Tao Te Ching / Dao De Jing – § 67
April 21, 2009
All under heaven, they say: my Way is great, but seems not so. It is only great because it seems not so. If it seemed so, long ago it would have thinned out.
I have three treasures; hold and protect them. 1 is love; 2 is conserving; 3 is not presuming to become the first under heaven. Love, thus you can be brave; conserving, thus you can be expansive; not presuming to become the first under heaven, thus you can enter your role as the father of the people.
Now—when they closet love and yet try to be brave, when they closet conserving and yet try to be expansive, when they closet coming after and yet try to come first—it has died.
Man, with love: by its means battles shall be won; by its means the citadel shall hold. Heaven will save him; by means of love will guard him.
I’m not so sure why this text. But Chinese is amazing: visual ideographic etymology. It is so radically different from English. And I really like translating; maybe somebody should pay me.
