I have been translating the Tao De Jing using a dictionary and comparing translations. I have found all of them lacking – thus my ambition to make my own translation. I have already sent out the first 40 verses last year, and have just now picked up the work again, translating five more verses over the last two days.
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Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
(verses 40-45)
Translated by Daniel Christopher June
40.
Circular is the Tao’s movement
Tender is the Tao’s use.
All things spring from her.
All things come from nothingness.
41.
The superior scholar hearing the Tao
Practices diligently and always
The mediocre scholar hearing the tao
Practices sometimes, ignores sometimes
The inferior scholar hearing the Tao
Laughs out loud.
If he didn’t laugh, the Tao would be unworthy.
Thus we have the saying:
The Tao seems Dark
Progressing on the Tao seems a retreat
Walking the level Tao seems rugged
Highest power seems as low as a valley
Great whiteness seems tainted.
Great power seems to lack
Solid power seems wobbly.
Solid reality seems shifting.
The great square lacks borders
The great vessel lacks completeness
The great music lacks loudness
The great Tao is hidden without name
Yet for this very reason
The Tao aptly provides and fulfills.
42.
Tao begets Unity
Unity begets Duality
Duality begets Trinity
Trinity begets all things.
All things shoulder the yin
And embrace the yang.
Blending the breath between these
Brings harmony.
For this reason,
those who detest widowers and orphans
Are unworthy
Kings title themselves by these names.
Sometimes a gain brings loss
And sometimes a loss brings gain
Others have taught it and so I will I,
The violent die violently
I make this teaching chief.
43.
The world’s softest
Gallops over the world’s hardest.
Nothingness can enter
Where there is no crack.
I therefore know that nonaction benefits:
Wordless the wisdom
Motionless the benefit.
Few in the world obtain it.
44.
Fame and health, which is dearer?
Health and wealth, which is best?
Gain and loss, which is worst?
Therefore, extreme love exhausts.
Therefore, huge hoards impoverish.
The contented man shames nobody.
The restrained man risks nothing.
He thus long endures.
45.
Utter perfection seems flawed
Yet its use is never exhausted.
Utter fulness seems void
Yet its use is never spent.
Great Justice seems crooked
Great skill seems clumsy
Great eloquence seems stammering.
Briskness daunts the cold
Stillness beats the heat
Peaceful and Serene rules the World.
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