Dao De Jing 11
Thirty spokes converge to
form a wheel;
but it’s the empty space
that makes the cart useful.
Clay is shaped to form vessels;
but it’s the empty space
that makes the vessel useful.
Windows & doors are
chiseled to form a room;
but it’s the empty space
that makes the room useful.
Thus what it formed has
its advantages,
but the empty space
creates usefulness.
Laozi, 道德經
Translation by John
Hayes
The translation is is
licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Unlike with my original
poetry & poetry translations, I don’t asset a copyright claim on my
translation of the Dao De Jing. It may be freely used under the terms of
the Creative Commons license.
Image links to its source
on Wiki Commons:
Proto celadon jar with
ears and vertical stripes. Warring States period (475BCE-211BCE). Photo by Wiki
user Uploadalt, who makes
it available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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