Three English Translations of Chapter One of the Tao Te Ching: Reading Cultural Translatability through Intercultural Communication

Abstract

This paper cites three English translations of chapter one of the Tao Te Ching by three translators from three distinct cultures, namely Arthur Waley from the UK, R. B. Blakney from the US, and D. C. Lau from Hong Kong, China while it examines relevant readings of cultural translatability through theories in intercultural communication and doctrines in the Holy Bible. It also examines the English translation of the Chinese word “道”(Dao or Tao) through the cultural adaptation in intercultural communication while analyzing renditions of the Chinese original into English, hence the English translations make the target texts culturally equivalent and relevant to the Chinese source text in terms of displaying its cultural translatability. Through a probe into the cultural backgrounds reflected in these three Eng­lish translations, the translations of the second sentence in chapter one of the Tao Te Ching are analyzed through the speech codes in intercultural com­mu­nication and doctrines in the Holy Bible. These translations helped to bridge cultural differences in translations and translatability by adopting the shared speech codes and exemplifying their cultural translatability.