have helped to transform the genre, has studied the Tao Te Ching for more than forty years. She has consulted the literal translations and worked with Chinese scholars to develop a version that lets the ancient text speak in a fresh way to modern people, while remaining faithful to the poetic beauty of the work. Avoiding scholarly interpretations and esoteric Taoist insights, she has revealed the Tao Te Ching 's immediate relevance and power, its depth and refreshing humor, in a way that shows better than ever before why it has been so much loved for more than 2,500 years. Included are Le Guin's own personal commentary and notes on the text. This new version is sure to be welcomed by the many readers of the Tao Te Ching as well as those coming to the text for the first time.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member selfnoise
Librarything apparently won't allow me to review each edition separately. Oh well. I keep the Waley edition for his notes and his bare, literal, somewhat political translation. The Feng-English has a good balance between poetics and literalism and generally comes in a nice edition with Jane
It's good to own multiple English translations, as the thing is basically untranslatable in any perfect fashion.
As for the Tao Te Ching itself... I've read many philosophical and religious texts, and this is the one that speaks to me the most. Simple, humble, strikingly conservative yet almost revolutionary in this day and age. I go back to it as often as I can.
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English's photographs. The Le Guin edition has the most beautiful English poetry I've seen in a translation and she has an interesting take on the text. Her notes are also funny, humble, and helpful.It's good to own multiple English translations, as the thing is basically untranslatable in any perfect fashion.
As for the Tao Te Ching itself... I've read many philosophical and religious texts, and this is the one that speaks to me the most. Simple, humble, strikingly conservative yet almost revolutionary in this day and age. I go back to it as often as I can.
Show Less
LibraryThing member slothman
In the introduction, Le Guin explains that the Tao Te Ching has been an influential book throughout her life, and that over the years she has made efforts at producing her own rendition of the classic. (She won’t call it a translation, since she doesn’t actually speak Chinese, but she has done
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extensive research— she provides copious notes on how she chose particular renderings in the back of the book— and produced this in collaboration with a scholar of the language.) Her goal has been to distill the clarity of the classic for a modern reader who is more likely one citizen among millions rather than a leader seeking sagacious insights for rulership. The result is quite good, with a penetrating brevity I haven’t seen in the other translations I’ve read. I actually wound up reading it with another translation to hand when I wanted to get another perspective on the occasional verse, but I think the simplicity of her rendering is a good place to start before going out looking for more nuance. Show Less
LibraryThing member poetontheone
A timeless treasure trove of ancient wisdom. Le Guin's version is fluid, digestible, and enjoyable - adding a pleasant accessibility while still remaining faithful to the text.
LibraryThing member michael_cowles
A beautiful interpretation of the Tao Te Ching. She is always able to lend a gentle feeling of hope to her work. Less mystery and more nature in this version.
LibraryThing member heidilove
The annotation makes this a true gem.
LibraryThing member CatHellisen
It's taken me a while. Definitely one to reread and reread, and applicable to aikido.
Thanks to the bibliography, I've a couple of other versions/translations to look through.
Thanks to the bibliography, I've a couple of other versions/translations to look through.
LibraryThing member clifforddham
One of the finest, truest spiritual texts, and one of the best renderings of this classic Chinese work into English. Living through letting go. Both direct and poetic, with additional notes from Le Guin.
LibraryThing member gabarito
I've read 3 translations and this one is by far my favorite.
LibraryThing member mykl-s
This is probably the third version of the Tao Te Ching I've owned, each one more poetic and less a literal translation than the last. It presents a view on the world that at gut level makes more sense to me than any other I have come across. It is as difficult and seemingly self-contradictory as
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any religious book I know of, using aphorism instead of argument, but is more grounded to my way of thinking. Not that I understand it in any real sense, but I do like it. Show Less
LibraryThing member kcshankd
Went down a rabbit hole with reading differing translations of 78, Ursula renders it:
Nothing in the world
is as soft, as weak, as water;
nothing else can wear away
the hard, the strong,
and remain unaltered.
Soft overcomes hard,
weak overcomes strong.
Everybody knows it, nobody uses the knowledge.
Maybe
Nothing in the world
is as soft, as weak, as water;
nothing else can wear away
the hard, the strong,
and remain unaltered.
Soft overcomes hard,
weak overcomes strong.
Everybody knows it, nobody uses the knowledge.
Maybe
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...nobody uses the time... Of course, water hurries too. Show Less
Language
Original language
Chinese
Original publication date
400 BCE
Physical description
125 p.; 5.4 inches
ISBN
1570623953 / 9781570623950