I much preferred Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English’s translation of the Tao Te Ching. I’m not an ancient Chinese scholar so I can’t speak to how faithful this translation is compared to the original manuscript.

But I can say that the poetry doesn’t flow well and some translation choices left me scratching my head — wondering if Thomas Cleary understands how the English language works.

Read the Feng / English’s translation instead!

Maybe his translation of the Chuang-tzu is worth a read? TBD

EDIT 2023-12-02: Yup the translation of Chuang-tzu was good enough and the commentary on the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-tzu was interesting reading.