At 02:08 AM 1/8/2008, eye wrote:
>Marsha:
>I have no intention of taking up Tai Chi or studying the Tai Chi
>Classics. As imperfect as I am, I am following the experiences that
>are before me and my own practice.
Greetings,
Sometimes it's great to be wrong. After reading Brian Walker's 'Hua
Hu Ching', I read his translation of 'The Tao Te Ching', and then
Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching'. I think these translations are
wonderful, and I can imagine rereading these wonderful books for many years.
From Stephen Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching', a section called 'A
Conversation with Stephen Mitchell':
" As I read and compared, I came across elements, common to all the
translations, that I know had to be wrong. For example, the Master
was always described as a "he." This seemed ridiculous to me, even
before I learned that the third-person singular pronoun in Chinese is
gender-neutral. Of all the great spiritual texts, the Tao Te Ching
is by for the most female, not in spirit but also in language. The
Tao is described as the :mother" or the "mother of the universe," and
the text even says, "Keep to the female." My solution was to
alternate the use of "he" and "she" from chapter to chapter. When
the book was published, I received hundreds of comments and letters
from women who told me how important this was to them."
(P.S., p.11)
As one who read in school textbooks things like, 'The pioneers went
West taking their wives.', I am sensitive to language. I really
appreciate these modern translations.
happy to be wrong,
Marsha
*************
DEFINITION of Marsha, I, me, self, & etc.: Ever-changing
collection of overlapping, interrelated, inorganic, biological,
social and intellectual, static patterns of value.
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
