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Rating: 
Summary: The Tao Te Ching Re-born
Review: Here is the classic of Chinese thought, the Tao Te Ching,containing among the oldest Chinese known, beautifully rendered into modern English. Having read numerous translations of this ancient work (lacking time to learn Chinese!), I had found them all to be difficult or ambiguous in some sections. Not so in this breath-taking work by an American, with the assistence of a noted Chinese Taoist scholar. In my opinion, this straight forward attempt to re-create the original thought and poetry inherant in the original is not only a success, but a poetic masterpiece in its own right.
Rating:
Summary: This translation will change your life for the better.
Review: I found this book (or it found me) at the right time a hundred years ago and reading it has made all the difference in the world -- my life wouldn't have been a fraction of what it has been if I had not opened this translation one morning many years ago.
"From wonder into wonder
Existence opens."
Rating: 
Summary: Not my favorite version
Review: I own about a half-dozen versions of the Tao Te Ching, ranging from the scholarly to the poetic, and Bynner's version strikes me as head and shoulders above the rest. "He who knows does not say, and he who says does not know." Bynner avoids the lecture trap and captures the spirit of the original in a gentle way that speaks subtly to the reader and lingers in the heart.
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Summary: occasionaly clumsy verse
Review: If I had only one book to read and re-read, this would be it. Far and away my favorite translation of the book that is part of my blood and bone. I've memorized much of it, and have read it aloud onto CD as a gift for my friends. A treasure. "Let life ripen and then fall. Force is not the way at all."
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Summary: The version most faithful to the original's spirit.
Review: This version of the Tao Te Ching is the most poetic and fun to read of any in English. Bynner tries to achieve the same effect in English as the Chinese verses have for Chinese speakers. You find yourself remembering lines and entire verses easily and permanently. This version gets into you and speaks to Western sensibilities.
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Summary: Best for Daily Use
Review: While perhaps not the most scholarly accurate translation, this is far and away (IMHO) the best for daily reading and meditation. Bynner's foreward notes that the Chinese sparkles with rhythm and rhyme -- not a surprise, since most people could not read at the time and had to remember things verbatim. Language has power because of rhyme and rhythm as well as the meaning of the words, and thus Bynner's translation is the best one to have in your pocket at the beach, sitting on the porch with a beer or glass of wine, or reading to (or with) someone you love. I have spent 30 years repeating "Let life ripen and then fall, force is not the way at all, deny the way of life and you are dead." I have and sometimes read other versions (Chinese cannot really be translated to English), but this is the one I read for pleasure.
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