The Art of War: A New Translation by Michael Nylan
Sun Tzu
W.W. Norton & Company (January 2020)

A classic within western civilization has been revitalized

W.W. Norton has proudly published this volume, one that, “for the first time in any language, a female scholar and translator reimagines the ancient text.” Michael Nylan is a professor of early Chinese history at the University of California, Berkeley.

As she explains, “For three years, an international group of scholars drawn from multiple disciplines has pored over successive drafts of this translation, with the intention of making The Art of War speak for more powerfully to general readers and specialists alike, East and West.”

Having read several dozen other translations over several decades, I agree with her that this unique collaborative effort has produced “the richest possible readings for a spare and elusive text that repays sustained analysis, compels our respect, and still raises big questions after two thousand years of close reading.”

Better yet, the close reading includes an international support group of scholars — duly acknowledged — who helped Nylan to revitalize and energize one of the most influential books ever written.

In his review of this new translation for The New York Times, Dwight Garner suggests that each sentence “is a struck match.” For example, Nylan’s version of one well-known section begins:

“Warfare is the art of deception.
So when you can, feign incapacity,
And when deploying troops, appear to have no
such plans.
When close, seem to them to be far away, and
when far away, seem near.”

Then Nylan continues:

“If the enemy commander is avid for advantage, use 
it to lure him in;
If he is volatile, seize upon that;
If he is solid, prepare well for battle;
If he is strong, evade him.
If he is angry, rile him.
If he is unpresuming, feed his arrogance.”

These brief passages provide at least a sense of how accessible and sensible Nylan’s scholarly translation is. I urge everyone who reads this brief commentary to check it out. As a non-scholar, for whatever my opinion may be worth, I think the quality of Michael Nylan’s translation of The Art of War is comparable with Emily Wilson’s brilliant translation of Homer’s Odyssey.

I have nothing more to add.