道德经 translations

[li3wei1]

My dad is really getting into the 道德经 through English translations. He's asked me to find the most 'authentic' translation. I haven't studied much classical, so I don't have a clue. I've recommended the Gia-fu Feng/Jane English version (Vintage, 1972) that was my first (the beautiful bilingualness of which was a factor leading me into Chinese). I've also suggested to him that authenticity is not as important as what he gets out of it, so reading many different translations is probably a good approach. Anyway, I would appreciate any recommendations y'all have of English translations that are particularly good, or books explaining the work either in English or modern Mandarin.

 

[Bad Cao Cao]

Bradford Hatcher's "Laozi Daodejing, Word by Word".  http://www.hermetica.info/#LaoziSkipDown

 

Hatcher also gives an interesting "A" list of other translations in his bibliography:

 

-Patrick Michael Byrne's : Laozi : Daodejing

-Wing-Tsit Chan's : The Way of Lao Tzu

-JJL Duyvendak's : Tao Te Ching

-Guanghu He et al : The book of Lao Zi

-Robert Henricks's : Lao Tzu Te-Tao Ching

-Philip Ivenhoe's : The Daodejing of Laozi

-D.C Lau's : Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching

-Paul Lin's : A translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching

-Thomas Miles's : Tao Te Ching

-Charles Muller's : Tao Te Ching

-Red Pine : Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching

-Henry Wei's : The guiding light of Lao Tzu

-Yi Wu : The book of Lao Tzu

 

The Gia-fu Feng/Jane English version makes his "B" list .

[889]

I've always liked Legge's translation. I certainly don't know enough about Daoism to judge how true a translation it is, but it inarguably has literary style.

[朱真明]

This is my favourite.

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Ching-Art-Harmony-Philosophical/dp/1844838501/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458078958&sr=8-3&keywords=Chad+Hansen