Thank you so much! I know you did not translate Logos because we really don't have a word in English, but you wrote Tao is the closest meaning.
don't listen to your critics Dr. Hart. Sometimes people think they know the Greek really well. But everytime I ask them to translate NT- no else does it but you. yours is the best translation of NT we have.
So I feel your work is bringing us closer to knowing Logos. I mean how can we understand Logos in English as Americans.
Speaking (broadly) of marketing copy, my exposure to the Tao Te Ching, like many, has been though tai chi practice. Needless to say, the text is not a manual of movement or martial practice but rather, as you say, about metaphysical and political paradox, concerned with the mysterious source of being (the Tao)that exceeds all conceptual grasp. Tai chi emerged centuries later as a martial and bodily discipline that came to be interpreted through Daoist categories. That said, the relationship is real, if indirect, and as a matter of fact few serious tai chi "players" have not parsed the text. Tai chi, at its best, with its emphasis on yielding, non-coercion, and responsiveness, becomes a bodily pedagogy of receptivity to the mystery of the Tao. (Though, at its worst, it becomes a series of calisthenics performed aside inspirational wall hangings and scented candles.)
I mention this relationship with no elaboration only to note a marketing point. Compare the tiny group of serious readers interested in philology, historical context, and textual ambiguity (the sort of people who buy four translations and bicker about them) to the enormous group of tai chi practitioners who encounter the text through practice communities and desire a version that feels immediately, if analogically, relevant.
Then again, your publisher may prefer to follow the Taoist approach to marketing, viewing sales as something that cannot be mastered through force and will, just as human flourishing cannot be achieved through sheer exertion.
I'm reading mine right now❤️ I pray Hart will take a vacation to Thailand after working so hard and get a tattoo like Angelina Jolie on her back from Thailand. Just kidding😂 I lived in Bangkok for one year as a missionary teaching English and had so much fun! And don't go if you are only going to eat Burger King, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's 😂 the Thai food is so cheap, the pineapple, fried rice, and Chinese duck are the best ❤️
I have never eaten at Burger King, McDonald’s, or Pizza Hut in my life, so I wouldn’t start doing so in Thailand. The number of Thai meals I’ve eaten, however, is beyond reckoning.
Very much looking forward to reading this. Thank you for your wonderful work 😁
(On a separate note have you engaged much with dialogical philosophy like Martin Buber or Ferdinand Ebner? You may find it interesting. Here's also a link to some cool thought downstream from them: https://www.lajosszabo.com/BPDISKANG.html )
"Tantor Audio presents Tao Te Ching: A New Translation, by Laozi, translated by David Bentley Hart and Patrick Robert Hart. Read for you with a heavy Eastern European accent by Momchil."
Thank you so much! I know you did not translate Logos because we really don't have a word in English, but you wrote Tao is the closest meaning.
don't listen to your critics Dr. Hart. Sometimes people think they know the Greek really well. But everytime I ask them to translate NT- no else does it but you. yours is the best translation of NT we have.
So I feel your work is bringing us closer to knowing Logos. I mean how can we understand Logos in English as Americans.
We all owe you a debt of gratitude for your work.
Speaking (broadly) of marketing copy, my exposure to the Tao Te Ching, like many, has been though tai chi practice. Needless to say, the text is not a manual of movement or martial practice but rather, as you say, about metaphysical and political paradox, concerned with the mysterious source of being (the Tao)that exceeds all conceptual grasp. Tai chi emerged centuries later as a martial and bodily discipline that came to be interpreted through Daoist categories. That said, the relationship is real, if indirect, and as a matter of fact few serious tai chi "players" have not parsed the text. Tai chi, at its best, with its emphasis on yielding, non-coercion, and responsiveness, becomes a bodily pedagogy of receptivity to the mystery of the Tao. (Though, at its worst, it becomes a series of calisthenics performed aside inspirational wall hangings and scented candles.)
I mention this relationship with no elaboration only to note a marketing point. Compare the tiny group of serious readers interested in philology, historical context, and textual ambiguity (the sort of people who buy four translations and bicker about them) to the enormous group of tai chi practitioners who encounter the text through practice communities and desire a version that feels immediately, if analogically, relevant.
Then again, your publisher may prefer to follow the Taoist approach to marketing, viewing sales as something that cannot be mastered through force and will, just as human flourishing cannot be achieved through sheer exertion.
I'm reading mine right now❤️ I pray Hart will take a vacation to Thailand after working so hard and get a tattoo like Angelina Jolie on her back from Thailand. Just kidding😂 I lived in Bangkok for one year as a missionary teaching English and had so much fun! And don't go if you are only going to eat Burger King, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's 😂 the Thai food is so cheap, the pineapple, fried rice, and Chinese duck are the best ❤️
I have never eaten at Burger King, McDonald’s, or Pizza Hut in my life, so I wouldn’t start doing so in Thailand. The number of Thai meals I’ve eaten, however, is beyond reckoning.
I have to say David that I am a great fan of you and the Dao. But to quote Led Zeppelin, when the levee breaks, they’ll have no place to stay.
Peace brother! Waters carve the world. Their force overtime is unstoppable.
G. B. Suarez
Very much looking forward to reading this. Thank you for your wonderful work 😁
(On a separate note have you engaged much with dialogical philosophy like Martin Buber or Ferdinand Ebner? You may find it interesting. Here's also a link to some cool thought downstream from them: https://www.lajosszabo.com/BPDISKANG.html )
Best,
-Charlie
So when are those snobs at YUP going to put out an audiobook for those of us who are barely literate?
I can read my copy to you, if you can suffer my heavy Eastern European accent and the unspeakable cruelty done to the "th" digraph.
"Tantor Audio presents Tao Te Ching: A New Translation, by Laozi, translated by David Bentley Hart and Patrick Robert Hart. Read for you with a heavy Eastern European accent by Momchil."
Best Audible credit you'll ever spend.
I would like mine to be read by DBH aka Robert California.
That was James Spader, right? Great voice!
Heck, you had me going for the first line and a half!