"The rather special nature of this book calls for some explanation. The texts from Chuang Tzu assembled here are the result of five years of reading, study, annotation, and meditation. The notes have in time acquired a shape of their own and have become, as it were, 'imitations' of Chuang Tzu, or rather, free interpretative readings of characteristic passages which appeal especially to me. The 'readings' of my own grew out of a comparison of four of the best translations of Chuang Tzu into western languages, two English, one French and one German. In reading these translations I found very notable differences, and soon realized that all who have translated Chuang Tzu have had to do a great deal of guessing....Since I know only a few Chinese characters, I obviously am not a translator. These 'readings' are then not attempts at faithful reproduction but ventures in personal and spiritual interpretation."
The Way of Chuang Tzu,
Thomas Merton
I am struck by this passage because it almost perfectly describes my own work with the Tao Te Ching. I would call my version of it a personal paraphrase. My own method owed its origins to Howard Rheingold who wrote in The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog
"Translating Chinese verse is an art that by its nature leaves room for many different interpretations. Something emerges from between the lines when you read different translations of the same simple verses, something that no single translation captures."
Rheingold also first put me onto Jonathan Starr's character by character parsing of Lao Tzu that eventually formed the core of my engagement with the text.
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