4 ms·
'可道' can be translated to 'can be talked about' which is more general than 'called', though 'called' does not seem far off.
by HKH2 5y ago
'可道' can be translated to 'can be talked about' which is more general than 'called', though 'called' does not seem far off.
- cyanydeez 5y agoit seems to mean "this is not a pipe"
- HKH2 5y agoAs far as I can see, it's about ineffability.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI tend to interpret it as "you can talk about the Way, but you[r words] will not capture its true nature".
- thaumasiotes 5y agoYes, but that assumes that in 可道, 道 is a verb. The proposed translation "TAO called TAO is not TAO" mentions 道 three times, and it's always unambiguously a noun. So 'called' has to be coming from somewhere else, and the only other word in that sentence is 可.
- brutusborn 5y agoI only know English, but I am curious about your logic above. How can you tell that the assumption you mentioned is incorrect? I.e. "that in 可道, 道 is a verb" is false? Is it something about the character itself or perhaps the syntax?
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI do not believe that that assumption is false. I'm confident it's correct. I'm arguing against the translation "TAO called TAO is not TAO". I think "the Way can be [spoken (of) / discussed / whatever]" makes more sense, even if the goal is "as literal of a translation as possible". Following 可 is strong evidence that 道 is a verb, though I don't know enough to call it conclusive evidence. The character 道 is identical between the noun meaning "way" and the verb meaning "say". To tell the difference, you can look at context or rely on traditional commentaries (of which there are many). In this case, the context should be sufficient. 道 [noun] 可道 [verb]。非常道 [noun]。
- HKH2 5y ago'可' also had the meaning of something like 'cute' (like in '可人') but that's clearly not relevant here. You're correct.
- HKH2 5y agoYes, you're right. They can't all be nouns.