Dao De Jing translated

The Dao De Jing is a writing that can be interpreted in many ways and each time you read it you may find that you see it in a different way.

It’s an interesting concept to think that as soon as we assign a word to represent something, it already distorts true essence of that thing, because we make certain associations just based on the word itself. Here is the Chinese followed by the translation.

道德经 – 第一章

道可道，非常道；
名可名，非常名。
无名天地之始；
有名万物之母。
故常无欲，以观其妙；
常有欲，以观其徼。
此两者，同出而异名，
同谓之玄。
玄之又玄，众妙之门。

English Translation:

The Dao that can be spoken of is not the constant Dao.
The name that can be named is not the constant name.
The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Therefore, always without desire — see its subtlety;
Always with desire — see its manifestations.
These two emerge from the same source,
But have different names.
Together they are called mysterious.
Mystery upon mystery — the gateway to all wonders.

It’s also interesting how it talks about how we might see things through one lens when we desire or something and through another lens when look past our own desires.

I think if I had to talk about this Text on a different day, I would probably say something completely different because there are so many different ways of looking at it. But it’s an interesting poem that leads someone to think.

Laozi is attributed with being the author of this text and it was probably written around 500 BCE.