| Navigate up Readings |
November 24th, 2005 |
The Tao De Ching, Stanza 21
by Lao Tzu
In my review of Moss Roberts's translation of the classic Chinese work Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing, or Daode Jing in a modern transcription), I passed the following remark:
The pity of all these translations is, of course, that none of them can convey the poetry of Tao Te Ching. There is no way that I can do this, either. I can only suggest that you find a Chinese speaker with a good stage voice and have him or her declaim one of the more sonorous passages to give you some flavor of the book as it has appealed to a hundred generations of Chinese enthusiasts. The tremendous, high-soaring and deep-diving Stanza 21 would be a good choice...
Ever since that piece was published, I have been waiting folornly for someone to come up to me at a party and ask me to "do" Stanza 21 for them. This has not yet happened; so in lieu of such opportunities, here is Stanza 21 as best I can render it. I pronounce the characters in the modern way; for all the exertions of the late Prof. Bernhard Karlgren and his successors, we only have sketchy and debatable notions about how the ancient Chinese pronounced their language.
The English version printed below the Chinese is John C.H. Wu's, taken from his fine translation of the book, titled Tao Teh [sic] Ching.
It lies in the nature of Grand Virtue
To follow the Tao and the Tao alone.
Now what is the Tao?
It is Something elusive and evasive.
Evasive and elusive!
And yet It contains within Itself a Form.
Elusive and evasive!
And yet It contains within Itself a Substance.
Shadowy and dim!
And yet it contains within Itself a Core of Vitality.
The Core of Vitality is very real,
It contains within Itself an unfailing Sincerity.
Throughout the ages Its Name has been preserved
In order to recall the Beginning of all things.
How do I know the ways of all things at the Beginning?
By what is within me.