Tao Te Ching: A New Translation Book

Part
poetry, part paradox, always stirring and profound, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching has been inspiring readers
since it was written over two thousand years ago. This masterpiece is also one
of the most frequently translated books in all of history, in part because the
multiple meanings of the Chinese characters make it impossible to translate
into a Western language in a strictly literal way. For this reason, many
translations are either too loosely interpretive or are too overloaded with
notes, thereby losing the clarity of the terse poetry found in the original
Chinese.

The extraordinary strength of Sam
Hamill's translation is that it has captured the poetry of Lao Tzu's original
without sacrificing the resonance of the text's many meanings and possible
interpretations. The result is a beautiful and deeply meditative rendering, one
that is a delight to read over and over again.

Accompanying Sam Hamill's
translation are seventeen Chinese characters brushed by one of the great
masters of calligraphy, Kazuaki Tanahashi. Hamill provides a comment for each
character, giving the reader a fuller sense of the richness of the original
text and insight into the process of translation itself.