Abstract Translations of the Dao De Jing (chapter 53 : 4-5)

I find that my understanding (or at least my sense of understanding) of the messages in the DDJ seems to grow best through abstract relations of events that occur in real time (so to speak) to passages in the text that happen to be frequently on my mind.

Chapter 15 seems to discuss the need to rely on the abstract, i.e., metaphor, in order to describe what is otherwise indescribable; it seems to me that, as a native English speaker who does not speak Chinese, there will be a need for me to rely on the abstract in that same manner.

For me, relying on any direct translation as definitive just seems impossible; I’m a bit of a fiend for the granularity provided by English and, in my opinion, while English certainly has leagues of room for legerdemain, it doesn’t apply well to translating a language with about as different an origin from English as any language could have.

As an example, lines 4-5 from chapter 53 have been in my thoughts often in recent weeks (perhaps months):

大道甚夷

而民好徑

The book I refer to daily [title: The Dao De Jing: A Qigong Interpretation （道德经气功解）, author: Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming] translates it thus:

The Great Dao is smooth and plain, but people like the sidetracks.

The translation from James Legge reads:

The great Dao (or way) is very level and easy; but people love the by-ways.

Derek Lin:

The great Tao is broad and plain but people like the side paths

For what it’s worth, the translation provided by WikiSource reads:

The way towards the Dao is unpaved, yet people like having a path.

(I actually like the WikiSource version more than the others)

Without getting into all the translations out there, it seems that many of those which are widely in use have some variant resembling the first three examples from Yang, Legge, and Lin; the WikiSource seems to vary a bit.

Looking at the characters themselves, when I do what is surely a novice, inexperienced translation of my own it comes out to

Great Dao is extremely barbaric, yet societies prefer direction.

In any case, I suspect the specific English words are less relevant to understanding these lines if there’s an ample metaphor to aid in the abstract. It so happens that an article in The Guardian regarding climate change and the food supply immediately reminded me of the lines from chapter 53 when I read the following:

Nature has a simple way to adapt to different climates: genetic diversity.

Even if some plants react poorly to higher temperatures or less rainfall, other varieties can not only survive – but thrive, giving humans more options on what to grow and eat.

But the powerful food industry had other ideas and over the past century, humans have increasingly relied on fewer and fewer crop varieties that can be mass produced and shipped around the world. “The line between abundance and disaster is becoming thinner and thinner and the public is unaware and unconcerned,” writes Dan Saladino…

The gist here is that nature’s adaptation continues to provide, but “developed” society has elected to resist that adaptation in order to hang onto what feels comfortable/familiar.

Line 4 - 大道甚夷 - in this context seems very much like “Nature has a simple way to adapt to different climates: genetic diversity”, while line 5 - 而民好徑 - seems like “But the powerful food industry had other ideas and over the past century, humans have increasingly relied on fewer and fewer crop varieties that can be mass produced and shipped around the world”.

Thinking about those lines in that manner leads me ultimately back to the first line in chapter 1 of the Dao De Jing:

道可道非恆道

Without even trying to translate that line, this contemplation of lines 4-5 from chapter 53 help me understand what the first line is intending to convey; in fact, they seem to be a direct example of why.

All of this is to say, while searching for the “perfect translation” may be an interesting endeavor, it seems to me that a helpful way to understand the meaning is to see it in action and realize that’s what you’re seeing.