It's been a long wait, but it's been worth it. There hasn't been a really good literal tranlation on a character by character basis for a very long time, and not only does this book give us that at long last, but it also gives us an excellent English translation that captures the spirit and meaning of this most enigmatic of scriptures as well as the best out there. As the author says, this is only one possible translation, but then he procedes to give us the complete text in Chinese with all the varied possible English equivalents so we can proceed to make our own translation or come to terms with the full depth and range of meaning as never before.The lengthy chapter disecting the meaning and possible translations of the first verse, the kernal of the entire work, is worth the price of the whole volume. I only wish the author had done the same with ALL the verses!If I had to buy only one version of the venerable Tao Te Ching, this would have to be it!