[stillconfused]

Here is Red Pine's translation of both, in case you are interested. He spent ~20 years including substantial time in monasteries studying Chinese classics. His translation is much more tightly linked to the actual work.

4:

  The Tao is so empty
  those who use it
  never become full again
  and so deep
  as if were the ancestor of us all
  it dulls our edges
  unties our tangles
  softens our light
  and merges our dust
  it's so clear
  as if it were present
  I wonder whose child it is
  it seems it was here before Ti

9:

  Instead of pouring in more
  better stop while you can
  making it sharper
  won't help it last longer
  rooms full of treasure
  can never be safe
  the vanity of success
  invites its own failure
  when your work is done retire
  this is the Way of Heaven

Notice how different, in particular, 4. The text reads much, much closer to Red Pine's translation. The 4th line literally reads "deep !", but that word is nowhere to be found in Mitchell's translation.

I strongly recommend Red Pine!

[gizajob]

It seems like his is a much more zen-infused translation, which given his other work isn’t surprising. It’s great to have so many takes on the translation though, I’ll be appreciating this text for the rest of my life. Already have been for a good 15 years already, and whoever old Lao Tze was, they were likely one of the greatest geniuses in history.

[vitiral]

Are there two versions in the same translation? You gave two versions to number 9 in this very post!

[stillconfused]

Hi- Those are the same translation (Red Pine's) of the two sections from Mitchell that you quoted, 4 and 9. They are quite different than Mitchell, and correspond about as closely as one can to the text (given assumptions on punctuation; Classical Chinese was not punctuated).

To give a bit more detail of the first one, 4:

Mitchell 4a: The Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities.

  1. The original text does not mention a well.
  2. those who use it are not full, not the Tao not used up.
  3. there is no mention of eternal voids just a lack of fullness for users.
  4. there is no mention of infinite impossibilities, but it is possible "as it were the ancestor of us all" is mistranslated by Mitchell where "all" wan wu (literally 10,000 things) is translated as infinite, and the ancestor part is dropped.

Mitchel 4b: <blank>

  It appears Mitchell skips the middle part of the section, which discusses dulled edges, tangles, light, and dust.

Mitchell 4c: It is hidden but always present. I don't know who gave birth to it. It is older than God.

  1. The first half is clear / as if it were present, not hidden.
  The rest is reasonable.

By all means if you found something in Mitchell, enjoy, but he's taken many liberties while translated a language he did not understand, and so it doesn't match the original text as well as other alternatives.