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A Standard Benchmark
Gagliardi's Translation
Sawyer's Translation
"Clavell's" Translation
Griffith's Translation
Ames' Translation
Cleary's Translation
Kaufman's Translation
The
Denma Translation
The Denma Translation
The Denma translation is one of the strangest, perhaps
the most "fortune cookie" of all, in the sense of keeping the meaning vague. Either the version of the original
Chinese the translators used was missing many lines that exist in all other translations, or
they chose to ignore those lines. Other lines are shown out of their
usual place in the text (see example below). The text also uses different
section breaks (indicated by ***) than the other versions, so our
sample stanza is a combination of two stanzas from their work.
The strength this work is that when a
line of text is translated, it stays very close to the original. Reading it is like reading
something closer to our character-by-character version than most English
translations. In a few cases, the translators don't even translate the characters. For example, they refer to the
Chinese character for "philosophy" or "way" as "Tao"
(with a capital letter), making it seem as though Sun Tzu is referring to the
great, unknowable Tao of Lao Tzu and the Taoists. In reality, Sun
Tzu uses the word in a down-to-earth fashion, meaning the shared philosophy that
unites a group of people.
The authors of this version make little
attempt to "clarify" the meaning of the text in the way they translate
it for the reader. In general,
this creates a more authentic, if less readable, work than the
many versions that extend and explain Sun Tzu rather than translating his words.
The Denma Art of War contains much more material than
just the sparse
translation. Following the translation itself is a section that contains three
essays about the meaning and the time period of the text. The last section
of the book is a commentary that emphasizes the philosophical rather than
practical aspects of Sun Tzu.
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Without 
invitation
right 
’s
banner,
Do not 
attack
hall 
formation,
Here 
govern
transform 
one
also;
Make 
use
war
method,
High
mound 
face,
Back 
walls
oppose,
Pretend 
flee
follow,
Sharp 
soldiers
attack,
Bait 
feed,
Returning home
legion
block,
Encircling
must 
watch-tower,
Poor 
pillage
force,