Daily Tao: Verse 8

[Reader Rabbit]

I just got a crazy urge to share Lao Tzu, so here are three different translations of Verse 8. (I love that all the versions are different from each other.)

The highest good is like water,
nourishing life effortlessly,
flowing without prejudice
to the lowliest places.

It springs from all
who nourish their community
with a benevolent heart as deep as an abyss,
who are incapable of lies and injustices,
who are rooted in the earth,
and whose natural rhythms of action
play midwife to the highest good
of each pregnant moment.

—Ralph Alan Dale (trans.)

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

—Stephen Mitchell (trans.)

True goodness
is like water.
Water's good
for everything.
It doesn't complete.

It goes right
to the low loathsome places,
and so finds the way.

For a house,
the good thing is level ground.
In thinking,
depth is good.
The good of giving is magnanimity;
of speaking, honesty;
of government, order.
The good of work is skill,
and of action, timing.

No competition,
so no blame.

—Ursula K. LeGuin

Peace.

[JackintheGreen]

1. I always liked Mitchell's translation

and have been equally troubled by LeGuin's "rendering"

But all in all a good choice for the day.

[Reader Rabbit]

2. I like Mitchell, but I love LeGuin.

They seem very similar. The Dale translation is very different from either of the others.