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Translation is not transcription. It is interpretation.
Set the same passage beside several translations and the choices become visible: a single Greek word becomes "political" or "social"; the Dao is "spoken," "told," or "trodden." Comparing renderings is one of the most direct ways to see a text think. The originals below are given as written; the published translations are attributed but marked for you to verify against the editions.
道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。
Classical Chinese · Daodejing 1
| Literal | The way that can be spoken is not the constant way; the name that can be named is not the constant name. |
| Legge (1891) | "The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao." (verify) |
| Add a version | Open the editor to add D.C. Lau, Waley, Mitchell, or your own — with the exact wording. |
The verb 道 (dào) means both "the Way" and "to speak" — a pun the English cannot keep.
己所不欲，勿施於人。
Classical Chinese · Analects 15.24
| Literal | What you yourself do not desire, do not impose on others. |
| Legge | "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." (verify) |
| Add a version | Compare Waley, Ames & Rosemont, Slingerland. |
Note the negative form ("do not impose") versus the positive Western "do unto others."
ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον
Ancient Greek · Politics 1253a
| Literal | The human being is by nature a polis-animal. |
| Common | "Man is by nature a political animal." |
| Alternative | "Man is by nature a social animal." (some translators) |
"Political" vs "social" is a real interpretive fork: politikon is rooted in the polis, the city-state, not sociability in general.
Je pense, donc je suis. / Cogito, ergo sum. / Ego sum, ego existo.
French & Latin · across his works
| French | "Je pense, donc je suis" — Discourse on the Method (1637). |
| Latin | "Cogito, ergo sum" — Principles of Philosophy (1644). |
| Meditations | "Ego sum, ego existo" — "I am, I exist" — Meditations II (1641), a subtly different claim. |
The author gave the same insight three different forms; the most famous one he never wrote in the Meditations at all.
In the editor, use + Add box to add a new passage to compare.