Tao Te Ching: Word For Word: Translation and Commentary

I first give a poetic rendering of the chapter. This is followed by a word-for-word, line-by-line translation of the Chinese. Chinese characters can have many related synonym-like meaning. I give the main ones so that a reader can piece together something closer to the original. Normal translations, even my nearly literal poetic one, invariably lose some degree of the ancient 'original intention' due to the modern cultural context we bring to our language's words… our 'education'.

This more literal approach also produces results not possible through approaches commonly used to translate this ancient text. These include an over concern for poetic beauty which sacrifices meaning (mostly through embellishment), and the over influence of humanist views which can skew meaning away from the ancient. Using this translation, along with one's favorite English translation and cross checking frequently with my Word for Word should presumably deepen one's understanding.

In the second half of the book, I give extensive commentary that relates each chapter to various aspects of life. To date, 2021, I’ve made three+ sets of commentaries on these 81 chapters. This book’s commentary section is a printout of my first set covering 2008 to 2011. To some extent, it represents a transition from D.C.Lau’s translation over to my more literal Word for Word translation. The more familiar you are with D.C.Lau’s translation, the easier a read it may be. Thus, to make sense of some of this first set, you may wish to read it online at times. Just pick the chapter you're reading, and scroll down to the bottom until you reach, First Pass: “Chapter of the Week”. The subsequent and more extensive sets (‘Passes’)  are commentary made solely on Word for Word. You’ll find all these sets at Centertao.org/essays/tao-te-ching/carl/.

Note: For just the word for word translation, see Tao Te Ching: Word for Word (Translation only) at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1481141813