劉殿爵教授（1921-2010）是中國古籍研究及譯介的名家，由其英譯的《道德經》不但是西方普通讀者瞭解中國文化的熱門讀物，在學界亦具權威的影響力。作為學者的劉殿爵反對神秘化《老子》，並指出《老子》思想僅是一種恐懼下以個人生存與政治秩序為世俗目的的務實哲學。他還認為《老子》乃經多人之手匯編而成的合集，且章句間往往不見密切的關聯；而作為譯者的劉殿爵則一向注重意義的真相、譯語的精確及讀者的反應。那麼，劉氏的《老子》英譯是否受其本人對《老子》的思想、文本的理解及翻譯觀影響？為解此惑，本次演講將通過譯文之比較，揭示劉氏的《老子》翻譯如何反映出其上述對此部經典的認識。

Professor D. C. Lau (1921-2010) is renowned for his studies and renditions of Chinese Classics. His English version of Tao Te Ching not only enjoys immense popularity among the general western readers interested in Chinese culture, but also remains an authority in academia. As a scholar, Lau opposes the mystification of Lao Tzu, arguing that it is simply a rather down-to-earth philosophy developed out of fear and aimed at the mundane purpose of personal survival and political order. He believes the text of Lao Tzu to be an anthology by a series of editors, consisting of chapters and sentences that often do not seem to be closely connected to each other. As a translator, Lau has always attended to the truth of meaning, the accuracy of the translation, and the readers’ responses. Is Lau’s rendering influenced by his understanding of Lao Tzu as a philosophy and a text, as well as his own views of translation? In order to answer the question, this talk will adopt a comparative method to reveal how Lau’s translation reflects his understanding of Lao Tzu mentioned above.