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Originally Posted by Starjumper7
My favorite version is the one translated by Gia Fu Feng and with photos by Jane English.
I has the beautiful poetic and mystical feeling of the original, and it is translated in a way, which like the original, embodiess different levels that can be seen by different people, depending on their awareness of and advancement along the Way.
Many of what are called translations are instead interpretations, and a lot of these interpretations are done by people with not too much advancement. Therefore they lack poetic beauty and interpret the chapterss at a low level of awareness, which can restrict a reader's potential to see deeply into the meanings.
Another thing to know is that the translations or interpretations which are done by Westerners can easily miss the all important inflections which a native Chinese speaker will be aware of. This is another reason why I consider this version to be very good.
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I would agree that the poetic and mystical feeling one gets from the translation is important. The book warns right from the beginning not to approach the subject with the mind and expect a true understanding. Yet there are many interpretations out there and they always leave me feeling a bit deflated upon reading them. For me it is something you feel you know but if you try to explain it to someone else you just ramble on incessantly and then feel like you failed miserably. The first time I read the book I liked it even though I had no idea what the heck it was talking about. Over time, you start to feel like you get some of it but other parts remain a mystery.
I think I would rather keep those other parts blurry and mysterious rather than have someone else come in and tell me what that cloud up there looks like. Once someone says it is a elephant up there, the mind will start to spend its time trying to make out the elephant in the clouds, when in fact, there is no elephant. The elephant was in their mind, not in the clouds.