COMPLETE: Tao Teh Ching and Wu Wei by Lao Tzu - law

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 8th, 2009, 3:50 pm

Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei. [Translated by Dwight Goddard and Mabel Edith Reynolds].

Feb 6, 2010 - This was originally a solo, now to be finished as a group project. Chocoholic is the BC.

This project is complete! All audio files can be found on our catalog page:
http://librivox.org/laotzus-tao-and-wu-wei-by-lao-tzu/

The classic of the Way and of High Virtue is the Tao Teh Ching. It's author is generally held as a contemporary of Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Laozi. The exact date of the book's origin is disputed. The book is divided into two parts, the Upper Part and the Lower Part. The Upper Part consists of chapters 1-37, and each chapter begins with the word "Tao," or the Way. The Lower Part consists of chapters 38-81, and each chapter begins with the words "Shang Teh," or High Virtue. This 1919 edition names the Lower Part as the Wu Wei, or translated variously as "not doing," "non-ado," or "non-assertion." This edition also contains a history of the book and its author, Lao Tzu, along with a discussion of the Wu Wei. Lao Tzu's classic has been cherished as suggestions, rather than commandments, for finding one's path to beauty, goodness, and quality of life through a non-assertive understanding of the Way. (Summary by Melanie McCalmont)

Target completion date: March 30, 2010
Text source (only read from this text!): http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/ltw/index.htm
New to recording?
Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!
Type of proof-listening required: Standard

MAGIC WINDOW:

(BC admin)
BEFORE recording:
Please check the Recording Notes:
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430

Set your recording software to:

Channels: 1 (Mono)
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
DURING recording:
Please leave no more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of your recording!
Intro to SECTION 4 ONLY:
"Chapters 51-81 and Valedictory of Tao Teh King and Wu Wei. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. [optional: Read by *your name*.] Tao Teh King and Wu Wei, by Lao Tzu, translated by Dwight Goddard. Chapter 51:"

End of Section 4: say "End of Valedictory."
Intro to SECTIONS 5-8:
"Chapter [#] of Wu Wei. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. [optional: Read by *your name*.] Wu Wei, by Henri Borel, translated by Mabel Edith Reynolds. Chapter [#]: [Title]." etc.

End of Sections 5-8: say "End of Chapter [#]."
At the end of the book, say (in addition):
"End of Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei."

There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.

[*]Example filename
taotehking_0_laotzu.mp3

[*]Example ID3 V2 tags
Title: 0 - Introduction
Artist: Lao Tzu
Album: Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei

[*]Transfer of files (completed recordings)
Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.

Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader (when your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread):
http://upload.librivox.org

(If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
You'll need to select an MC, which for this project is: law - chocoholic
If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

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Illiterati · Post by **Illiterati** » March 8th, 2009, 11:16 pm

This version of the text accessible outside US:
http://www.archive.org/details/laotzustaoandwu00laogoog

with
Borel, Henri, 1869-1933
Goddard, Dwight, 1861-1939

Mabel Edith Reynolds was born 1871, I did not find any record of death.

The times of deaths of the translators/writers of preface do not of course concern people in the US, only those people coming from a country with an author's (or translator's) death +70 rule for the work to be in public domain.

For practical purposes we always try to encourage people to do at least a short recording (a poem, for instance) as a test before embarking on a solo challenge. That would enable you to get familiar with the process as well as make it possible to iron out the possible technical glitches etc. Would you consider that?

For practical purposes it might be better to read the book with less sections, with more of the short chapters of the original grouped together. The whole length of the book is about 160 minutes when read at an average pace - splitting it up to somewhere between 5-20 sections would be optimal, depending of course how long sections you would want to read. The upper limit of Librivox files is 70 minutes due to cd capacity.

Great text to choose, btw.

I

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 9th, 2009, 1:52 pm

Illiterati wrote: For practical purposes we always try to encourage people to do at least a short recording (a poem, for instance) as a test before embarking on a solo challenge. That would enable you to get familiar with the process as well as make it possible to iron out the possible technical glitches etc. Would you consider that?

Yes, I'd like to do that. I'm a veteran radio broadcaster and presenter, but this is somewhat new. Should I just go the the help wanted section and choose something, or can you suggest one for me?

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 9th, 2009, 2:00 pm

Illiterati wrote:For practical purposes it might be better to read the book with less sections, with more of the short chapters of the original grouped together. The whole length of the book is about 160 minutes when read at an average pace - splitting it up to somewhere between 5-20 sections would be optimal, depending of course how long sections you would want to read. The upper limit of Librivox files is 70 minutes due to cd capacity.

Yes, I did a few tests to time an average chapter, and plan to time myself for the whole thing, writing down each chapter avg. From that I need to calculate how best to split up the material. I think a definite split between chapter 37-38 because the book splits naturally there as well.

I do have a concern about Chinese pronunciation. It varies in the country, and I want to be general. Do we have translating reviewers who could help proof my pronunciation? I listened to Pride and Prejudice, and the reader pronounced Grosvenor Street as Gross-vennor instead of Grovner. I want to proof that kind of thing in particular.

Mel

Illiterati · Post by **Illiterati** » March 9th, 2009, 2:03 pm

Well, welcome!

You can try for instance our weekly poem, where a lot of the people start, or pick a poem of your own choice to short poetry collection, provided that it is in PD, or course, or go and search a chapter of your liking from the readers wanted -forum.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

I

Illiterati · Post by **Illiterati** » March 9th, 2009, 2:07 pm

melpaulm wrote: I do have a concern about Chinese pronunciation. It varies in the country, and I want to be general. Do we have translating reviewers who could help proof my pronunciation? I listened to Pride and Prejudice, and the reader pronounced Grosvenor Street as Gross-vennor instead of Grovner. I want to proof that kind of thing in particular.

You could ask for pronunciation help in the Help needed- part of forum. There are couple of active Chinese speakers here at Librivox, so you are likely to get assistance in figuring out the right pronunciation.

I

Post by **chocoholic** » March 18th, 2009, 3:16 pm

Hi there, Mel! I can MC this for you. Had a chance to do a quick test recording yet (or a short poem)? Let me know if you run into any trouble at all! I'll get you a Magic Window after your first section is ready (you can upload it to the "law - chocoholic" folder in the Uploader)... but it is a good idea to send a short sample first, or a poem or short work as Illiterati suggested, so we can find out right from the start if there's something about your recording setup that needs changing.

edited to add: Found another online source:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/ltw/index.htm
We'll link either the Archive.org one that Illiterati found or this one on the catalog page, since not everyone can access Google Books.

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 18th, 2009, 6:42 pm

I'll be doing a test recording this weekend. Had some dental work done and allergies, so I needed to wait a bit. But it's on the schedule!

Post by **chocoholic** » March 18th, 2009, 7:59 pm

Excellent! My sympathies on the allergies; hope you feel better soon! I'll go ahead and move this thread over to Going Solo and send you a PM so you can find it, as it's your first one to be moved.

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 24th, 2009, 9:37 am

My test 1 minute is posted, and will be soon reviewed. It turned out better than I thought, but I had to turn up the line volume.
It's at http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/cs/1%20minute%20test%20Melanie%20McCalmont.mp3

Post by **chocoholic** » March 24th, 2009, 6:18 pm

Great! I see that Cori has given you some feedback already, so I'll just agree with her.

Sounds great, and I look forward to hearing more!

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 25th, 2009, 1:43 pm

I have the introduction done. For some reason the book-audiofile intro seems louder than the intro text. I normalized it. I also recorded them at different days, so if it need to be fixed, let me know.

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/law/taoteching_intro_laotzu.mp3

Post by **chocoholic** » March 25th, 2009, 6:15 pm

Great, Melanie! I've entered this project into the database and put the file in the Magic Window for you so you will see where everything goes. I'll PM you with the instructions on how to edit the MW yourself.

One thing -- the file names need to include the section number (with leading zeros if there will be more than 9 files). This is so the files will sort in the proper order. The ID tags will also need to begin with the file number. So this file would be named taoteching_00_laotzu and the title tag would be 00 - Introduction. I can fix this one at cataloging time, so you don't have to re-upload it just for that.

Were you planning to combine these little chapters into larger sections, as you and Illit discussed? (I'd highly recommend it.) I gave you 20 sections for now until I know how many you'll need. It's easy for me to change the number.

Let me know if you have any questions!

melpaulm · Post by **melpaulm** » March 25th, 2009, 6:59 pm

Yes, I'm going to record each chapter as a file in the project, and then append them until it gets to about 30 minutes. Does that sound about right? The intro and explanatory chapters of the book will get separated from the numbered chapters.

How long does each mp3 file need to be targeted for? How does that work in poetry, which this is very close to? Do they record 3-4 poems in one mp3 file? How then does the listener "navigate" to the poem they want?

Post by **chocoholic** » March 25th, 2009, 7:14 pm

melpaulm wrote:Yes, I'm going to record each chapter as a file in the project, and then append them until it gets to about 30 minutes.

I'm not sure I understand -- do you mean that you are planning to have finished files of 30 min duration, with lots of chapters in each file? Or each chapter as its own file? It's really up to you; the files can have however many chapters you want. All we really require is that no file be longer than 72 min (so it'll fit onto an audio CD). Each file begins with the Librivox disclaimer, so if you do 88 separate files (one per chapter), then listeners will hear the Librivox intro 88 times. If you do a few 30-min files, then they'll hear the book without so many interruptions -- but it will be harder for them to pick out and listen to only one of the chapters if that's all they want. (Would anyone want to hear only one chapter?) It comes down to whether you think being able to easily find individual chapters is worth the potential aggravation of having to hear the Librivox intro so many times. My personal opinion is that combining some of them would be best, perhaps aiming for file lengths of 10-15 min. If you want to see how someone else split it, here's the link to the Tao that's already in our catalog (different translator): http://librivox.org/the-tao-teh-king-by-lao-tze/ .

If you do want all of the chapters as separate files, of course that's fine too -- though I would certainly recommend using the short disclaimer option for all files after the first (as in the Solos template).

Did that answer your question?