Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings

[ginshun]

I have heard that there are good and bad translations of it. Does anybody know which translations are the good ones and which are the bad ones?

 

[Bammx2]

so far...

Thomas Cleary has given the best translation of that and the "art of war" that I have seen.

 

[Bod]

Absolutely.

Victor Harris, Oriental Curator of the British Museum and high level Kendoist did a good one. It's entitled A Book of Five Rings: A Classic Guide to Strategy. I lent my copy out and onw only have an electronic copy.

Thomas Cleary's is not bad, it is published by Shambala. That's the book I have at home.

Don't even think of buying Steve Kaufman's. It is not even a direct translation from the original. In fact it is a rewrite from an English translation, with Karate 'Master' Kaufman often directly contradicting Musashi's ideas. It is often published as A Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings: By Steve Kaufman.

I threw my copy away in disgust.

 

[Bammx2]

Absolutely.

Victor Harris, Oriental Curator of the British Museum and high level Kendoist did a good one. It's entitled A Book of Five Rings: A Classic Guide to Strategy. I lent my copy out and onw only have an electronic copy.

Thomas Cleary's is not bad, it is published by Shambala. That's the book I have at home.

Don't even think of buying Steve Kaufman's. It is not even a direct translation from the original. In fact it is a rewrite from an English translation, with Karate 'Master' Kaufman often directly contradicting Musashi's ideas. It is often published as A Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings: By Steve Kaufman.

I threw my copy away in disgust.

I wasn't going to mention Kaufamn,but I definately agree!
I never finished the copy I had.
I am going to look for the edition by Victor Harris. I didn't know about him.
Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[ginshun]

The Victor Harris Version is available in its entirety online. I would think that its not technically legal for it to be there, but it is.

Not that I would ever take advantage of such things...

 

[AnimEdge]

I have the Victor Harris one my self, very infomrative but feels like its all sword techniqes more than actual stragety but still good (was like 5 bucks)
The Art of War i have is translated by Lionel Giles, and i like it quite well, it has like 2 versions in it, one of a straight translation and followed by one with comments in it by diffrent stratagists and storys only like 5 bucks as well

 

[Peter Steeves]

I agree with the Cleary vote. I have read it next to a Japanese copy (albeit a modern Japanese version) and couldn't find many major differences. One that stood out, though was the section indicating that complimentary stepping is a good thing. My Japanese version actually said, "In Yo" stepping or yin-yang stepping, and I thought that was a rather eloquent way of saying it, and was surprised Cleary didn't do it that way. :asian:

However, I took a look at the original Japanese version, realized that the grammar was WAY more complicated, and moved on with my life, comfortable without being able to read ancient Japanese perfectly.

Anybody with preferences for particular translations of Musashi's other works? I'm about half way through trying to do his Dokkodo and I've seen a very good version of the 35 Articles by a personal friend...

 

[Bod]

I think Victor Harris translates it Yin-Yang or In-Yo stepping and has a footnote.

His footnote on 'Holding down a pillow' was enlightening, as it mentioned the fact that japanese pillows of the time were blocks of wood with a carving for the neck, which changes the interpretation of 'holding down a pillwo' somewhat.