• booty [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Here's how Le Guin's version renders these parts, just for fun:

    The way you can go
    isn't the real way.
    The name you can say
    isn't the real name

    Heaven and earth
    begin in the unnamed:
    name's the mother
    of the ten thousand things.

    • casskaydee [she/her]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Google translate has a different take:

      Road to Road, very Avenue. Famous, very famous

        • casskaydee [she/her]
          ·
          8 months ago

          To be fair, it's much better for modern Chinese (most of the time) but this being so old and poetic yeah it just has no idea what to do with it lol

          • oregoncom [he/him]
            ·
            8 months ago

            Google translate barely works for modern Chinese. and this is a company where half the employees have names like "Charlie Huang". Biggest Bazinga L.

            • casskaydee [she/her]
              ·
              8 months ago

              It works pretty okay at very stuffy formal stuff but it's pretty bad at informal speech, in my experience

      • booty [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Road to Road, very Avenue

        I'm cancelling Laozi for being a car brain.

      • Kaplya
        ·
        8 months ago

        lmao

        道可道 the path you can take
        非常道 is not the usual path

        道 means road/path/way
        可 means can

        道可道 means the path/way you can go/take

        非 means not, 常 by itself means normal/conventional/usual, but 非常 together means very (lit. unusual but common usage simply means “very”)

        the translator interpreted it as 非常 道 “very road” lol when it should be 非 常道 “not the normal/conventional path”

        名 means name

        名可名 the name you can name
        非常名 is not the usual name

    • WithoutFurtherBelay
      ·
      8 months ago

      The way you can go isn't the real way. The name you can say isn't the real name

      NONBINARY REP LETS GOOOO