| 1 |
知者不言，言者不知。塞其兌，閉其門，挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其
塵，是謂「玄同」。 |
He who knows (the Dao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he
who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know
it.
He (who knows
it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals
(of his nostrils).
|
One who knows does not talk. One who talks does not know. Therefore the sage
keeps his mouth shut and his sense-gates closed. |
The one who knows does not speak; the one who speaks does not know. The wise
man shuts his mouth and closes his gates.
|
| 2 |
故不可得而親，不可得而疏﹔不可得而利，不可得而
害﹔ |
He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will
attemper his brightness, and bring himself into agreement
with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the
Mysterious Agreement.'
|
"He will blunt his own sharpness, His own tangles adjust; He will dim his own
radiance, And be one with his dust." This is called profound identification.
|
He softens his sharpness, unravels his tangles, dims his brilliancy, and reckons
himself with the mysterious.
|
| 3 |
不可得而貴，不可得而賤。故為天下貴。 |
(Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is
beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:--he is
the noblest man under heaven. |
Thus he is inaccessible to love and also inaccessible to enmity. He is inaccessible
to profit and inaccessible to loss. He is also inaccessible
to favor and inaccessible to disgrace. Thus he becomes
world-honored. |
He is inaccessible to favor or hate; he cannot be reached by profit or injury;
he cannot be honored or humiliated. Thereby he is
honored by all.
|
