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Summary: A Finger Pointing to The Moon...
Review: I would never be able to tell you if this translation is accurate or not, as Chinese is not one of my known languages...however, I have read several other translations and find this one mystical, poetic, with a touch of Zen, and I find myself turning to it often, finding new meanings in this little book...
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Summary: I haven't read them all...
Review: but I've read quite a few translations of the Tao Te Ching. Stephen Mitchell's is quite simply the best. No flowery prose. no added interpretations. Just the message--beautiful in its simplicity. And isn't that just what the translator should strive for in translating this particular text? Save yourself the time and get this one.
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Summary: The original secular bible of human self-awareness.
Review: The most powerful book I have ever read or reread. I am a teacher and a student of literature, and this book stands alone in my esteem. So ubiquitous is its meaning, that many read right past it, never seeing more than a collection of enigmatic verses. For those who do realize what it is, its verses open rareified doors in the mind and spirit. This 2000 year-old text is perhaps the original secular bible for humanity.
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Summary: Fingers pointing at the moon
Review: I don't think Lao Tzu intended his words to be taken as a Bible of rigid truths; a list of canons describing "The Way." Taoism transcends all words, that's the point! These words are indeed "Fingers pointing at the moon; if you watch the finger, you can't see the moon!" Give the author the latitude to express the feelings of Tao, even if the entire word-for-word translation is not given. I would like to believe the Old Master would be delighted by this translation!
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Summary: accessible to better people like me
Review: This is the best translation of the Tao Te Ching I've ever read, and I've seen thousands. All the other ones were too hard. The Chinese had different brains 2600 years ago from Americans today, which is why works like this one need to be modernized by brilliant poets like Mitchell. After all, the Chinese were and are ethnocentric, cruel, and anti-feminist, and enlightened readers like me shouldn't have to slog through that stuff. My one problem is that Chapter 34 promotes torture with blowtorches. Yes, believe it or not, it does! If you disagree, well, that's my interpretation of it, okay? Can't we all just get along? For the few stuck-in-the-mud weirdos who insist on accuracy, remember: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao," unless Mitchell wrote it, in which case it's inviolate. Duh. That doesn't really mean anything, I admit, but it sounds good, and it's an irritating defense. Also remember: The Tao is what you make of it. Neener neener. Next up I'd like to see Mitchell translate Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_. That book is WAY too hard to understand, just like the Tao Te Ching, so it needs to be updated for modern, non-German minds. Hopefully it'll end up telling me things I already know, so I don't have to think too hard. It's the wave of the future, man.
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Summary: Mitchell makes the essence available to contemporary eyes
Review: Reading this, as other Mitchell works, I am delighted and grateful that this ageless wisdom is communicated with penetrating intelligence, reverence, humor and, above all, love. This Tao Te Ching is a marvellous and endless feast, wholly edible and enlightening. Thank you.
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Summary: Best I've read for many reasons
Review: I've read many versions of the Tao. I like this one best for these reasons: It is alive. Many others are dry and dull. It is egalitarian, which I believe is the intent of the Tao. It is up to date and accessible by "modern" thinkers. The footnotes increase my understanding. Granted, other translators may be more true to the source, but Mitchell takes into account that this is 2500 year old material, and addresses how it can best be understood TODAY. May you always be at one with the way.
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Summary: mitchell delivers the sense elegantly and accessibly
Review: To me this is the definitive translation of one of the best books ever written (and I have read dozens of versions). Stephen has translated not just the written word but the sense and meaning behind them. While it may seem modernized in some places, this is only right if these ideas are to be communicated effectively to modern minds. Lao Tzu would surely have used different language if he were alive today! Mitchell, I believe, has rendered what Lao Tzu (presumably) said in the most concise, straightforward, and aesthetic manner I have yet seen.
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Summary: One of many, not the best.
Review: I love to read through all of the various interpretations of the Tao Te Ching. This is pretty much a modern version, which I find a little discomforting, yet it simply makes me want to read other, more literal interpretations even more. I suggest buying this book if you want the Tao Te Ching in your back pocket. Otherwise, you might want to look around. As for those who rant and rave about this interpretation, I say; "Yielding is the way of the Tao." But thanks for being angry that I might be peaceful.
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Summary: Deadly dull.
Review: Like most writers, Stephen Mitchell has no talent for reading aloud. His voice sounds like a seminary student trying to read a difficult passage of the Bible for the first time. There is no feeling, no mood, no expression. This is not meditative, it's lifeless.
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