Oriente

Waley
What is most perfect seems to have something missing; Yet its use is unimpaired. What is most full seems empty; Yet its use will never fail. What is most straight seems crooked; The greatest skill seems like clumsiness, The greatest eloquence like stuttering. Movement overcomes cold; But staying still overcomes heat. So he by his limpid calm Puts right everything under heaven.
Wieger
A. Accompli, sous des dehors imparfaits, et donnant sans s’user. Rempli, sans le paraître, et (…)

Waley
Fame or one’s own self, which matters to one most? One’s own self or things bought, which should count most? In the getting or the losing, which is worse? Hence he who grudges expense pays dearest in the end; He who has hoarded most will suffer the heaviest loss. Be content with what you have and are, and no one can despoil you; Who stops in time nothing can harm. He is forever safe and secure.
Wieger
A. Le corps n’est il pas plus important que la renommée ? La vie n’est elle (…)

Waley
What is of all things most yielding Can overwhelm that which is of all things most hard. Being substanceless it can enter even where is no space; That is how I know the value of action that is actionless. But that there can be teaching without words, Value in action that is actionless, Few indeed can understand.
Wieger
A. Partout et toujours, c’est le mou qui use le dur (l’eau use la pierre). Le non être pénètre même là où il n’y a pas de fissure (les corps les plus homogènes, (…)

Waley
Tao gave birth to the One; The One gave birth successively to two things, Three things, up to ten thousand. These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade Without having the sun on their bellies, And it is on this blending of the breaths that their harmony depends.
To be orphaned, needy, ill-provided is what men most hate; Yet princes and dukes style themselves so.
Truly, “things are often increased by seeking to diminish them And diminished by seeking to (…)

Waley
When the man of highest capacities hears Tao He does his best to put it into practice. When the man of middling capacity hears Tao He is in two minds about it. When the man of low capacity hears Tao He laughs loudly at it. If he did not laugh, it would not be worth the name of Tao. Therefore the proverb has it: “The way out into the light often looks dark, The way that goes ahead often looks as if it went back.” The way that is least hilly often looks as if it went up and down, The (…)

Waley
In Tao the only motion is returning; The only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Not-being.
Wieger
A. Le retour en arrière (vers le Principe), est la forme de mouvement caractéristique de ceux qui se conforment au Principe. L’atténuation est l’effet que produit en eux leur conformation au Principe.
B. Considérant que tout ce qui est, est né de l’être simple, et que l’être est né du non être (…)

Waley
As for the things that from of old have understood the Whole — The sky through such understanding remains limpid, Earth remains steady, The spirits keep their holiness, The abyss is replenished, The ten thousand creatures bear their kind, Barons and princes direct their people. It is the Whole that causes it. Were it not so limpid, the sky would soon get torn, Were is not for steadiness, the earth would soon tip over, Were it not for their holiness, the spirit would soon wither away. (…)

Original
Un corps inerte semblable à ceux qu’on trouve dans l’univers matériel — ou encore qu’on peut construire en utilisant les processus matériels arrachés à celui-ci, en les organisant et en les combinant selon les lois de la physique -, un tel corps ne sent et n’éprouve rien. Il ne se sent pas et ne s’éprouve pas lui-même, il ne s’aime ni ne se désire. Encore moins sent-il ou éprouve-t-il, aime-t-il ou désire-t-il aucune des choses qui l’entourent. Selon la remarque profonde de (…)

Waley
The man of highest “power” does not reveal himself as a possessor of “power”; Therefore he keeps his “power”. The man of inferior “power” cannot rid it of the appearance of “power”; Therefore he is in truth without “power”. The man of highest “power” neither acts nor is there any who so regards him; The man of inferior “power” both acts and is so regarded. The man of highest humanity, though he acts, is not regarded; Whereas a man of even the highest morality both acts and is so (…)

Waley
Tao never does; Yet through it all things are done. If the barons and kings would but possess themselves of it, The ten thousand creatures would at once be transformed. And if having been transformed they should desire to act, We must restrain them by the blankness of the Unnamed. The blankness of the Unnamed Brings dispassion; To be dispassionate is to be still. And so, of itself, the whole empire will be at rest.
Wieger
A. Le Principe est toujours non agissant (n’agit pas (…)