This is the first translation of Laozi that I recall reading in full, and probably my personal favorite. Porter does a great job of balancing poetry and literalism, most of the time. That combination makes Porter’s version somewhat less approachable than other versions, but it strengthens the experience of reading the book. In case you want to understand a given verse, each chapter comes with selected commentaries to help interpret the text where the translator does not, yet still allow the reader to form their own interpretation. This combined with the layout, where each two-page spread contains one chapter in Chinese and English plus commentaries, makes Red Pine’s version a good resource for interpretation. Though he still leans into romanticism within his own commentary, Porter primarily selects older Chinese commentators, which help counter such distortions.