from imthatim:
Quote:
One who knows does not speak;
One who speaks does not know.
Block the openings;
Shut the doors.
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
This is known as mysterious sameness.
Hence you cannot get close to it, nor can you keep it at arm's length;
You cannot bestow benefit on it, nor can you do it harm;
You cannot ennoble it, nor can you debase it.
Therefore it is valued by the empire.
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the part that says 'let your wheels move only along old ruts and the misterious sameness' I translate as:
Being the same as the dusty earth
Is appropriately called insightful sameness.
which to me says more about the treasure found when you aren't trying to be clean and tidy all the time...
And the last part I translate just slightly differently:
So one cannot obtain it yet get close to it
One cannot obtain it yet be far from it
One cannot obtain it yet benefit
One cannot obtain it yet be harmed
One cannot obtain it yet treasure it
One cannot obtain it yet consider it as common.
i.e. my translation has it being about what could think one could potentially get rather than about what one does to something else... but that is what makes this book so darned hard to translate, there are all sorts of subtle things that could be going on and who can get the author's intent 'right'? Maybe what this chapter says at the beginning makes more sense than it seems...
the last line I also give a subtle shift. Instead of saying what the world does, my translation says what this thing we are talking about does:
So it acts as the treasure of the world
but really, different meanings might even be appropriate at different times!