THE TAO TEH CHING - THE CANON OF REASON AND VIRTUE BY PAUL CARUS (1913)

Maybe I was naive. I thought that all versions of the Tao Te Ching, no matter how they differed, would at least be worth reading.

Wake up call. This version is so bad that actually I couldn't force myself to finish it.

It's that bad.

First, the Tao Te Ching is not a work of actual rhyming-type poetry. The words have to be stretched terribly to make the work fit a poetic form, and this often results in the use of words that have little to do with the regular translations.

Some of the verses are also only partly poetic in nature. I don't know which is worse, actually. All bad poetry or bad poetry mixed with non-poetry.

Let's look at a few examples of the part I got myself through.

Verse 1

1. The Reason that can be reasoned is not the eternal Reason. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The Unnamable is of heaven and earth the beginning. The Namable becomes of the ten thousand things the mother Therefore it is said: 2. "He who desireless is found The spiritual of the world will sound But he who by desire is bound Sees the mere shell of things around." 3. These two things are the same in source but different in name. Their sameness is called a mystery. Indeed, it is the mystery of mysteries. Of all spirituality it is the door.

(So, instead of using Tao he uses the word Reason. He numbers the sentences which annoys me. By the way, the spelling is the way it is in the book; I've changed none of that. Line 1 is regular, Line is terrible rhyme. Line three goes back to normal prose. )

Verse 2

1. Everywhere it is obvious that if beauty makes a display of beauty, it is sheer ugliness. It is obvious that if goodness makes a display of goodness, it is sheer badness. For 2. "To be and not to be are mutually conditioned The difficult, the easy, are mutually definitioned The long, the short, are mutually exhibitioned Above, below, are mutually cognitioned The sound, the voice, are mutually coalitioned Before and after are mutually positioned." 3. Therefore The holy man abides by non-assertion in his affairs and conveys by silence his instruction. When the ten thousand things arise, verily, he refuses them not. He quickens but owns not. He acts but claims not. Merit he accomplishes, but he does not dwell on it "Since he does not dwell on it It will never leave him."

(Again, no changes in spelling. Definitioned?

VERSE 4 SOURCELESS

1. Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In its profundity, verily, it resembleth the arch-father of the ten thousand things

2. "It will blunt its own sharpness, Will its tangles adjust; It will dim its own radiance And be one with its dust."

3. Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose son it is. Apparently even the Lord it precedes.

(This one just plain sounds weird. The second sentence is sort of in poetry form, while the first and last aren't. 'Arch-father'? 'Resembleth'? The Lord? It almost seems as if he is trying to give a Biblical type of translation here.

Verse 12

1. "The five colors [combined] the human eye will blind; The five notes [in one sound] the human ear confound; The five tastes [when they blend] the human mouth offend."

2. "Racing and hunting will human hearts turn mad, Treasures high-prized make human conduct bad."

3. Therefore The holy man attends to the inner and not to the outer. He abandons the latter and chooses the former.

(Trying to force something into an unnatural poetic form rarely works. This verse would confound someone that had never read a Tao Te Ching book before. Again, two sentences are forced poetry, one is not. Guess he couldn't find a rhyme for 'outer.'

Verse 22

1. "The crooked shall be straight, Crushed ones recuperate, The empty find their fill The worn with strength shall thrill; Who little have receive, And who have much will grieve." 2. Therefore The holy man embraces unity and becomes for all the world a model Not self-displaying he enlightened; Not self -approving he is distinguished; Not self-asserting he acquires merit; Not self-seeking he gaineth life Since he does not quarrel, therefore no one in the world can quarrel with him 3. The saying of the ancients: "The crooked shall be straight," is it in any way vainly spoken? Verily, they will be straightened straightened and return home.

(This was done in paragraph form. Again it's a mix of bad poetry and prose.)

I read through the 45th verse and realized that I was wasting my time. This has to win an award for the worst translation of the Tao Te Ching that I have read so far, and I've read a bunch of them.)

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