Sunday, February 6, 2022 (XIV/五) |
"What is your yardstick of ideals? All that is material once existed in spirit, or the soul of the individual. Mind becomes the builder; the physical becomes the result. It depends, then, upon the materials — or the spirit with which one is prompted."  The Parting Waters of Mitsumata by Hiroshige ― One Hundred Famous Views of Edo ECRL 3376-2  淵ㄩㄢ ― abyss; deep water ― deep; profound 淵兮，似萬物之宗。 From: 道德經，4th century BCE Yuān xī, sì wànwù zhī zōng. How deep and unfathomable it is as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things! |
道德經《道德經》第四章
道沖而用之或不盈。
淵兮似萬物之宗。
挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。
湛兮似或存。
吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。
道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Four ― Ron Hogan
4.
How much 道 is there?
More than you'll ever need.
Use all you want,
there's plenty more
where that came from.
You can't see 道, but it's there.
Damned if I know where it came from.
It's just always been around.
道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Four ― James Legge
(The fountainless)
道 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 an agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still 道 is as if it would ever so continue! I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.
道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Four ― Ursula K. LeGuin (1998)
The way is empty,
used, but not used up.
Deep, yes! ancestral
to the ten thousand things.
Blunting edge,
loosing bond,
dimming light,
the way is the dust of the way.[*]
Quiet,
yes, and likely to endure.
Whose child? born
before the gods.
---
[*] Dwight Goddard [translator] says:
"道 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."
道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Four ― translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988, Chapter 4
"The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God."
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