The Love of Life (Part XIII)
{64} Be as careful of the end as you were of the beginning …
A thing that is still is easy to hold.
Given no omen, it is easy to plan.
Soft things are easy to melt.
Small particles scatter easily.
The time to take care is before it is done.
Establish order before confusion sets in.
Tree trunks around which you can reach with
your arms were at first only miniscule sprouts.
A nine-storied terrace began with a clod.
A thousand-mile journey began with a foot put down.Doing spoils it, grabbing misses it;
So the Wise Man refrains from doing
and doesn’t spoil anything;
He grabs at nothing so never misses.
People are constantly spoiling a project when
it lacks only a step to completion.
To avoid making a mess of it, be as careful of
the end as you were of the beginning.
So the Wise Man wants the unwanted;
he sets no high value on anything
because it is hard to get.
He studies what others neglect
and restores to the world what multitudes have passed by.
His object is to restore everything to its natural course,
but he dares take no steps to that end.
{65} Those ancients who were skilled in the Way …
Those ancients who were skilled in the Way
Did not enlighten people by their rule
But had them ever held in ignorance:
The more the folk know what is going on
The harder it becomes to govern them.For public knowledge of the government
Is such a thief that it will spoil the realm;
But when good fortune brings good times to all
The land is ruled without publicity.
To know the difference between these two
Involves a standard to be sought and found.
To know that standard always, everywhere,
Is mystic Virtue, justly known as such;
Which Virtue is so deep and reaching far,
It causes a return, things go back
To that prime concord which at first all shared.
{66} How could the rivers and the seas become like kings to valleys …?
How could the rivers and the seas
Become like kings to valleys?
Because of skill in lowliness
They have become the valley’s lords.So then to be above the folk,
You speak as if you were beneath;
And if you wish to be out front,
Then act as if you were behind.
The Wise Man so is up above
But is no burden to the folk;
His station is ahead of them
To see they do not come to harm.
The world will gladly help along
The Wise Man and will bear no grudge.
Since he contends not for his own
The world will not contend with him.
{67} Compassion, frugality and ruling …
Everywhere, they say the Way, our doctrine,
Is so very like detested folly;
But greatness of its own alone explains
Why it should be thus held beyond the pale.
If it were only orthodox, long since
It would have seemed a small and petty thing!I have to keep three treasures well secured:
The first, compassion; next, frugality;
And third, I say that never would I once
Presume that I should be the whole world’s chief.
Given compassion, I can take courage;
Given frugality, I can abound;
If I can be the world’s most humble man,
Then I can be its highest instrument.
Bravery today knows no compassion;
Abundance is, without frugality,
And eminence without humility:
This is the death indeed of all our hope.
In battle, ’tis compassion wins the day;
Defending, tis compassion that is firm:
Compassion arms the people God would save!
{68} The Stature of the Ancients …
A skillful soldier is not violent;
An able fighter does not rage;
A mighty conqueror does not give battle;
A great commander is a humble man.You may call this pacific virtue;
Or say that it is mastery of men;
Or that it is rising to the measure of God,
Or to the stature of the ancients.
{69} Strategy and Compassion …
The strategists have a saying:
- “If I cannot be host,
Then let me be guest.
But if I dare not advance
Even an inch,
Then let me retire a foot.”
This is what they call
- A campaign without a march,
Sleeves up but no bare arms,
Shooting but no enemies,
Or arming without weapons.
Than helpless enemies, nothing is worse:
To them I lose my treasures.
When opposing enemies meet,
The compassionate man is the winner!
{70} Honour comes when least I’m Known …
My words are easy just to understand:
To live by them is very easy too;
Yet it appears that none in all the world
Can understand or make them come to life.My words have ancestors, wy works a prince;
Since none know this, unknown I too remain.
But honor comes to me when least I’m known:
The Wise Man, with a jewel in his breast,
Goes clad in garments made of shoddy stuff.
{71} True knowledge, aberrations and health of mind …
To know that you are ignorant is best;
To know what you do not, is a disease;
But if you recognize the malady
Of mind for what it is, then that is health.The Wise Man has indeed a healthy mind;
He sees an aberration as it is
And for that reason never will be ill.
{72} Revealing Inner Nature to the World …
If people do not dread your majesty,
A greater dread will yet descend on them.
See then you do not cramp their dwelling place,
Or immolate their children or their stock,
Nor anger them by your own angry ways.It is the Wise Man’s way to know himself,
And never to reveal his inward thoughts;
He loves himself but so, is not set up;
He chooses this in preference to that.