Tao

Ron Hogan's paraphrase of the Tao Te Ching captures the spirit of the Chinese classic as pragmatic advice in a modern American vernacular. For the most part, the poetry is stripped away, which makes the wisdom and its applicability to our lives very clear. Thus, the more traditional translation of the beginning from Stephen Mitchell's famous edition:

"The Tao that can be named
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name."

becomes the earthy, Tarantino-esque

"If you can talk about it, it ain't Tao.
If it has a name, it's just another thing."

This version of the Tao is available under a Creative Commons license in several formats, including plain text, Palm format, or PDF suitable for printing and binding.
[via boing boing]

Comments

[Richard]

I've always thought that the initial translations were overly complicated.
This is an interesting read.