Difficult and Easy – Chapter LXIII
道 德 經 Dao De Jing – The Way and Its Power
第 六 十 三 Section De – Chapter LXIII
為無為，事無事，味無味
为 wéi act as; take…to be; to be; to do; to serve as; to become
为 wèi because of; for; to
事 shì matter; thing; item; work; affair
味 wèi taste
无 wú -less; not to have; no; none; not; to lack; un-
| Translation | Year | 为无为事无事味无味 |
| Frederic Henry Balfour | 1884 | [The Sage] acts as though not acting. He occupies himself as though having nothing to do. He relishes that which is insipid—the TAO |
| James Legge | 1891 | (It is the way of the Tao) to act without (thinking of) acting. To conduct affairs without (feeling the) trouble of them. To taste without discerning any flavor |
| Aleister Crowley | 1918 | Act without lust of result. Work without anxiety. Taste without attachment to flavor |
| Dwight Goddard | 1919 | A man’s first duty is to practice wu-wei. And make use of his quiet hours to gain enlightenment. One should early learn to find sweetness in tasteless things |
| Arthur Waley | 1934 | It acts without action. Does without doing. Finds flavor in what is flavorless |
| Wing-tsit Chan | 1939 | Do that which consists in taking no action. Pursue that which is not meddlesome. Savor that which has no flavor |
| Lin Yutang | 1948 | Accomplish do-nothing. Attend to no-affairs. Taste the flavorless |
| Raymond B. Blakney | 1955 | Act in repose. Be at rest when you work. Relish unflavored things |
| D. C. Lau | 1964 | Do that which consists in taking no action. Pursue that which is not meddlesome. Savor that which has no flavor |
| Tolbert McCarroll | 1982 | Act without striving. Work without interfering. Find the flavor in what is flavorless |
| Stan Rosenthal | 1984 | Act without contriving. Work naturally. And taste the tasteless |
| Gia-Fu Feng | 1989 | Practice non-action. Work without doing. Taste the tasteless |
| John C.H.Wu | 1990 | Do the Non-Ado. Strive for the effortless. Savor the savourless |
| Peter Merel | 1992 | Practice no-action. Attend to do-nothing. Taste the flavorless |
| Stephen Mitchell | 1992 | Act without doing. Work without effort |
| John H. McDonald | 1996 | Act by not acting. Do by not doing. Enjoy the plain and simple |
| Tormond Byrn | 1997 | Succeed in the magician’s wu-wei. Accomplish seemingly do-nothing |
| David Hinton | 2002 | If you’re nothing doing what you do. You act without acting. And savor without savoring |
| Chao Hansen | 2004 | Treat lacking deem-action as ‘deem-acting’. Treat having no social affair as ’social affair’. Treat the absence of flavor as ‘flavor’ |
| Red Pine | 2009 | Act without acting. Work without working. Understand without understanding |
| C.Ganson | n/a | Achieve serenity. Work passively. Taste the flavorless |
February 2nd, 2010 at 03:42
Hi Sylvia – the comparative translations are superb – has anyone done a compendium of the entire Dao De Jing with the comparative translations? If not, then well worth doing!
February 2nd, 2010 at 06:36
Wow, this is really fascinating…
The following capture the essence for me:
Crowley
Blackney
Lau
Feng
Pine
This really illustrates a few things:
– the subtle nature of the dao
– the difficulty of translation
– the activeness of la flaneurse’s mind
Bravo !!!!
February 2nd, 2010 at 15:55
Thanks for visiting Brendan.
The problem is that our ancestors did not have a good back-up system, so there are three ‘principle’ ancient Chinese versions plus ever older versions dated back to 2nd century BCE coming out from new excavations… I had difficulty to reach an agreement with my father on interpretation in modern Chinese on almost every other chapter.
Then there are the limitations of cross culture translation itself. Is the philosophy to be as faithful as possible when rendering the original meaning? Or should an individual interpretation although less scholarly as better way to convey the perspective? Stephen Mitchell’s, for instance, was criticized for deviating from the text and incompatible with the history of Chinese thought. Are lucidity and humor disrespectful, or even as some argue, based on Western Orientalist fantasies? Or for sacred texts at the Tao Te Ching, it is good enough if meets the need of spiritually of the targeted audience?
The book has been translated more than 250 times into other languages, at least 120 in English and almost every year there are new interpretations, our Red Pine version was published just several months ago. As a young student with little talent and less learning, I am in awe of all their words…
Many studies have been conducted on comparison of different translations, no conclusion yet, and maybe will never be.