Quote:
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Originally Posted by Still_Waters
4 (ending):
Something is there, hidden in the deep!
But I do not know whose child it is ---
It came even before God.
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Let me clear up a few things first.
Please understand that a direct word for word translation is unintelligible because oftentimes there is no equivalent word in English. Moreover, a Chinese character has more than one meaning depending on how it sits within a phrase. There is more than one version of the Tao Te Ching. The stanzas in the (various) original texts have no punctuation marks. Scholars reconstructed the scripture in accordance with their own assessments of how it should read. Placing a coma in a different place gives a stanza a different meaning.
Above all, in the western tradition, the written word is a code yielding information, in the word, to the reader (decoder); whereas, the Chinese character is a symbol that invokes a meaning stored within the reader's mind. Consequently, everyone who understands English (or German, etc.) gets the same knowledge contained in a book. In the case of the Tao Te Ching, it all depends on what is in the reader's head. An ability to read classical Chinese gives you access only to the contents in your own head, not Lao Tsu's head.
So, our study of the Chinese Tao Te Ching is a project in self-inquiry. I will attempt to replace the Chinese characters with English words, and you tell me what you see in your head. The stuff in my head is not going to be mind-blowing since I am an American. I will throw it in the pot, if you want, to see what we can cook up between us.
With regard to the last two lines of Chapter 4, the word "child" and "God" are misleading. Also, the preferred way is to read the whole chapter to get the context of the meaning of the lines. It's like divining the meaning in a line within a hexagram of the I Ching. So, let me set out below my reading of Chapter 4 in English and you tell me what you think.
The Way gushes forth, its beneficence unremitting
Immense, it is the origin of the ten thousand things
Dull the darkness
Diffuse the chaos
Cut the glare
Be like dust
Deep within, yet ever-present
I don't know what gave rise to it
It came before the (image of Emperor)
Words within parenthesis in the last line are a direct translation of the Chinese characters.