| 1 |
「道」沖，而用之或不盈。淵兮，似萬物之宗﹔挫其銳，解其紛，和其光
，
|
The Dao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our
employment of it we must be on our guard against all
fulness. How
deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured
Ancestor of
all things!
We should blunt our
sharp points, and unravel the complications of
things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring
ourselves into
agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure
and still the Dao
is, as if it would ever so continue! |
Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In its profundity, verily, it
resembleth the arch-father of the ten thousand
things."It will blunt its own sharpness,
Will its tangles adjust;
It will dim its own
radiance. And be one with its dust." |
The Dao appears to be emptiness but it is never exhausted. Oh, it is profound!
It appears to have preceded everything. It dulls its
own sharpness, unravels its own fetters, softens
its own brightness, identifies itself with its own
dust. |
| 2 |
同其塵﹔湛兮似或存。吾不知誰之子？象帝之先。 |
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before
God. |
Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose son it is. Apparently even
the Lord it precedes.
|
Oh, it is tranquil! It appears infinite; I do not know from what it proceeds.
It even appears to be antecedent to the Lord. |
