Dao De Jing 15
The ancient & skillful
sages, subtle, mysterious, profound, were too deep to be fathomed. Because men
could not fathom them, it’s best to describe their appearance:
Cautious as men fording a
river in winter!
Trembling with fear at
what surrounded them!
Grave & respectful as
a guest!
Dispersing like melting
ice!
Simple as uncarved wood!
Empty as a gorge!
Turbid as muddy water!
Who can turn muddy water
gradually clear?
Who being quiescent can
stir others to life?
Those who preserve the Way
don’t desire fulfillment.
Not desiring fulfillment,
they remain concealed & don’t ripen prematurely
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:
“Depiction of the Daoist
immortal Lü Chunyang, also known as Lü Dongbin”: Zhang Lu (1464–1538) – Ink and
light colors on gold-flecked paper; album leaf. Ming Dynasty.
Public domain.
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