Variations Great and Small

The bread and butter of this blog is taking a look at the ancient Taoist texts. However, as I've noted over the past years, there generally are a plethora of different translations and renditions. Each version takes the original text to spin it in a slightly OR significantly different way. Needless to say, these differences in translation or interpretation will affect the manner in which each of us understands a particular passage, section, chapter or verse.

To illustrate this point, this post will highlight the various translations of one story from Chapter 2 in the Zhuangzi. This will serve as a good exercise to see which of the translations speaks most eloquently to each of us AND to ascertain if there are any key disagreements as to the meaning of the text in question.

Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy. Great words are clear and limpid; little words are shrill and quarrelsome. In sleep, men's spirits go visiting; in waking hours, their bodies hustle. With everything they meet they become entangled. Day after day they use their minds in strife, sometimes grandiose, sometimes sly, sometimes petty. Their little fears are mean and trembly; their great fears are stunned and overwhelming.
~ Burton Watson Translation ~

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

"For whether the soul is locked in sleep or whether in waking hours the body moves, we are striving and struggling with the immediate circumstances. Some are easy-going and leisurely, some are deep and cunning, and some are secretive. Now we are frightened over petty fears, now disheartened and dismayed over some great terror.
~ Yutang Lin Translation ~

Great understanding is broad and unhurried;
small understanding is cramped and busy.

Great words are bright and open;
small words are chit and chat.

When we sleep, our spirits roam. When we wake, we open to the world again. Day after day, all that we touch entangles us, and the mind struggles in that net: vast and calm, deep and subtle.

Small fear is fever and worry;
great fear is vast and calm.
~ David Hinton Translation ~

Great understanding cuts itself off and falls idle; small understanding grows lazier still. Big words can burst into flames and begin conflagrations; small words are mere chatter. The souls of sleepers may wander off in search of mates, but when awakened they ally themselves with all that is outer, their hearts wrestling with indecision, deceit, and seductions. Small fears unsettle the heart; great fears twist the bowels with indecision.
~ Sam Hamill & JP Seaton Translation ~

As I read these four different interpretations of the same snippet, it appears to me that different messages are being imparted. The latter of the four seems to indicate that understanding -- whether great or small -- creates problems for us. Two of the four seem to indicate that great fear is less burdensome than small fear. And, the first three hold great wisdom/understanding to be far superior to small wisdom/understanding.

Which of these four interpretations speaks best to you? Is there a different translation you favor? Do the messages contained in these four seem congruent or incongruent to you?