4𝌉无源

道德經 Dao De Jing [Tao Te Ching]

Chapter 4: The Fountainless

	繁體 Trad ↔ 简体 Simp	Legge's Translation	Susuki's Translation	Goddard's Translation
	无源	The Fountainless	Sourceless	Dao, Without Origin
1	「道」冲，而用之或不盈。渊兮，似万物之宗；挫其锐，解其纷，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	同其尘；湛兮似或存。吾不知谁之子？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.

繁體 Trad ↔ 简体 Simp

Legge's Translation

Susuki's Translation

Goddard's Translation

无源

The Fountainless

Sourceless

Dao, Without Origin

「道」冲，而用之或不盈。渊兮，似万物之宗；挫其锐，解其纷，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.

同其尘；湛兮似或存。吾不知谁之子？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.