Title: Lost In Translation
Review: I agree with the other reviewer in seeing this book as a very poor translation of Zen stories. I doubt that any Zen story's opening line should be translated as "Once upon a time there was a...". I also very much doubt that a Japanese woman would insult an old man like this, "What do you know, baldy?". However, it does not seem as though this is just an attempt to make the stories understandable to a Western sensibility. Thomas Cleary does not seem to have any feel for the deeper meanings in these Zen stories and many of his translations are simply dull and flatly state the obviousness.
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