Real Words Are Not Vain: Reading Witter Bynner’s Laozi Translation as Creative Interpretation Initial Investigation

Abstract

The bestselling translation of Laozi by American poet Witter Bynner (1881–1968) has sustained severe criticism from scholars of ancient Chinese philosophy. But they have misunderstood what Bynner was trying to do, which was not simply to present a literal representation of the language of the text: Bynner saw the Laozi as a poetic work and aimed to reflect both its mysteries and subtleties in a new English form. Inspired by the translation theories of Nida and Steiner, as well as the more recent interpretive model of translation, we can read Bynner’s Laozi as one valid interpretation of its source text, intended to make the ancient classic speak to contemporary Americans at a time of global conflict. The second half of the article presents close readings of Bynner’s translation of key passages in Laozi. These are used to illustrate the varied and original literary devices from the English language that Bynner employs to emulate the poetic dimensions of Laozi. Finally, in certain passages it seems that Bynner’s version is even more accurate than other, more scholarly translations of Laozi. As the interpretive model suggests, translations that aim solely for formal equivalence will actually neglect key features of their sources.