04道德经英译本85种-第61章
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Bare your breast and find no foe。
But as long as there be a foe; value him;
Respect him; measure him; be humble toward him;
Let him not strip from you; however strong he be;
Compassion; the one wealth which can afford him。
70
My way is so simple to feel; so easy to apply;
That only a few will feel it or apply it。
If it were not the lasting way; the natural way to try;
If it were a passing way; everyone would try it。
But however few shall go my way
Or feel concerned with me;
Some there are and those are they
Who witness what they see:
Sanity is a haircloth sheath
With a jewel underneath。
71
A man who knows how little he knows is well;
A man who knows how much he knows is sick。
If; when you see the symptoms; you can tell;
Your cure is quick。
A sound man knows that sickness makes him sick
And before he catches it his cure is quick。
72
Upon those who defy authority
It shall be visited;
But not behind prison walls
Nor through oppression of their kin;
Men sanely led
Are not led by duress。
To know yourself and not show yourself;
To think well of yourself and not tell of yourself;
Be that your no and your yes。
73
A man with outward courage dares to die;
A man with inward courage dares to live;
But either of these men
Has a better and a worse side than the other。
And who can tell exactly to which qualities heaven objects?
Heaven does nothing to win the day;
Says nothing…Is echoed;
Orders nothing…Is obeyed;
Advises nothing…Is right:
And which of us; seeing that nothing is outside the vast
Wide…meshed net of heaven; knows just how it is cast?
74
People starve
If taxes eat their grain;
And the faults of starving people
Are the fault of their rulers。
That is why people rebel。
Men who have to fight for their living
And are not afraid to die for it
Are higher men than those who; stationed high;
Are too fat to dare to die。
75
Death is no threat to people
Who are not afraid to die;
But even if these offenders feared death all day;
Who should be rash enough
To act as executioner?
Nature is executioner。
When man usurps the place;
A carpenter's apprentice takes the place of the master:
And 'an apprentice hacking with the master's axe
May slice his own hand。'
76
Man; born tender and yielding;
Stiffens and hardens in death。
All living growth is pliant;
Until death transfixes it。
Thus men who have hardened are 'kin of death'
And men who stay gentle are 'kin of life。'
Thus a hard…hearted army is doomed to lose。
A tree hard…fleshed is cut down:
Down goes the tough and big;
Up comes the tender sprig。
77
Is not existence
Like a drawn bow?
The ends approach;
The height shortens; the narrowness widens。
True living would take from those with too much
Enough for those with too little;
Whereas man exacts from those with too little
Still more for those with too much。
Now what man shall have wealth enough to share with all men
Save one who can freely draw from the common means?
A sane man needs no better support; no richer reward;
Than this common means;
Through which he is all men's equal。
78
What is more fluid; more yielding than water?
Yet back it comes again; wearing down the rigid strength
Which cannot yield to withstand it。
So it is that the strong are overcome by the weak;
The haughty by the humble。
This we know
But never learn;
So that when wise men tell us;
'He who bites the dust
Is owner of the earth;
He who is scapegoat
Is king;'
They seem to twist the truth。
79
If terms to end a quarrel leave bad feeling;
What good are they?
So a sensible man takes the poor end of the bargain
Without quibbling。
It is sensible to make terms;
Foolish to be a stickler:
Though heaven prefer no man;
A sensible man prefers heaven。
80
If a land is small and its people are few;
With tenfold enough to have and to do;
And if no one has schooled them to waste supply
In the country for which they live and would die;
Then not a boat; not a cart
Tempts this people to depart;
Not a dagger; not a bow
Has to be drawn or bent for show;
People reckon by knots in a cord;
Relish plain food on the board;
Simple clothing suits them well;
And they remain content to dwell
In homes their customs can afford。
Though so close to their own town another town grow
They can hear its dogs bark and its roosters crow;
Yet glad of life in the village they know;
Where else in the world shall they need to go?
81
Real words are not vain;
Vain words not real;
And since those who argue prove nothing
A sensible man does not argue。
A sensible man is wiser than he knows;
While a fool knows more than is wise。
Therefore a sensible man does not devise resources:
The greater his use to others
The greater their use to him;
The more he yields to others
The more they yield to him。
The way of life cleaves without cutting:
Which; without need to say;
Should be man's way。
English_Byrn_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
English interpretation by
Tormond Byrn; 1997
1
The way that can be told of is hardly aneternal; absolute; unvarying one;
the name that can be coded and given is noabsolute name。
Heaven and earth sprang from something else:the bright nameless;
the named is but the said mother that rearsthe ten thousand creatures of heaven and earth; each after its kind。
He that rids himself of base desire can seethe secret essences;
he that didn't and reached high being; hecan see outcomes。
Still the two are the same; the secret andits manifestations came from the same ground; the same mould; but anywaysound different …
they're given different names where theyappear。
They can both be called the cosmic mystery;awesome deep
or rather more secret than so…called mystery。
There's the deeper mystery: the gate and doorwayfrom which issued all secret essences; yes; all subleties;
and the subtle mysterial opening homewards。
Call it the door mystery or golden secretof all life。
2
When the people of the world see beauty asbeauty;
the notion of ugliness pops up along withthat
And equally if every one recognize virtueas virtue; if they all know the good as good; the recognition of adjacentevil is wont to rise。
So: Being and not…yet…being interdepend ingrowth; grow out of another; they can produce each other。
And hard and easy interdepend in completion;
long and short interdepend。 They test eachother in contrast。
High and low determine one another and interdependor distinguish each other in position。 So it seems。
Pitch and mode give harmony to one another;tones; sound and voice interdepend in basic; functional harmony;
Front and back give sequence to one another。
The couples follow each other … interdependin company; so to speak。
From this the wise man relies on doing nothingin the open; it's wu…wei。 And he spreads doctrines without true or falsewords; by oddly wordless influence。
All things appear; and he hardly turns awayfrom the creatures worked on by him:
Some he gives solid; good life; he hardlydisowns his chosen ones。
He hardly takes possession of anyone underfair conditions。
He rears his sons in earthly ways; but neitherappropriates nor lays blatant claim to any one。
He acts; but doesn't rely on his outer; visiblesmartness or miracle…working ability。 He very often claims no credit。
At times he controls them; but hardly leanson any of them。
Because he lays claim to no credit; the handycredit can hardly be taken away from him。
Yes; for the very reason