I’m currently doing Chinese winter school, and I thought I would try to translate the first line of the daodejing into Greek, as a fun exercise. Can you help correct my grammar? :)
´ο λογος τουτον μπορώ λεγεται, ´ο αιωνιος λογος μυ εστι. ´ο νομος τουτον μπορω νομεται, ´ο αιωνιος νομος μυ εστι.
(Apologies, my phone Greek keyboard does not do breathings and accents.)
My English translation for reference:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The original Chinese, if you’re curious:
道可道非常道
名可名非常名
I thought it would be fun to translate because λογος and 道 are both notoriously deep and complex philosophical terms that have a roughly equivalent range of meanings and popped up on opposite sides of the globe in completely different cultures at around the same time in history. The daodejing is a beautiful poem so I wanted to have a go at rendering some of it it in Greek. How did I do?