A relevant quote from Harold Bloom (from the introduction to Le Guin’s Collected Poems):
> Le Guin in her version certainly captures the terseness and the aesthetic sensibility of the Tao. Scholars tell me that her work is disputable, but I see nothing to dispute. Her total aspiration is meaning, and her transpositions, as she calls her versions of the text, strengthen meaning.
How true this all is, I really don’t know. Le Guin herself admits that, for the first chapter at least, ‘A satisfactory translation […] is, I believe, perfectly impossible’. I personally like the aesthetics of her version, at least.